༺ Stitching Stories: Looking for Land Girls ༻

Yay!! I made pants! I actually did it!! 

Last year I participated in the Vintage Pattern Pledge and managed to get all my makes completed by the skin of my teeth. And while I’ve been super slow starting with my sewing this year, I did sign up to do it all again.

I, Bonita Vear of Lavender & Twill, pledge to sew at least five vintage or vintage reproduction patterns in 2016 ~ these must include one pair of pants! I also pledge to finish one knitted garment from a vintage or vintage reproduction pattern.

This time, I was also invited to share my make as part of the Vintage Pattern Pledge roundup on Kestrel Makes {and you can check out my guest post interview over here}. It’s taken me a whole six months to get cracking, I think I’ve been dragging my heels after all the sewing disasters I had faced last year. But I finally sat down at my machine and I’m really happy that the first pattern I sewed up this year was my first pair of long anticipated trousers!

I’ve seen Simplicity’s Retro re-release of a 1940’s four-piece suit pattern floating around on sewing blogs/vintage blogs for a good several years now. It’s a great pattern, everyone seems to like sewing it up. Every time I saw the pants I was like: “They look great! I should make those!…But pants are so hard… Eh, I’ll just sew a dress instead.”. This year, however, I put on my brave face, made my pledge to actually give it a go, and whadda you know… It wasn’t that scary at all! (•̀o•́)ง✧

Okay, so they are not exactly the most challenging kind of pants to sew {I’m looking at you jeans…} but any kind of pants have been on my “OhboyIcan’tsewthattooscary” list ever since I started sewing. So I didn’t have to face a fly, any sort of thigh/hip/butt/crotch adjustments ~ thank goodness! ~ or twin top stitching, but I’m taking baby steps towards it, and that’s enough for me at the moment.

The ease of construction and the loose, vintage style of these pants means that this pattern is a fantastic beginner’s introduction to sewing trousers. It went together really smoothly {I only had to unpick a couple of seams when I got the front and back pieces confused, but when I figured out that I’d sewn it front-front and back-back instead of front-back, front-back it was a very easy fix}, and there aren’t any difficult techniques you need to know to make them up.

I did switch out the standard waistband interfacing for Grosgrain ribbon to create the waistband. I like using this couture technique for building the waistband because I feel like the finished result is far more sturdier, actually stands up better instead of folding over or creasing down {like a lot of my skirt waistbands used to do before I started doing this}, and doesn’t stretch out of shape. Plus, I think it makes button holes easier as well! But on that note, yes, my button tab is too long… Whoops!

I also added a pocket into the side seam opposite the zipper, because who likes pants without pockets?? I mean, really…. But I do that with all my skirts and dresses too. I find if it doesn’t have pockets, I’m much less likely to wear it!

I handpicked the zipper and the hem for the pants ~ and while I adore hemming by hand, zippers still elude me when it comes to a perfectly neat finish, so I think I need to keep practising my zipper insertion for sure.

I am so happy with the finished trousers though; I can’t even say. This winter I’ve really been into swing pants ~ I kind of feel like they are the vintage girl’s version of trakkie-daks…. Or pyjamas… Have I mentioned that these things are darn comfortable? (~￣▽￣)~

I’m definitely leaning towards 1940’s land girl inspiration for styling options rather than glamourous Hollywood slacks ~ those ladies had to work hard, and had to have outfits that were not only durable, but also easy to move in. These pants definitely fit that bill, and are a wardrobe staple for me right now. I’m just wondering how many more pairs I should make! I definitely need a navy pair in twill or gabardine, and possibly a pair in chocolate Ponte knit??!

