14 June 2014
About a year ago, one of my friends said to me that I should wear 50’s style dresses, (you know the type, fitted bodice and big pouffy skirts), as they would suit me. Funnily enough, just the day before, I’d been looking at 50’s fashion and had decided that I should try to make myself a 50’s style dress! It was obviously meant to be!
So I searched and found two reproductions of vintage patterns that I liked.
Vintage Vogue Pattern 2903
Butterick Retro ’56 Pattern 5603
I couldn’t decide which one I liked best, so I bought them both of course! I’ve made a dress from one of the patterns (the Vintage Vogue) and it was the most complicated pattern I’ve ever sewn! Anyway, that will be the topic of another blog post, so I’ll jump ahead a little now.
When I was looking at Google Images to see if anyone had made a dress from the Vintage Vogue pattern, I found the most amazing blog, Lilacs & Lace. (I really recommend checking out her blog, I can get lost for hours there!) This lady loves vintage patterns and is a very prolific and accomplished sewer. After looking at a lot of her posts, I realised that she has quite a stash of real vintage patterns, not just reproductions. Hmmm . . .
So I thought I’d just do a little search on ebay to see if you could buy vintage patterns. OMG! There are loads of them and they are simply lush! I’m afraid if I have a few moments to spare, I’ll quickly go onto ebay to see if I can find any vintage bargains! All I end up doing is adding to the fast increasing list of patterns I must have and must make up. I’m keeping track of lots of them on a Pinterest board. (If you haven’t joined Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for? Do it NOW! It’s as addictive as ebay, but cheaper!)
I started off my vintage pattern collection when I went to a Vintage Fair in Bath. There was one stall which had a handful of patterns . . . I pounced! Here is the selection I finally decided on:
Butterick Pattern 2179
What a bargain of a pattern! There’s a jacket, top, trousers, shorts, straight skirt and a full skirt! The top buttons up the back, which is something I love, so that will be the first item to be made from this pattern. A friend of mine who went to the Vintage Fair with me, also wants to make the top, so the pattern already has a waiting list to be lent out!
Butterick Pattern 7886 – Quick ‘n Easy blouse from 1956 or thereabouts
I love cute little sleeveless tops, the short sleeved version is nice also.
McCalls Pattern 4622 – from 1958
A dress with an optional sailor collar and an optional “pleated flounce”! I love the wording! And actually, I quite like the pleated flounce (frilly bit round the bottom of the gloved lady’s dress).
Now, I was quite excited with my goodies, but on closer inspection they opened up a whole new challenge, well two challenges actually:
- the first two patterns consist of blank pieces of paper, in the right shapes, but with holes punched in them, no markings on the paper at all!
- none of the patterns are my size and I don’t have a clue how to alter a pattern to fit!
I haven’t started to look at the first challenge yet, but when I do, there will be a blog post about it.
The second challenge, I am tackling from two different angles but I’ll cover that in another blog post, as this one is probably quite long enough already!
So my vintage pattern obsession has taken root, and I don’t think it will be going away any time soon. It’s funny, but I feel I need to protect these precious pieces of sewing history! Am I a bit bonkers? Probably!