Whoa! I know I just posted yesterday about finishing a dress but the past week has been a very productive one for me and I was able to complete a project that I had gotten half-way through and just wasn’t able to finish at the time! This dress is made out of a wonderful blue cotton from Vintage Vogue V8875 
This was my first time working with a Vintage Vogue repro pattern and while it presented some interesting challenges and techniques I hadn’t tried before I must say I am pleased with the result!
I also wanted to share a few vintage treasures that I recently acquired! A close friends grandmother passed away and she was left with boxes of old sewing things like patterns, notions, and fabric. When she asked if there was anything I would like since she wanted to see it go to someone who would get use out of it I of course said yes! I came home with boxes of stuff and I thought you’d like to see some of it
Feel free to swing by my blog frillz24.blogspot.com for more pictures and details!
I’ve had several people telling me that this skirt reminds them of the 50′s/60′s so I thought I would share it with you, but it’s not exactly vintage. I hope it’s okay to post it here.
The thing that makes this skirt special and I think helps with the vintage vibe is the fabric. I fell in love with this motif as soon as I saw it. It is from La Modette, a new French fabric designer. She offers lots of really nice and cheerful motifs, several of which have a vintage feel to them. I think I’m not the only one around here who would love them.
The website is only in French so far but she sends her fabric anywhere, you can pay by Paypal and I think it shouldn’t be a problem to order. There are specific schedules (which you can find there) set for ordering specific fabric types. I was a fabric tester for the poplin, that’s how this skirt came to be, and I can say I had a very nice experience. And I love the resulting skirt!
You can find all my posts about La Modette here on my blog.
It’s a simple knee-length full gathered skirt with an elasticized waistband. To get enough fullness I cut two 1m rectangles that I gathered to the waistband (cut long enough to accomodate my hips), and then I passed an elastic through it.
For this outfit I combined it with a real vintage top that belonged to my grandmother and a Charter School cardigan from ModCloth. I think the skirt could use a little help to flare a little bit more at the bottom, I’m thinking of making a light cotton petticoat with maybe some frills at the bottom? I’d like for the skirt to stay work appropriate so I don’t want too much fullness. What do you think?
Tagged as:
La Modette
A friend has been going through her grandma’s sewing supplies from the 60s-80s, and passing many of them onto me. I’ve gotten some great things from her – patterns, about 500 hook-and-eye closures, fabric, seam binding…as well as some notions I cannot place. I thought I’d post pictures on here to see if anyone can help me figure out what they are.
These little things feel kind of like something you might embroider onto a garment, but there are about 25 of them in a bag and they don’t look like anything someone might want embroidered onto something. They can be folded in half.
I know the package on the left is collar stays (though they’re kind of long), but I’m not sure about the one on the right. The white bands are elastic, and the writing is in German.
I’m very confused by these items. They’re all the same thing, just different lengths and colors. The packages say “Zig Zag Wire Supports; Braces the fabric, supports the collar flare.” All of those words make sense…but where and why would you use them?
These packages say “shoulder strap guards; pin-in nylon; snap ends around shoulder strap.”
And finally, these strange things. They look like buttons, but are made up by threads pulled to the center of the circle. A friend suggested they might be the buttons you use in the middle of pillows.
The pictures below are items I recognize but have no need for. If anyone could find a use for any of the items in this post, let me know. Especially the hook-and-eye closures. I have enough to last me many, many years.
Thanks for the help! It’s been fun looking through all those notions and trying to imagine what they might be used for.
I have had this pattern, which is Simplicity 1944 from 1947, in my collection for a while. My cousin just had a baby girl, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make up this cute little sun suit. The pattern is a size 3, so it will be awhile before she grows into it, but it was so darn cute I had to give it a whirl. I used plaid lightweight cotton, and went with a rickrack trim in fuchsia. There is a fuchsia stripe in the fabric, but it is not showing up well on camera. This is View 1, which has self made ruffles. View 2 uses purchased trim. I also contemplated using elastic in the legs, but in the end I went with the self made bias tape that is called for in the pattern. I did some quick and dirty hand bound buttonholes, which look less than great but do the job. Definitely more practice needed in that department. Unfortunately, the brim pattern piece for the matching bonnet was missing. I contemplated drafting a new one, but decided against it because I already have a giant pile of stuff in my sewing stash I need to get to, so I kept in simple with just the sun suit. Enjoy!
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Simplicity 1944 front view
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Simplicity 1944 back view
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Front illustration of Simplicity 1944
Tagged as:
1940s,
1947,
baby,
beach wear,
cotton,
plaid,
rick rack,
romper,
sun suit,
toddler,
vintage pattern