Or maybe I should try my hand at a pair of jeans? If anyone has any recommendations for an easy 1940’s -1950’s vintage or vintage reproduction pattern for jeans; I’m all ears! ( ^ _ ^)∠☆

~ Project Details ~

• Year: Retro re-release of a Simplicity 1940’s suit pattern  
• Pattern: Simplicity 3688
• Fabric: Unknown length of undetermined stretch hounds tooth knit fabric. This fabric came from my Grandmother’s stash. It was passed on from her to my Mom, and then to me before it was finally made up!  
• Notions: Two buttons, Grosgrain ribbon for the waistband, and one metal zipper 
• Time to complete: Two weeks
• Make again? Yes. No doubt. I’m already trying to figure out which fabric I should use next…
• Wear again? Considering that I’ve worn them every day since I finished them up, and I’m wearing them right now as I write this post ~ I’d say so! Haha!!
• Total Cost:  $2.60 for the zipper, the fabric was from the stash, as were the buttons. Not bad, but then I have to count $16.50 for repurchasing the pattern after Miss Three decided to jump on the lounge chair where I had put the pattern tissue and tore it to shreds... So, $19.10 in total.

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

DIY Vintage Hair Tie | Me Made, 2015
Cherry Pointe Knit Top {old} | Collectif
Land Girl Slacks | Me Made, 2016
Tan Prairie Style Boots {old} | Cotton On

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༺ Stitching Stories: Burning the Roses Red ༻

 
You guys… I wanted to burn this dress sooo badly….

The only reason I kept pushing on with it is that I didn’t have anything to wear to the Aussie Vintage Girls Meetup, and you know ~ that would have been a disaster….

A disaster I tell you! Oh wait… First world vintage girl problems again.

Okay, okay, not so much a big deal, except when it was.

 
I was using this lovely pattern, and rated at “Easy” I felt sure I couldn’t go wrong! It was my fourth make for my Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge for the year {one, two, three}, and I was thinking it should be fairly simple.

Alas, if only I’d read the multiple reviews of this pattern online ~ I think this one explains it best ~ I probably would have changed my mind!! (ಠ_ಠ)

So I cut the pattern, did my do, and seriously, everything was going pretty well. I had a few of my usual frustrations in sewing the bodice to the skirt ~ why do I always get the bodice caught up in the waist seam? Why??  (╯°□°）╯彡 ┻━┻

But I was about 95% done on the dress when I decided I’d better try it on. *cue ominous spooky music*

So I slipped it on, and the world ended. *ahem 

My world ended.  (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻ 

The bodice was ALL kinds of wrong, with wrinkles going every which way, and compressing my bust so much that it looked like I had squished marshmallows instead, of ~ well, you know!

I literally freaked out, cried, ranted, raved, and promptly ate half a block of chocolate. Yes. Chocolate.  .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

Then I left it for the day. I was DONE. I was *THIS* close to burning the darn thing and turning up naked. Hahaha…

No, really….

The next morning I took a deep breath. I thought I knew what went wrong. I’d forgotten to do an FBA. Silly me just assumed that because I was doing a larger size to fit my bust that it would fit. Totally stu-pid! 

I’d forgotten that although this was previously a vintage pattern where technically cutting the larger size for the bust would probably have worked, this was a re-release of a vintage pattern, which means it has also been fiddled with to meet ‘today’s industry standards’ ~ i.e. a C cup bust. Nowhere near close to my size.  Phooey.  {Today’s industry standards are totally wack btw! I have less problems with vintage patterns than I do modern ones.}

So I went back, unpicked the lining {yes, the darn thing is lined and that was already in!}, unpicked the bodice, and half unpicked the zipper.  Then I cut the lining and bodice up ~ added bust darts from the side seams to the point of bust, added extra fabric under the bust in the gather point {which in hindsight I may not have needed. Oh well.}, cut another toile from the hack pattern, made that up, thought it might work, cut my fashion fabric again, cut my lining again, sewed up the fashion fabric, sewed it back onto the dress… Then it was bed time.  

