Tuesday, April 28, 2015

༺ Stitching Stories: Going Dotty for Spotty Cotton ༻

1940's blouse made with Simplicity 1590 retro re-release | Lavender & Twill

Full 1940's look for autumn | Lavender & Twill

Peplum details & box pleats from Simplicity 1590 | Lavender & Twill

Adore platform chunky heels & gloves for a perfect 1940's look | Lavender & Twill

Details of the fabric & buttons for my Simplicity 1590 make | Lavender & Twill

Simplicity 1590 sewn up out of quilting cotton | Lavender & Twill

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.

1590_TP_EN_H5_U5.indd

~ 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!

༺ ♡ ༻

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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Ravelry | BJVear
Twitter | bjvear
Youtube | Bonita Vear

33 comments:

  1. Adorable! It looks so wonderful on you too :) Such a lovely make of yours, and that fabric is certainly the cat's meow!

    xo,
    -Charlotte

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  2. I've admired that pattern, and it looks lovely made up! And fabulous job on "making do" and squeezing it onto so little fabric! You definitely deserve the "1940s Approved" Badge for this! :-)

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  3. Your blouse is gorgeous!! I'm inspired to make it after seeing yours!!
    I was so excited to see your blouse because it's made out of the same fabric as my recently-completed 1930s dress!! It is posted on my blog, http://dollycreates.blogspot.com/2015/04/adventures-in-1930s.html
    Beautiful, gorgeous outfit, Bonita!! :-)

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  4. LOVE it! I've seen this pattern around, but I wasn't sure how it would look made up. I may have to track it down now; your version is fantastic!

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  5. Thanks Charlotte ~ ♡ I'm really happy with how it came out! :D

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  6. *grin* Thanks Lily! I was so glad I did mange to fit it; it sure was close. I literally had a handful of fabric scraps leftover!

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  7. Eep! That's totally epic! I'm off to check out your dress asap. XD

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  8. Oh, do Emiileigh! It's a great pattern to make up. I love how easy it was to put together, and it's a really cute style even with the simplicity of it. Mind you, I didn't have the full peplum detail, but I would like to make it up again properly. And I adore the scope neckline, so that's a plus too!

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  9. The blouse is beautiful! It looks so well made and the fabric is so cute. It's a lovely piece to wear everyday! I love it <3

    You have lovely crochet gloves!

    Beta xxxx

    PS - I add the label of Spring for Cotton on my blog and unfortunately I'll not be able to make it... I'm so sad. I was going to sew a button up shirt for my little boy (;_;)/

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  10. Hello,ciao BONITA...what a nice Post...Your Style is so fabolous...so creative...so Artistic...this outfit is stunning on YOU...cheers!
    greetings




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  11. That looks absolutely gorgeous! You've made an amazing garment out of that meagre one metre piece, which just makes your triumph all the sweeter. I hope you enjoy wearing it at every opportunity.

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  12. Thank you Miss Beta! I do adore the fabric. :D


    Aww, that is sad that you had to miss out on Spring for Cotton, but sometimes you just have to let it go so that you can have some peace of mind! :) After all, you don't want to be stressing out over a project. That takes all the fun out of it. :(

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  13. Emily's Vintage VisionsApril 29, 2015 at 1:13 AM

    I love everything about this outfit! It's simple yet very charming. :) I've been sewing up a storm lately trying to finish some items for the Vintage Pattern Sewing Pledge as well as Spring for Cotton. Another big project at the moment is my spring photo contest. You should consider entering and using this outfit! Check out my blog post. I'm asking people to create a 1930s or 1940s outfit using an old newspaper article for inspiration. The article focuses a lot on navy blue! http://vintagevisions27.blogspot.com/2015/04/color-recipes-for-spring-and-vintage.html
    -Emily

    Oh and here are my outfits inspired by the newspaper article. http://vintagevisions27.blogspot.com/2015/04/photo-contest-inspiration-part-2.html

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  14. Seriously great job on creating this beautiful blouse from such a modest amount of fabric. My first though when I read that was how proud our "make do and mend" foremothers would be of you, sweet Bonita. This whole outfit is gorgeous. It's so classic, feminine, and pretty, right down to those delightful buttons on the blouse.

    I'm tickled pink and really touched to know that I helped inspire you to try laying down on a shot. That was the first time I'd ever done it and I'm smitten now. Obviously it doesn't work for every shot, location and/or season, but it's definitely something I'm going to try again in the future. I'm smiling ear-to-ear right now and am off to tell Tony at once, as he didn't think it (my photo) would turn out in a way that was flattering to me, but in the end it was actually my favourite from that day and the one that most people commented on specifically. Have we (you and I) started a trend here for laying down in snaps? It would be so cool if we did! :)

    Tons of hugs, stylish lady!
    ♥ Jessica

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  15. Your blouse looks adorable Bonita! I love it!!! It's funny, I too was recently contemplating making up that blouse for myself for this Summer, and now I really can't wait to make it after seeing your version!

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  16. Oh, thank you for the invitation Emily, I'd love to enter your photo contest. That would be fun! I be off to see what I have to do... :)

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  17. I'm so on board with that Jessica! It'd totally be fun to see how many lying down snap we can take, and how many vintage bloggers we can get to try it out too! ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ノ

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  18. Oh cool! I can't wait to see what you come up with Brigid. I'm sure your version will be beautiful. :D

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  19. Hehe, I was going to say I thought Jessica had produced a very similar photo and then you mentioned it anyway! I definitely think you've started a trend... I want to do one now! Sorely missing from my how-to-pose tips recently ;) Very cute blouse as well - in envy of your skills! CC x

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  20. Super! (> _ <) I know lying down shots can come across as mildly insane, but if we are all doing it. it's normal right??? :P

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  21. My oh my such beautiful detailsss! That last shot is soo darling - I cannot wait to see you!!

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  22. Ahhh! Me either! I'm so excited for this meet up! Say, what are you planning to wear? 'Coz I'm thinking some outfit co-ordination and maybe an outfit shoot might be fun? I don't know if we'll have time for that though... What do you think? XD

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  23. Hi,it is very nice job.You look gorgeous

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  24. Great fabric, no wonder you were determined to have it. I am impressed that you got the blouse out of it.

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  25. Thanks Kate-Em, it was definitely worth the risk. :)

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  26. Fabulous! You are looking so well! This blouse is such a great colour, shape and fit on you. Well done on all fronts! I love the lying down photo too :)

    My plans for "Spring for Cotton" were modest, but still didn't happen. In fact, I didn't meet any of my sewing goals last month! Oh well. Perhaps May will be better!

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  27. Thank you Tanith ~ :D

    I do hope you manage to hit your goal for May; it's a bit disappointing when you don't isn't it? What have you got planned? Maybe we can see it on your blog when you've finished it. :)))

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  28. It is, but maybe I will have time to catch up. I am working my way through "Love at first stitch", so hopefully in May I will be finishing the gathered skirt, as well as making myself a winter hat. I will definitely do a blog post of my makes soon!

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  29. Oh, that sounds exciting, can't wait to see the finished results. :)

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  30. Your Blouse turned out Lovely! I love the photo taken of you from behind while sitting, it makes your waist look teeny tiny!

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