homemade – Stacey Stitch

McCalls 6569: Anniversary Evening Dress (The Finished Dress)

Published on February 11, 2017 by Stacey Stitch3 Comments

If you’ve read my previous blog you’ll see how my muslin turned out.

With just a week to go I set out to sew up my dress in the lovely gold satin I’d brought back from Vegas a couple of years ago. I read prior to this that you should try and store your satin rolled rather than folded due to the crease factor. I did this but to be honest it still creased a fair amount.

I spent a whole night cutting out and marking up the pattern pieces (including the adjusted pieces – see my other blog). My, my, what a pain in the arse. It turns out satin is the most slippery material known to man (slight exaggeration, but it did feel like that at the time).

The following day I sewed the bodice together which went very well but then it was time for the lining. I should say at this point I have never lined anything in my life but as I was sewing with satin I thought it would probably be a good idea just to bit the bullet and do it.

I decided this before I read the pattern instructions, but it turned out that there were instructions in with the pattern to line the dress. My Brain: “What does this even mean though?!”

I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to sew the lining in, which way it went round to ensure the seams couldn’t be seen. I have to say – vintage instructions are not a dyslexic’s friend the best of times and this was no exception. After lots of umming and ahhhing and tearing my hair out I finally figured it out and it did actually look pretty good.

I spent a long night sewing the lining to the skirt pieces following this, and here was where I made one of my major mistakes. I have no idea how I marked the fabric up wrong but somehow I managed to.

When it came to the later stage of sewing it together it meant that I had a row of stitching down the back of the skirt next to the centre seam which I then had to unpick. Unfortunately, as I was sewing in satin it did mark the fabric so my dress is not so perfect, but we make mistakes to learn from them don’t we? More on that point later!

With a day to go to my anniversary (and after a lengthy trip to the dentist for two fillings) I spent a full day sewing the skirt pieces together (while keeping an eye on the clock so I could be sure I wouldn’t be late picking up Ash from nursery and hoping that some semblance of feeling would return to my ridiculously numb face).

I attached the skirt to the bodice with relative ease and inserted the zip. Mistake number two: I was silly enough to not check that the fabric was taught when I basted the zip in, meaning that when I went to sew it I, again, had a big chuck of stitches to unpick which left a rather messy side zip insertion.

Thankfully it’s a side zip so really no one’s going to see it unless the come up really close to have a look . I finished sewing the lining pieces together at the waist and was quite impressed with how it looked inside out.

At this point I thought I should just leave the hemming to my anniversary and cut my losses before I cried.

So the day of my 10th wedding anniversary (last Friday) I sewed right up to the last minute but I did finally finish my dress with a couple of hours to spare, and I did get all dressed up and we did go out for the first time on our own in seven months. And here I am in my dress!

So what did I learn?

I learnt that sewing to a deadline when you have a young baby may not be the right amount of pressure to put on yourself when you’ve just gone back full time to work!
I learnt that even with nearly a year off sewing anything I’m still quite competent and I still know what I’m doing.
I learnt that lining something may be a pain in the arse but it’s really worth it and that there’s nothing to be scared about when it comes to what I would have previously considered tricky fabric.
Mostly I learnt that there’s nothing wrong with mistakes and everything can;t be perfect all of the time. I wish I didn’t have the little hole marks where I’ve unpicked the stitching but it will always be a reminder of the first time I sewed with something other than what I previously considered ‘safe’ fabrics and I certainly wont be making the same mistakes again. We’ve got to get some things wrong to learn a lesson, right?

Overall I am extremely happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

So roll on 2017….I still have some glitter speckled pink satin from Vegas in my stash…watch this space!

McCalls 6569: Anniversary Evening Dress (The Muslin)

Published on January 28, 2017 by Stacey Stitch2 Comments

This year I made a decision, a decision not be to scared by fabric. For a couple of years now I’ve had some gold satin I brought back from Vegas in my stash and I’ve been so scared to use it having never worked with anything like that. This year it’s my tenth (?!) wedding anniversary and I thought it would make the loveliest dress for our celebratory meal out.

I picked McCalls 6569 for the pattern; a gorgeous sixties evening dress with a matching jacket. I’m not so sure I’ll have time to make the jacket but the dress looked simple enough with my time constraints.