The next day was Thursday and I had one day to get it done.  (″･ิ_･ิ)っ

I sewed the lining back together, then sewed it onto the fabric again, tried the dress on again, realised that the bottom half of the lining was messing up the bottom half of the the bodice by creating needless wrinkles underneath the fabric that showed through, hacked off the bottom half of the lining, overlocked the bottom of the lining to the midriff seam of the bodice, sewed the lining down to the fashion fabric on the bodice with some top stitching, struggled to make the armpits look nice where the lining and fashion fabric where sewn together, failed, hacked at the inside of the dress, sewed some more seams, finished the zipper, decide to sew the hem by machine instead of hand picking because of time, then sewed the hem seam three times around for a deliberate “decorative” look, ruched the front of the bodice to make a sweetheart neckline and pull in the neckline from standing out, then sewed on the pockets, each of them twice because of having to move them around when they didn’t go on correctly the first time. Gave up when one of them was still crooked because running out of the mint green thread I was using.    

Deeeeep breath. By this time it was around about seven o’clock in the evening. Then I tried the dress on again. Yay! More room at bust!  BOO!! TOO MUCH FABRIC BETWEEN BUST AND WAIST!!  (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻  *rage attack* ~ which quickly turned to:

PANIC!   ∑(゜Д゜;)

I quickly skyped my sister to ask for a second opinion and while we were tossing around a. wearing a belt {couldn’t find one that looked good}, or b. sewing up a cummerbund ~ I thought of option c. which was: sew the midriff seam again, pulling in the extra fold of fabric that was wrinkling under the bust. As you might be able to tell ~ this is what I ended up doing.

This had a three-fold effect of curving the midriff seam rather than it being a triangle point as in the illustration of the pattern, gathering in some of the excess fabric causing wrinkles, and lifting the waist to my natural waist because the dress waist was sitting about a centimetre below my real waist which didn’t look the best.

10:00pm that night, and I was finally finished.  (✖ ｡ ✖)° ° °

If you are wondering why top half of the bodice is still insanely wrinkled after all that extra work on it ~ well, I was too until I look more closely at the illustration. There are actually wrinkles in the top half of the bodices pictured there too. I think it’s suppose to mimic a sarong look. 

I just hate it. I think it looks unsightly, ill-fitting and like a big hot mess. However I can’t fix a design styling, unless I redraft the bodice part entirely. And you know what?  I’m soooo over it….

I don’t think I want to touch this dress again, even to wear it, until some of the trauma of this make has faded from my memory!

Surprisingly enough, even though I did say to The Mister that I didn’t want to touch my sewing machines again for months, I’ve change my mind and I’m already planning to sew parts of my Christmas outfit.   ┬──┬ …ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

I have decided it’s just that particular pattern I can’t stand. Not the sewing. 

Though I tell you what, I’ve also decided that sewing is not a relaxing hobby for me. Too stressful for that!  

~ Project Details ~

• Year: A retro re-release of a 1950’s sarong dress pattern 
• Pattern: Butterick B5708
• Fabric: 4 meters of mint green fabric and 1.5 meters of white fabric with pink roses, 1.5 meters of white linen. From the stash: $13.00 for the fabric 
• Notions: An invisible zip ~ repurposed. 
• Time to complete: One week.
• Make again? Nope. No, no, no, nope, no, nope. That’s all there is to that.
• Wear again? Yes. I suppose so. I suppose the dress escapes it’s fiery end….
• Total Cost:  $13.00 and a block of chocolate. Oh yes, and my sanity. Mustn’t forget that!

If you got through all of that saga ~ well done to you! I hope you never have had to struggle like this with any of your dresses, but if you have ~ not just if you are making them, but have bought them or ordered them online ~ you can always share your stories! Any creative “Make Do and Mends” out there? The Mister quoted that to me, and needless to say, I wasn’t particularly impressed at the time… Lol! 

