flamingo – WeSewRetro.com

Flirty Flamingo Playsuit

By misskacysews on April 27, 2015

This month I decided to join in for #SpringForCotton hosted by the lovely Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille.

http://luckylucille.com/2015/03/spring-for-cotton/

Then I stumbled onto The Monthly Stitch and saw that the challenge for the month of April was “Put a BIRD on it!” I hadn’t written for The Monthly Stitch at that point, so I thought I’d give a challenge a go!

So, since flamingos are, in fact, birds, I decided to stitch up and use this flirty little play-suit to complete both challenges!

As you know from my last post I spent the last two glorious weeks in the Sunshine State enjoying some lovely times with my family. I just managed to get this finished up in the last few days of vacation and had the chance to have it photographed with the lovely palm trees. I miss palm trees so much. But I digress.

This play-suit is a mash-up of McCall’s M6969 and the skirt from Vogue V9000. I did view C of the romper and just used the skirt pattern as a template for the gores.

My fabric for this project is this lovely,vibrant, flamingo print, 100% cotton, shirting and a solid pink quilting cotton. I’d been eyeing the flamingo print for about four months and happened to go in with a 50% off coupon and snagged 5 yards of this for only $25! That’s a huge bargain as far as I’m concerned.

I also settled on self-covered buttons for this project.

For the construction of the first part, the romper, I decided that I wanted to do a solid color top and use the flamingo print on the bottom. I wanted it to look as if it were two pieces without actually being so. I also liked the idea of being able to wear the romper by itself with a belt and have it still look like a two piece set.

I added the white bias binding on all of the hems. I really liked how the contrast of the white played against the brighter colors.

Due to the long trip and baggage regulations, I was only able to bring limited supplies with me to my mom’s. Luckily, she is also a sewist and was willing to share her sewing room with me during my stay.

That also included getting to sew it up on her Husqvarna Viking Designer 1!! This thing sews like a dream. Seriously, it’s worth every very expensive penny. While I hope my mother lives forever, I also hope she leaves this to me in her will… unless she decides one day to upgrade and feels the need to pass this on to me. I wouldn’t complain one bit.

Lovely woman that my mother is, she also played my photographer for this project. Usually I just photograph my makes on Millie, my dress form. Unfortunately, she was still at home in Ohio and my mother doesn’t have one. So that meant, I had to get dolled up and get outside and in front of the camera. We are by no means professionals, but they didn’t turn out to bad for cell phone pics.

So there you have it. This is #vintagepledge make number 3 for me! I’m over half way to my goal of 5 for the year. I guess it’s time to unpack, clean up and figure out what my next project will be!! Find more of my work at www.shessewbettie.blogspot.com!!

Much love!!

2 Comments

Vintage Sewing

Ending the Summer with a Serious Flamingo Dress!

By Happy Dress Code on September 13, 2012

v2961 flamingo dress 1950 fashion 50s design vogue vintage pattern 2961

Oh how I adored this fabric when I first set my eyes on it! I couldn’t decide for months on which pattern would be better to use with my beloved flamingos.

I finally decided to use another awesome vintage pattern reprint from Vogue – a v2961.

The real awesomeness of this dress is that it was quite easy to sew and looks perfect when finished. Although it was a moderately easy pattern, the dress looks really elegant when finished. I mean, as elegant as any dress covered up with flamingos would look 😛

The pattern I used for this dress is one of Vogue Vintage collections. The v2961 was originally published in 1953 and it’s a classic 50s fashion with tight bodice and a poodle skirt.

vogue vintage elbise kalıpları

I must say, for the novice sewing enthusiasts the only challenging detail will be the bound buttonholes at the front. Evet I first thought of placing an invisible zipper on the side and sewing the buttons just as accessories. But then I decided to stick with the original pattern and see how it’ll turn out. I did not make bound buttonholes though – as suggested – and just made regular buttonholes.

vogue 2961 1950s dress patterns

The fitted top was so easy to make, despite the boning detail. I fitted the bodice like a glove very easily. To be honest, the bodice pattern has only 2 darts at the front and 2 at the back and was much easier to make and fitted much better, compared to other more complicated patterns with similar look.

Sewing the buttons on the bodice was the easy part. I did spend some time in trying to figure out how to do the same thing on the skirt. The instructions were quite complicated for me, as I was doing this for the first time.

I cut the upper front of the skirt pieces same as trousers pattern. I then stitched a paper-like interlining on the extra bits and then fold it into two in order to open buttonholes neatly.

I can go on living my happy ending with my flamingos…

I hope that you will also have your happy (sewing project ) ending soon… well, until the next one at least 🙂

Cheers!

sewingyourstyle.tumblr.com

2 Comments