The first thing I did was post in the We Sew Retro Sew & Tell facebook group to ask for tips, it’s one thing I LOVE about the sewing community, you have a wealth of experience and advice online in a group like that and people are only willing to help and wish you luck. So armed with my new found advice I bit the bullet and cracked on. As you may have noticed I don’t often make muslins of my clothes but as I was working with an unforgiving fabric I thought I probably should get it right the first time, as a seam ripper might not be the best friend it previously had been to me. I measured up, perfect in the bust but 2 inches bigger on the waist and 4 on the hips (not live I’ve had a baby in the last year or anything….). It was going to need a little adjustment.

I used the pivot method for the hip adjustment and added extra at the waist thinking I could figure out adjusting the darts as I went.

New pattern pieces made, I cut and marked everything out in calico, ready to sew my mock up. Well this is where everything went quiet for a week as my little one ended up being ill, so it’s meant that every night for the last week I’ve been furiously sewing to get everything completed after his bed time.

The muslin went together bit by bit and I was overall quite happy with how it turned out…. apart from ordering an open ended zip (I blame the lack of sleep) and I forwent the hemming as that can be done on the real thing later.

The only other thing (that I am slightly concerned about) is lining the dress. There are instructions but having never lined anything before I’m hoping that it’s easy enough and wont take up too much time as I’ll probability be sewing right up until the last minute with this.

So here it is muslin complete and on to the real thing – wish me luck!

Ministry of Craft: Overlocking for Beginners Course

Published on January 1, 2017 by Stacey StitchLeave a comment

First off Happy New Year! It’s been an eventful 2016 and the reason I haven’t been able to update my blog much in the last six months is currently snoozing in his cot upstairs.

Our lovely little boy has been keeping me very busy since his arrival in June and as much as I thought I would have time to do a little bit of sewing and crafting I have done nothing, apart from the course I’ll be taking about today.

The good news is he’s now sleeping through the night which means I’m waaaay less tired and I’m itching to get back to making something. So I should be back sewing soon!

Anyhoo, getting back to it….

In June I bought an overlocker thanks to the generosity of my husband, family and inlaws which all chipped in in cash and vouchers. I only managed to get it out of the box and have a look and put it back again as I was about a week overdue at that point and had more important things to do, like bounce about on a birthing ball and try not to eat my own weight in ice cream.

I did, however, sign up to the Ministry of Craft’s Overlocking for Beginners course in Manchester in September. If you’ve read some of my previous blogs you’ll know that I’ve done a couple of courses with MoC now and I really can’t recommend them enough. If you’re someone like me who needs to be shown something for it to make sense then you’ll find them invaluable. September came around quite quickly and off I went to their city centre base to learn what I was doing.
The course was two and a half hours in length and gave an overview of overlockers including threading which I ended up doing twice after forgetting to put the foot down the first time and had to start from scratch (good practice though!).

We were told a few handy tips the most useful of which is to keep a record and a swatch every time you use your overlocker so you have it for future reference if you go back and use similar fabric again. That way you’re not starting from scratch.

We were shown (and practiced) seams, edge finishes and rolled hems, which I was particularly interested in as I still have some gorgeous vintage pink chiffon I brought back from Vegas a couple of years ago that I’ve been too scared to do anything with.

As always the course tutor was fantastic, no question too silly, and she put us all at ease and made certain that everyone’s questions were answered and everyone had the time for a little one to one which she checked that they were on track.

I haven’t been near my overlocker since but I know from the help sheets and notes I have written I won’t have any problem when I do. So a huge thanks to Ministry of Craft for an informative morning and their help.

I would definitely recommend this course for anyone new to the world of overlockers or for those who need a quick brush up if theirs has been sat unused for a year or so.

All Sewn Up: Butterick B6031 – Patterns By Gertie: The Pants

Published on April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 by Stacey Stitch1 Comment

You might remember that nearly two years (how?!) after I’d sewn the slip ago I said next up would be the pants, then I promptly got distracted and never got around to finishing them.

In fact, I pretty much forgot about them until I recently had a bit of a clear out and found them pre-cut with the pattern in my sewing stash. So, with a bit of time to spare on Saturday morning I thought I’d give them a bash.

They took about an hour in total to sew, which I didn’t think was too bad for a little morning sewing project and it was all very straight forward.

The only thing that irked me somewhat was that I’d bought the kit from Gertie’s Etsy way back when but there wasn’t enough stretch lace to go round the leg holes (is that even a technical term?).