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Cotton Candy Roses Hat | Gift from Tanith
Pearl Drop Earrings | Thrifted
Pansy Pearl Necklace | Valentine's Day Gift, 2010
Rose and Mint 50’s Repro Dress | Me Made, Nov 2015
Crinolines | eBay
Watermelon Glitter Jelly Wedges | eBay

༺ ♡ ༻

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༺ Stitching Stories: Adventures in Baby Cord ༻

Welp, as you might be able to tell ~ simply by the fact that a whole month has gone by without any progress posts on the Sewing All The Things challenge ~ that things have gone a bit squiffy for me recently!

After all the trouble I had with my wrap dress, I was kind of feeling a bit ‘meh’ about sewing and wanted to do something simple. So I picked Advance 3886, and some mauve jersey knit I had in my stash, and went ~ “This should be fairly simple right?” …..

 
Ah, about that?

Spoiler alert: it wasn’t!!  (￣。￣;)

Firstly, I was wrestling with a super stretchy knit fabric with tons of give, and all the pieces I cut ended up being around two inches shorter than the pattern pieces! Which would be okay ~ except for the bodice where it really wasn’t.  I thought I’d have to bin the whole thing, but then I had the dubiously “genius” idea to add an extra piece in at the shoulders to make up for the missing length.

Okay, project saved right? 

Nope.

Number one tip for cutting knits? NOTCH OUTWARD NOT IN! All the little “v” cuts I made to mark the seam joins went into the seam allowance, and apparently that makes it super, super hard to make sure the cut is all caught up in the overlocking seam so that there aren’t any holes in your dress. 

Really hard.

As in going over the same seam five time in a row hard. 

Yikes.

I’ve got to say, that was bad enough, but the lovely gathered detail at the shoulders ~ that really was the last straw.

I tried to follow the instructions, but I don’t know ~ something went wrong somewhere and the ruching just looked… wrong.  So I ripped out the stitches and went “I give up!”.  Hence the overly long story of how July’s dress ended up in a UFO* bag on my shelf. Humph.

Then I dusted off my unhappy sewing self and went with a really simple pattern ~ the blouse from Simplicity 3688.

 

This pattern, thankfully, was actually easy! Score! (ง •̀_•́)ง ☆

I used some pinwale corduroy from my stash in white and aubergine {or eggplant for us Aussies!} and while I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought it {one meter of each color? Really?}, it turned out to be a happy accident because I love how the color blocking turned out with this pattern.

Because the blouse construction is so simple, it really lends itself to playing around with your fabrics. Also, it’s a fun pattern to sew. I really enjoyed the process of putting it together. The sleeve heads are super cute with darts to add structure, rather than typical gathers, and the yoke section with bias binding around the neck line looks nice.

This time I cut the blouse to fit my nursing bust size rather than attempting an FBA, and while that helps with the chest squashing problem, I can see that the fit across the shoulders is too big. And I had to run two one inch darts down the back of the blouse to take in four inches of excess fabric from the back. I know the blouse is supposed to be “blousy” in fit, but there’s cute puffy and then there’s way-too-much-fabric-to-tuck-in puffy!

I paired the blouse with my grey scratchy wool skirt ~ yes, that’s it’s name ~ and thankfully in winter, stocking seem to negate the scratch.   (¬ ᴗ ¬)  I really like the combination of the simple colours, although *gasp* I just realised I don’t have any patterns in this outfit at all!  This must be a first!

Now at last I can mark another pattern off the Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge ~ I have three down, {one, two and this one obviously!} and two to go. While my sewing schedule may be all out of wack {annoying my OCD list ticking self}, I am definitely learning things along the way. We are getting there!

~ Project Details ~

• Year: A retro re-release of a 1940’s suit pattern 
• Pattern: Simplicity 3688
• Fabric: 2 metres of pinwale corduroy; 1 meter of white, 1 meter of aubergine. From the stash: $7.00 a meter
• Notions: A button and a hook and eye for closing the back slit 
• Time to complete: Two weeks
• Make again? Yes. I think this blouse is pretty, and I’m keen to play around with some different fabrics using this pattern. It’s easy to make, comfortable to wear and has a nice authentic 1940’s look.
• Wear again? For sure! I need some more 1940’s separates, and this is a good start.
• Total Cost:  $14.00, but that was ages ago. Stash busting ftw!

