Fabric suggestions

One of the most important factors in vintage pattern use is following the fabric suggestions on the back of the envelope.  I read an old blog post and the young lady asked for suggestions why her dress had not been a success. She had made this pattern (Simplicity 7796) out of a stretch jersey material.

If you read the back of the pattern  envelope, the pattern does call for jersey, but it was bonded jersey. This is a very different thing. In the sixties, I had an orange ensemble with a sleeveless dress like this and a matching trench coat. It was made out of a cotton knit bonded to a foam backing. This was a very heavy fabric. Plus the dress was lined and had tons of interfacing. The dress has to have a shape of its own for this pattern to work.

This pattern would be lovely in a light to medium weight wool, a bonded jersey or even a heavy cotton. With lots of interfacing. But a light stretchy material? Never!

I almost always follow the fabric recommendations on the back of a pattern. And even then I've had a project fail because the fabric wasn't right. The fabric has so much to do with the way the garment hangs and fits. I know that sometimes the fabric suggestions on an old pattern call for a fabric that no one these days has heard of. But you can always Google it!

Why Vintage Patterns are Cooler

So why are vintage patterns cooler than modern patterns? Let me count the ways. Older patterns came from an era when you could and would try absolutely any technique while sewing. There were patterns for everything from gloves to hats to tailored suits to fur coats. Fabric was way cheaper and available in more variety, patterns were cheaper, and there were no folks in third world countries making blouses and with tucks and ruffles for a song. It actually paid to make your own clothes. Now, a home sewer has to really want to do it, because you can find something to fabulous to wear at Ross or or any department store's sale rack for way cheaper than you can make it.
This explains in part why so few people sew today.

Back in my day, some of my friends wore only clothes they (or more usually their mothers) had made. So vintage pattern catalogues were as up to the minute and as comprehensive as they could be. I would pick out a dress in Seventeen magazine and my mom would go to the fabric store to look for a pattern that was close enough to adapt. Try that today. You really could produce a stylish wardrobe at home.

So let's look at example pattern on the left for a tour of some of its cool features. This pattern features French cuffs. How wonderful is that? The pattern called them linked buttons or something like that. But it's a French cuff just like on a man's shirt. This pattern also includes a version with sheer sleeves and underlining. This is something most folks won't bother to try today, but you can make a beautiful garment that way and the full instructions are in this pattern. This pattern also has a optional braid trim and a bias roll collar. I just  adore bias roll collars.

Thank goodness those wonderful patterns are still around and can be found on the Internet. Because if I really, really want to make a  peignoir set this winter, there's a vintage pattern that will show me how to do it.

Pattern O' Week --Back to School

I found two patterns this week with an apple and back to school motif on the envelope. What are the chances? This one comes from the early sixties and has an apple pocket no less.

I remember that my mom made me three dresses to go to first grade. One was a yellow and brown plaid, double breasted with a big collar and white buttons. My school picture is in that one. Another was lavender with a long torso. The third was plaid with a white blouse. My mom made another one for my daughter to go to school in when she entered first grade. I remember my mom telling me about the features of the dresses and I remember soaking up that terminology. I probably told everybody I knew that my dress was "long torso." What a hoot I must have been as a child. I was exceeding small with an enormous vocabulary.

Those dresses made going to school seem like the greatest adventure ever. And so it has always been. I go to school again today. I'll be teaching college English this time. It matters not what year it is or how old I become. What I wear on the first day of school is important. And it's still exciting. Fashion and education. Who knew how closely they worked together?

The Coolest of the Cool

As a proud owner of a 1960s heritage, I've always thought that we were ultra cool. But in my heart of hearts, I knew that the period that just preceded us, the 1950s, had us outcooled all over the place. As a child, I instinctively knew something marvelous was going on in design, clothing, attitudes and music. Now we look back with longing to that marvelous Eames era. My husband and I are lucky enough to have all of his parents' fabulous 1950s modern furniture including that iconic Eames rocker. They don't fit very well in the house we're in now, but someday they'll be right at home again as they were in our 1960s house in Denton, Texas.