I did have a big bag of bits of lace and elastic my Nana had given me a few years ago so I did manage to find some, unfortunately it isn’t matching but it looks okay.

The pants came out really well.

I am just now trying to figure out how my bum is going to fit in them, having any kind of small clothing item fit you in the future when your preggo tummy resembles an ever expanding planet is a hard thing to come to term with(!).

Children’s Raincoat: Robert Kauffman Ann Kelle Chicken Print

Published on July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by Stacey Stitch6 Comments

And now for something completely different….

A few weeks ago I went off to Birmingham to a sewing show with my Step-Mum. We spent the day mooching about a huge space looking at lots of pretty fabrics and patterns, when this gorgeous laminated cotton caught my eye.

That would be perfect for a kid’s raincoat, thought I, and I had just the loveliest little boy in mind whose birthday was fast approaching.

So I bought my yardage and took it home and maybe was slightly concerned I had bitten off more than I could chew.

I couldn’t find a decent pattern anywhere so I searched the net and came across this tutorial from Riley Blake Designs. I sourced a hoodie for the template and bought my notions.

I decided to use some of my leftover cotton from different projects to make the lining, which turned out to be a bit of a mish-mash of designs, but I assumed he would look like quite the dandy in his super bright lined coat.

I instantly made a mistake by forgetting to put the seam allowance on my first two pieces, but luckily enough I did have enough extra to make that mistake, only I had to forgo the pockets in the end.

Making it wasn’t too tricky, after I remembered that:

I had to pin in the seam allowance (this is mean to me waterproof after all so not extra pesky holes).
Sewing takes a little more time due to the pressure of not being able to get the seam ripper out and start again.

But I took a deep breath, and started sewing.

After I had sewing the lining in, I washed the coat on a cold wash and hung it out on a hanger to dry and leave it crease free.

When it came to putting on the closure loops for the buttons I used clamps to hold them in place rather than pins

All left to do was to wrap the coat and hand it over to N. It was a little big for him but he very much seemed to like it, if all the talk of “chicken” and “cluck, cluck” were anything to go by.

It was a little bit big….but hey, kids grow, right?

Simplicity 4579: All Sewn Up – 50s Fringed Skirt

Published on July 4, 2015April 21, 2016 by Stacey Stitch12 Comments

My Step Mum found this pattern for me and I instantly fell in love with it especially the fringe trimmed version of the skirt, who doesn’t like a bit of fringing after all? So when the fine folks at Zazzle.co.uk got in touch with me so see if I would collaborate on a couple of posts it was instantly clear that this pattern would be perfect.

If you haven’t heard of Zazzle.co.uk they’re a fantastic creative customisation website with a whole host of different products but obviously, for me, it’s all about the crafting. I can’t even begin to tell you how wide ranging their fabric options are as it would take a whole post up in itself and I’d never get around to showing you my skirt but I will give you a quick overview.

You can pick from various categories from colour, pattern to theme. I obviously went for retro of course, but there are lots of others to choose from. In those categories you can pick the type of fabric, as its summer here I went for a cotton obviously (and I am glad I did due to the heatwave we’ve had) and then there’s the fun bit of customising the pattern too.

The only tough thing I found about the process was narrowing down my fabric choices as there are so many.

Anyhoo, they are fab and you should check them out.

To start the skirt is a 28 waist and 38 hip. Due to the lovely weather we’re having here in the UK, recently not being in the best of sorts and my love of dairy I am now sporting 40 inch hips. So I had to adjust the pattern.

I started by tracing the pattern onto some Swedish sewing paper and marking it up, then I made the hip adjustment by cutting out a perpendicular section from the hip line to the hem line and fitting and extra half an inch in.

I sewed up the darts and joined the sides and all went swimmingly. I put the zip in as instructed, even though it’s not the normal way I’d do the zip but it worked out okay if not a little fiddly. You don’t get anything from not trying though, right? Even if that something you do get is a little frustrated.

Then it was on to the hem and the decision of what I should do about the fringing. For all intents and purposes the instructions said to leave a length of fabric under the fringing but after trying out all options I decided not to do this. It just looked a bit odd.

So I took the skirt up a little extra and removed the split. Then I started sewing the fringing in. I have a little experience of sewing in fringing due to my previous burlesque dancing ways but I had only ever done it by hand. I did use the sewing machine this time and took a steady pace with it. No problems, no seam ripping, just a very happy me by the end of it.