So color blocking? What do you think ~ yes or no?  Personally, it’s not something I feel compelled to do all the time ~ {unlike floral prints. Yay! Florals!} but it’s certainly a fun change. ヾ(＾-＾)ノ

xox,

bonita

*UnFinished Object kind of UFO for all the non-crafters. Not the abduction, Area 66, X-file kind.  ; P

༺ ♡ ༻

Ice Blue Crochet Snood | Me Made, 2012
Baby Cord Adventures 1940’s Blouse | Me Made, June 2015
Lilac Duet Flower Brooch | Thrifted
Scratchy Wool 1940’s Skirt | Me Made, 2014
Jade Stone Bangles | Thrifted
Vintage Beaded Tapestry Purse | Nikki B’s, Milton
Dusty Blue Swinging Heels  | eBay

༺ ♡ ༻

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༺ Stitching Stories: A 'Round the House Wrap Dress ༻

*whew*

Am I ever so glad that this dress is done! I have never had so much trouble putting together a sewing project before ~ not because it didn’t come together easily enough, that wasn’t the problem ~ it was because I just couldn’t get the dang thing to sit right!  (┛◉Д◉)┛*rage*

I suppose this is where experienced seamstresses look pointedly at their muslins and toiles {“twahl” for those of you that don’t “sew speak”, so to speak.  ; P}, then at me, then back at the neat little muslin sitting on the dress form…..

Yah.  Ain’t nobody got time for that! Least ways, I don’t.

I found out that the bodice of my 90% completed dress was not fitting correctly because of my nursing bust size, even though I’d measured the pattern and thought that it would fit. The design of the back of the neck was not working for me either. It wouldn’t sit right no matter how I adjusted it ~ up or down!

Getting the dress to fit required a lot of what my coding Mister calls “hacking”. In my sewing world however, hacking involves taking a sharp pair of scissors to already sewn seams and hacking the bajeebies out of the fabric along strategically drawn chalk lines.

I cut roughly two inches out from the back of the neck, and lopped off three to seven inches from the sleeves, then hemmed the skirt up by five inches. It was a risk that the whole thing would fall apart if I snipped too much, or in the wrong place, but it paid off as the dress sits much better around the neckline now. 

It isn’t all weird and bunchy like it was before. I don’t quite know what was happening, but the back of the dress sat really high up on the back of my neck, and it was making the darts sit in the wrong place, which was making the bodice puff up really strangely above the bust.

Of course, getting it to work took a lot of extra fiddling, which took a lot of extra time, and I ended up taking way too long on this project. Plus, I’ve been sick as a dog for the last week, which means May is officially up and I didn’t manage to get my other project ~ a winter blouse ~ done this month.  (TT ^ TT)

So, only one more project ticked off the great Sewing All the Things challenge of 2015, but at least it actually happened because I was worried there for a moment that I would end up having to toss the whole dress.

                                              ~ The source of much trouble! ~

Next question ~ does anyone want to purchase this pattern?  It will come with all the original pieces of the pattern, the original instructions {taped, because they are falling apart}, the original envelope, and also a copy of the bodice, sleeve, facings, waist inserts, tie, and pocket pattern pieces all traced onto Polytrace {similar to Swedish Tracing Paper ~ it’s a soft, woven fabric-like paper}. Basically, I traced off everything but the skirt, so you can work straight from the pattern copy.

If you would like to buy the pattern, along with the the Polytrace copies for $20.00 AUD, please email me with your Paypal address and mailing address, and I can send off an invoice which will also include whatever the P+P will cost. 