So what does this have to do with patterns? Everything. 1950s clothing was so great. And pattern art takes us back instantly. Just look at Mr. Cool over there on the left. The blue sunglasses, the white trim on that jacket (which I know had to be white terry cloth), the bleached blond hair. He had to have a bachelor pad with great stereophonic sound. His favorite album: The The Music from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini. Reading material? The James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, of course!

My First Vintage Project

After months of playing with, counting, drooling over and literally swimming in vintage patterns, it was time. Time for me to make something for myself. I found an amazing piece of cotton fabric at an estate sale and it just looked like a blouse to me. So I went through my stock and found this pattern (Simplicity 4080) from the early 1960s (Mad Men era). This is old sizing so even though I'm fairly small, I used a size 16.

And so here is the result:

I cheated on two things: one, I used an iron-on nylon knit interfacing which just turned out dreamy on the collar. Two, I used a nylon zipper. (I have plenty of vintage metal ones but they're just really heavy for this light fabric). I did zigzag the seams although the original pattern was cut with pinking shears. This would have been easier. I gotta get my pinking shears sharpened.

I was struck by several things. The fit was so beautiful on this pattern. The neckline in the back even has tiny one/eighth inch darts. Four front darts. Two elbow darts on each sleeve. Sweet! As far as alterations, I did discover that for the next project, if I use a size 16 again, I need to narrow the shoulders a bit (for this blouse I will add some small shoulder pads) and, of course, I did shorten the sleeves by two inches. (You read that right. I am a mutant.) I did decide to put the blouse together according to the original instructions even though I would have done a few things very differently. (The zipper in particular). But their way worked fine. And I even learned something about making thread loops (needed to keep that beautiful roll collar in place) from this pattern. I did wonder what women did about finishing the edges of those slash darts at the waist in the front. They are literally only about one eighth inch at the bottom. I zigzagged them which was a poor alternative.

I was really happy with the way this turned out. Of course, some awesome orange polished cotton capris to finish out the outfit would be good. Now to find the awesome orange polished cotton. I just happen to have a suitable pattern at hand.

Pablum, peplum --What's the difference?

When I was a kid, peplums were a thing of the past. So was Pablum. And I thought it was weird that they sounded alike. Pablum was a brand name for a baby cereal. Sort of like baby oatmeal. A peplum is that ruffle thing around the hips in the pattern at left. I love this one because it's removable and it's lined so you have that contrasting fabric peeking out.

Why would you want to accentuate your hips and make them look bigger? Good question. Funny thing about a peplum. It actually makes your hips look smaller. I don't know how. Those 80s shoulder pads were wonderful for that too.

Peplums had another fling in the 1980s. Really, the 80s were all about looking good whether you liked the styles or not.

I'm not a fan of some of today's styles. I think we've lost sight of the goal of dressing well. Clothes were used to make you look better. To improve on  nature, if you will. A lot of styles today don't seem to improve folks at all. If I see one more outie belly button on a stretched tight maternity top, it will be one too many. How wearing a too small teeshirt makes a pregnant woman more beautiful is beyond me. It makes me feel sorry for the poor child who didn't have enough money to buy maternity clothes. Bra straps sticking out of blouses fall in the same category. Not attractive.

So let's bring back the peplum, the big shoulder pads, the full fifties skirts with petticoats, the coat dress. Any style that makes you look good!

You Are Always in Style When You Dress With Simplicity

"You are always in style when you dress with Simplicity" was the motto of the Simplicity pattern company in the 30s. Notice the NRA blue eagle on this pattern. Who remembers the NRA from American History class? (And no, it's not the National Rifle Association.) Click on the link for a history lesson that's timely today regardless of your political persuasion.

This pattern is amazing. I love that cape collar. And the fact that the girl won the tennis trophy. I'm sure it's because she felt so confident wearing such a chic outfit.

It's one of the oldest I've owned. It's hard to date Simplicity patterns as they have no copyright, but the logo dates it to the early 30s. Unprinted, it shows you how to put the shorts and dress together with dots punched into tissue paper. The amount of labor and care that went into the construction of a child's play outfit shows you a lot about the life of a woman then and now. If you click on the photo of the back of the envelope, you see the complexity of the pattern. No zippers or elastic casings here.

Also take a gander at those fabric suggestions: pique, linen, silk shirting and tub silks. When was the last time you sent one of your little ones out to play in silk?