All that was left was hemming to do which, as usual, went without a hitch. So ladies and jellyspoons here is my finished, sewn up skirt. What do you think? I;m super happy with how it turned out and it’ll look great for a work as well as a Sunday mooching round the vintage shops.

Disclosure: Fabric supplied by Zazzle.co.uk but all thoughts on their services are honest and my own.

All Sewn Up: Butterick B6031 Patterns By Gertie: The Slip

Published on September 27, 2014 by Stacey Stitch2 Comments

I thought it was time I pushed myself away from the cotton and towards something a little slinkier, so when I saw Gertie was starting a slip sew along back in February I thought I’d give it a go. The massively underestimated my time so I only got around to it this week.

I opted for purchasing one of Gerties slip packs from Etsy as I thought it would save me a lot of traipsing about or online searching for the little bits and bobs and of course I went for yellow.

Yellow is my favourite colour because it’s the colour of sunshine, how can you NOT like yellow?

The main material is micro jersey fabric (poly/spandex blend) and the lace is stretch. I decided that I’d go for a contrasting yellow cotton while sewing as I like the effect it has on it, give it a little cheat style decoration. I missed the bows off because I didn’t really like them all that much, and much prefer the slip all plain Jane.

So off I set. The pattern was relatively easy to sew up and I was surprised at how easy it was considering all of the stretch in all of the fabrics. This would have taken me a day to complete if I’d had a whole day but it took me several nights and half a day in the end and I am very pleased with the result.

The only problems I had were with:

Double sewing the dart on the bust. One side, if you look really close up, doesn’t look as neat as the other, I had a bit of an incident with the slippy fabric but trying to go as slow as possible on the other side was fine. So less speed required from me in future.

The straps; it took my dyslexic brain a while to figure out which way round the straps were sewn once the extending fastening pieces were threaded through, I got there in the end though and this is the finished result.

Next up on my sewing table are the pants (we say that up north, rather than knickers, or panties across the pond).

Craftsy: Sew Retro – The Gertie Bombshell Dress Complete

Published on June 2, 2014 by Stacey Stitch9 Comments

Three days before I got Vegas, finally finished my dress this afternoon. Yikes!

Sometimes I think I am either incredibly lucky when I get things done so quickly, or incredibly silly for procrastinating in the first place!

Last week a gave an update of how this dress was going, which I’d started after signing up my my first craftsy course when I was looking for something an extra special to take off to Vegas as I would be out there celebrating my (gulp) 34th birthday.

I’ll pick up where I left off.

The bodice made, I started with the skirt, which is a faux sarong (which doesn’t have the extra flap underneath). It was relatively easy to put together with a lot of gathering to one side to give it the sarong look.

After sewing up the sides I pinned it to the bodice to see how it would look and I was so happy to see it looking gorgeous.

I have to say this is always my favourite part of sewing, when I can finally look at what the garment will become.

I don’t know why but it always does surprise me that I have managed to actually make something that looks like it’s meant to. You would have thought that almost a year in I’d be over it, but apparently not.

That’s the joy of making your own clothes though, isn’t it?

After this it was time to sew it in. Now, I know it was going to be a bit of a struggle with that amount of gathering to one side but armed with my seam ripper I knew that it might be a case of taking it apart and putting it back together again.

Which I did have to, as I got half way round (after holding my breath and hoping for the best) the doorbell went and local campaigners were asking if I have voted (which I had – at 7.30 that morning).

I look flustered, they apologised and I went back to the skirt, finished it then realised I’d not sewing in the sarong part properly and had to start over again.

Which I did and when I had finished (round 2) it looked a little like this.

I’m not sure it even does it justice, there is a lot of material in that side gather!

It was then time to insert the zip. Now Gertie shows you how to do a lapped zip, something which I have done before but much to my own dismay it didn’t work out as neat as it could have done, so it was nice to go through this stage step by step.

Half the Zip in – success! When I went to sew the other side in however I nearly had a little cry. Zip woes!

I tried twice to do it by machine but I just could not get it right, and to be honest, I really prefer the hand picked technique for this, so in the end this is what I did. I think it just gives the outside a much better look that the row of stitching.

The next morning I had a little try on as I was super excited to see what it looks like, and I wasn’t disappointed.

We were told at the beginning of this class that it would fit like a glove and it really, really does. So if anyone is about to embark on this class please make sure you measure it correctly.