~ Project Details ~

• Year: 1948
• Pattern: Simplicity 2275
• Fabric: 2 1/2 metres of red and green sprig floral of poly-cotton{?}. I have no idea about the fibre content of this fabric as my Grandmother gave it to me.
• Notions: None, is a wrap dress.
• Time to complete: Three weeks
• Make again? Nope. I really don’t want to make this dress again. It was just such a hassle to get it working properly that I really don’t want to go through all of that again. I like the dress, but not that much.
• Wear again? I will, but I think it’ll probably be in my “around the house, running errands, going to playgroup, etc” wardrobe. Which is okay with me because I need more vintage around the house clothes anyway.
• Total Cost:  $0.00 ~ yay for stash busting! 

Have any of you had sewing dramas with almost-but-not-quite-failure projects before?  Would you seam rip to make it work, or try ‘hacking’ it up? Plus, how great are my new shoes ~ right?  (ノ ゜ω゜)ノ

xox,

bonita


༺ ♡ ༻

Vintage Bow Hair Tie | Me Made, May 2015 {tutorial here}
’Round the House 1940’s Wrap Dress  | Me Made, May 2015
Hunter Green Swinging Heels  | eBay


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༺ Mother & Daughter: We ❤ Mother’s Day ༻

Following on from the awesome day we had Saturday, it was time to celebrate Mother’s Day with our extended family in Sydney.

My Grandmother and Grandad came to lunch with us and my Uncle, Aunt, and cousins ~ and I have to say, I think that’s really special. My children have two great grandparents to enjoy!  That’s also four generations of women on my mother’s side, which is pretty amazing.

We all got dressed up in pretty dresses, and yes, Charlotte was supposed dressed up in a pretty dress too! But she was sleeping, so she’s snuggled up in her spring time wrap that is a special gift from when she was born instead.

Despite the cooler autumn weather, spring time was the inspiration for these mother and daughter outfits, mostly because my new me-made skirt has a delightful pastel pink and lilac floral print on a mint background.  Yes, this circle skirt is actually my March “Sewing All The Things” make.  I really did make it in March, I swear!! It’s just that it’s taken me this long to get the photographs of it. (> o <)’ 

It doesn’t mark off any of my goals from the Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge, as this pattern might be vintage, but it is self drafted and neither “a vintage sewing pattern, nor a reproduction vintage pattern”.  That’s alright though because pastel! Pockets! Gold buttons! All the fun things! (＾ ε ＾) ♡

Did you do anything special for Mother’s Day this year? I loved the chance to dress up in matching outfits with my daughters, as I probably won’t be able to con them into matching outfits when they are older.  Have you ever worn Mother & Daughter outfits before?  Would you do it now?

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻

Lacy Look Knit Top | Thrifted
China Doll Circle Skirt | Me Made, March 2015
Dragonfly Chain | Gift, Christmas 2009
Rose Garden Peep Toe Heels | Thrifted

༺ ♡ ༻

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༺ Stitching Stories: Going Dotty for Spotty Cotton ༻

Ohmygoodnessyouguys!  All the crazy here is sending me just a leeetle dotty! I keep signing myself up for all these sewing challenges ~ and then I don’t know why I am doing this to myself!  (> o <)’

First it was the insane Sewing All The Things idea, then I saw A Stitching Odyssey’s Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge and of course I was all “Oooh! That looks like fun!” so I put my name down:

“I, Bonita Vear of Lavender & Twill, pledge to sew at least five vintage or vintage reproduction patterns in 2015 ~ these MUST be patterns that I haven’t used before from my stash!”

Because that fits into my sewing schedule for 2015, right? But then I saw Rochelle’s Spring for Cotton group sew along annndddd ~ BAM! April’s plan for the Simplicity 2275 wrap dress flew out the window {also because I was in the middle of a top secret sewing project that took most of April to get done}.  Hello quick project! This fit in with Brittany’s 40s Fashion Calender challenge for February which I was behind with: sew a 1940’s blouse and turban.

So last Monday I went to Spotlight with a handy Christmas gift card {thank you Mom!} and tried to find the perfect cotton fabric to use for Simplicity 1590, a retro re-release of this simple, but cute 1940’s blouse with a peplum.