The boning and lining was still to go on but I was so happy that I made the cups that little bit bigger because I was sure at this point that I would have been boobs out!

So on with the internal structure, lining and boning.

I normally don’t line my dresses, I don’t really know why, maybe laziness or more because when I have picked up vintage dresses many of them haven’t been lined, so all of this was new to me.

I went for a cotton lawn for the lining in a light blue with white polka dots. I cut out my pieces and spent an evening sewing them all together.

I have to say this was mildly frustrating as the cotton is so light I found it a bit tricky when it came to sewing the cups in.

They aren’t as perfect as I’d like them to be but I was tight on time by this point. A few hours later the lining was complete.

The next step was to add the boning. I was, by this stage, watching bits of the tutorial and stopping to do a bit of work, going back and pressing play.

I would say for anyone who would be taking this class to watch it through once at this stage and then go back from the start and sew along, as the instructions are a tiny bit higgeldy piggeldy and there are things you could do with knowing (or things it would make it easier to know) if you watched it all the way through to begin with.

Anyhoo, the boning channels were pinned and sewn in.

Then it was time to cut the boning down to size. I had chosen a variety of thickness and I thought I might need a little extra support around the bust area and I was glad that I did, but I did have a job cutting the larger pieces down to size (the chance of you getting any more than a couple of pieces pre-cut to the correct size is slim!).

This is fun, I thought when I first started snipping with much struggle with the wire cutters. I actually had to get Tim come and help me with the thicker bits I was no where near strong enough to get those bad boys done. Oh, and I didn’t purchase any extra end covers but I did manage to remove the ones already on the bits I had clipped and re-used them so all was not lost.

Boning clipped and in it was time to pin the lining into the bodice.

I was careful when I did pin it in not to pin right through the bodice (learnt my lesson from a long time of steaming and pressing out the puncture marks on the top of the bodice when I was making that up!) and ensured that everything lined up.

It this point Gertie mentioned using a piece of grosgrain ribbon for a zipper guard, which is a welcome finishing touch to the dress but I would have liked to know earlier that I would need an extra piece of ribbon which is double the size of that which I have for the waist stay.

I improvised and did the best I could with what I had and it did work out well.

This is a little bone of contention for this course.

There are times when things are not mentioned in the materials (such as this) or times when little tips are mentioned after the event.

Maybe it’s my ordered ind which getting a bit miffed when these things occur but as I am planning on making another couple of dresses based on this pattern then it is useful to add little notes at these stages reminding yourself of tips that would have been handier to know earlier.

I hand picked the zipper guard as I had done with the zip, being careful not to go through to the outside of the dress.

I then sewed the lining into the bodice and voila it was almost complete. Just the waist stay and hemming to go.

Doesn’t it look pretty! I did at this point stop for the day as my wonderfully patient husband had been waiting to hang out with me as he’s off to do newt based stuff on Monday so we won’t see each other until I get back from Vegas.

Now the structure is inside the dress I could see how much better it was going to fit and support me. Before this point I had had some serious misgivings about whether or not my juicy chest fruit would be particularly supported but now I had no qualms.

Next was inserting the waist stay and attaching buttons for the detachable halter strap. The strap is completely optional and this dress does hold up beatifully without it but if, like me, you plan on using this dress for other occasions where it might be better to add a little for more of a day wear look then straps are a perfect option. I do plan on wearing this dress to a wedding this year too, so a halter seemed a good way to go.

Unfortunately my buttons didn’t exactly match, I went for the thinnest ones I had due to the dress being so close to my skin so I had to go for these clear yellow ones – they will be replaced at some point.

All that was left to do after this was the hemming and finishing the skirt vent.

The instructions were relatively easy but I would have liked to know that I could finish the seams a little earlier where the zip is concerned as this caused me a lot of fiddling about.

The hem was finished with seam binding and then sewing on the back for an invisible finish.

I found some matching the light blue of my lining and waist stay in a box that my Nana had gifted to me, and I have to say the finish does look very pretty.

After this, there it was, my lovely dress, all complete.

There’s no final photo in this post as I plan on doing a few posts from Vegas so you’ll have to see the complete outfit post then, I don’t want to ruin everything, and me at the end of a two day sewing marathon to get this finished, in my scruffs, with my hair all pinned back would not have done it justice!

So in summary, I have really enjoyed this craftsy course and I am hooked!