~ I hadn’t made this one up yet, but I really liked View A and couldn’t wait to try it! ~

I found the perfect 100% cotton quilting fabric with a really nice ‘hand’ to it. It was soft, and it draped nicely, as well as having this fabulous vintage-looking print in the colours I wanted ~ navy and white.  Well, okay, I wanted navy, white, and red, and ended up with navy, cream, orange, and pink! But it was the closest to what I had pictured in my head and I knew it would suit this project perfectly.

Disaster struck when I reached the cutting counter ~ I needed 1.7 metres of my magical fabric and there was only a little over 1 metre left on the bolt!  Yikes! 

The lady at the counter went to see if she could find some more of the fabric, or something similar, while I racked my brains to figure out how to make it work. I knew she wouldn’t find anything as I had already scoured the quilting fabric isle and sure enough, she came back empty handed.  I quickly whipped out my pattern pieces {which I had traced out onto Polytrace so that I didn’t have to cut the pattern tissue} and proceeded to lay my pattern out on the cutting counter!  It just fit ~ but I’d have to make something up for the peplum, which took about 70 centimetres of the 1.7m needed all by itself.

I decided to wing it because I had fallen for this spotty cotton ~ it was “The One” for this pattern ~ sewers, you know what I’m talking about!

It did work, although you’ll notice box pleats at the back of the peplum, rather than gathers. I had much less fabric in the peplum so there really wasn’t any way I was getting gathers out of it. And obviously, I had to nix the matching turban because that just wasn’t going to happen ~ but in the end, I did it! 

I squeaked out a blouse that needed 1.7m of fabric from a piddley 1m and managed to fit in a matching vintage styled hair tie instead of the turban.  Which I am calling the “Vintage Bow Hair Tie” pattern. Original. (ง •̀_•́)ง

I think I can hail this 40s Fashion Calender/Spring for Cotton/Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge project as success ~ one 100% cotton blouse, sewn with 100% cotton thread, and a matching 100% cotton hair tie, also sewn with 100% cotton thread.  A little bit of tweaking here and there, and I couldn’t get 100% cotton buttons, but I’m okay with the ones I picked.   : P   Actually, more than okay, because I’m a little bit dotty over them too….  ❤ ❤ ❤ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ

The result is that I adore this blouse!  It will definitely be a staple in my wardrobe. All the stress is so worth it in that pivotal moment you see some gorgeous fabric slowly coming together then ~ POW! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ You have a new garment! 

~ Project Details ~

• Year: 2013 re-release of a 1940’s pattern
  
• Pattern: Simplicity 1590
  
• Fabric: 1 metre of DS Piccadilly Floral Spot 100% cotton quilting fabric in Navy, Cream, Orange and Pink ($11.89)
  
• Notions: Five buttons with violet print on them ($5.00)
  
• Time to complete: One week
  
• Make again? Yes! I’m pretty sure I will. I love the neckline of this pattern, and it’s a really simple blouse to put together.  It’s fun.
  
• Wear again? 100%!  I can see this blouse becoming quite a central piece to my 1940’s outfits. It’s easy to wear and I love the print, the colours, and the style. I’m so thrilled with how it turned out.
  
• Total Cost:  $16.89 AUD

Have any of you sewn up Simplicity 1590?  Which version would you sew if you did? 

xox,

bonita

P.S. ~ I took a leaf out of the lovely Jessica of Chronically Vintage’s book, and inspiration from this post ~ I loved that lying down shot and tried out my own!

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Vintage Bow Hair Tie | Me Made, April 2015
Dotty for Spotty 1940’s Blouse | Me Made, April 2015
Pearl & Silver Chain | Thrifted
Navy 70’s does 40’s Skirt | Thrifted
Crochet Wheat Vintage Gloves | Canberra Vintage Emphorium
Vintage Navy Seeded Handbag | eBay
Santa Cruz Beach Heel | Modcloth, No longer available

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