I will definitely be taking more classes, there aren’t so many local ones around my neck of the woods so I’m really looking forward to bettering my skills and making this dress in different variations again soon.

If anyone is considering it I’d say go for it, you can do it, and I’d really like to see what you make!

Book Review: Reader’s Digest New Complete Guide to Sewing

Published on May 24, 2014 by Stacey Stitch2 Comments

I’ve had a few emails from readers and queries from friends about a good reference book to start with when they’re sewing, so let me introduce you to the bible: The Reader’s Digest Complete book of sewing.

When I first began my adventures I spent a lot of time on the net searching various forums, cross referencing with amazon’s handy “look inside” and reader’s reviews. I ultimately settled on this book after taking all of the above into consideration.

It might be a little pricey but it really does cover everything and anything in between.

Being dyslexic, diagrams are a great way of showing me what to do. I can only get so far when I’m reading written instructions and this book goes that extra step further, with clear instructions and pictures.

Whether you’re dyslexic or not this is a really great handy guide for anyone getting into sewing. It has step by step diagrams for processes from tailoring to hand stitching hems.

Take the circular ruffle on my Joanie inspired dress. Something that I really struggled with looking at the instructions on my vintage pattern (as with all vintage patterns, they assume you already know a lot about sewing) but I just looked to my bookshelf, checked the reference pages and found what I was looking for quick smart, and away I went.

I haven’t sewn any of the projects in the book – they’re not really my style but the instructions are clear, concise and contain a handy key at the top of the pages to point you in the direction of the correct pages for each separate part of the making up process.
Everything I have ever been stumped by, whether it’s a technical word, the correct way to sew a fastening or a tricky seam, I know I have the help I need an arm’s length away.

If you’re beginning your sewing journey and would like the perfect accompaniment then kit yourself out with this book. It really is the best and works side by side with your sewing machine.

It’s currently on Amazon for £40 BUT you can get a good second hand copy for under £10 too.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME – 6 DAYS TO GO!

It’s super close folks and one vote could tip me into the top three which means I could be going through to the judges panel. Please give me a little vote if you can.

If you liked this blog please vote for me in the NVAs as I’ve been nominated under the Best Vintage Fashion/Lifestyle Blog category. Voting is open throughout May and it’s a simple click to select Stacey Stitch and then enter your email address to confirm the vote (you wont be spammed). Clicking on the photo or links above should take you straight to the website. It’ll only take a few minutes of your time if you have it spare! Thank you!

Mad Men Inspiration

Published on April 15, 2014 by Stacey Stitch12 Comments

The final season on Mad Men is almost upon us, the UK air date is tomorrow and I’m equally excited and sad, it’s bittersweet to know it won’t be gracing our screens after these final few episodes play out.

To say Mad Men has been a great influence on the patterns I pick and fabrics I choose would be an understatement. I have always loved vintage fashions but being a (now retired) burlesque performer meant that I was more inclined to dress 50s/rockabilly than anything else. After a while it lost its appeal, dressing up in that way for a second job meant that it felt more like putting a uniform on than wearing 50s fashions for fun.

So when I discovered Mad Men, and devoured the first three seasons in a matter of weeks, I found something I loved much more than the Jessica Rabbit style 50s attire that a lot of burlesque performers wear the late 50s/early 60s look that I adore; classy enough for work, sassy enough for a night out.

I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise when I say Joan is my absolute favourite style wise; whenever I look at a pattern I often think WWJD? I like the use of block bold colours that they use in her wardrobe with little feminine touches along the way to soften the structured almost armour like shapes of her clothing.

So where to start when you’re thinking about creating a Mad Man inspired outfit? Gathering images is the best way to start. I set up a pinterest board a while ago where I collect Mad Men stills or Mad Men inspired images which I like the look of.

I then source vintage patterns from Etsy, Ebay and various other online places checking them against the images to see if they can be adapted and styled into an outfit from the stills, or I find patterns that are of a similar ilk to the show’s costuming and I find material that fits in with the period and put something together that even if it wasn’t actually on the show it certainly could be.

Some of the Mad Men inspired garments I have made are listed in my previous posts, but here are a few snapshots:

This is my most recent and my own take on Joanie’s green blouse:

So put your feet up, tune into Sky Atlantic and enjoy the feast for your eyes that is the final season of Mad Men, and remember, even thought it may be finishing your sewing adventures are not! I can’t wait to see what gorgeous garments there are to drool over.