vintage sewing pattern – Stacey Stitch

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!

Simplicity 7702: All Sewn Up – 60s Shift Dress

Published on March 22, 2015April 21, 2016 by Stacey Stitch9 Comments

My first sew of 2015. A few weeks ago I put a blog up for advice, after I scored some gorgeous vintage style fabric from John Lewis in the sale, asking what your opinions were on the pattern to pick.

In the end the simplicity won out. I wanted to try something different, something with a sixties silhouette different from the more tailored sews I’d done previously. The fabric seemed more suited to that. I decided to sew up a toile with some left over cotton that I had as I am a 34 in the bust but I have junk in my trunk, way more than is allowed for on the pattern.

I am so, so glad that I decided to do this because the toile was far too tight on the hips and it was throwing everything off shape wise. So I got out the Swedish tracing paper, made some adjustments and came up with a much more pleasing and better fitting toile.

I used this to cut the fabric and with gritted teeth marked it all out to ensure that I matched the pattern at the back of the dress, which turned out very well even if I do say so myself, first time almost perfect, I decided to leave it at that. It was only a tiny bit out of sync and I wasn’t about to tempt fate by taking the zip out again and seeing it all back in only for it to not match at all.

This is the first time that I’ve ever sewn up a pattern putting the zip in the back before sewing the sides in. Easier x one million. I don’t even know why I haven’t considered doing it before. I think I’m just a stickler for the instructions. I must do what they say. I might remedy that in the future.

I tried the bodice on and had a bit of a worry when the centre back wasn’t lying flat against my skin, until I realised I was wearing the shoulders a little high and they should have been sat a little further down.

I then had the sleeve quandary. Knowing how much I dread setting in sleeves I considered the flat method for a while BUT I decided just to knuckle down and get on with it in the end and sewed the side seams before setting in the sleeves traditionally.

They went in like a dream. I pinned and pinned and I ensured I sewed in slowly and carefully easing them in as I went and sewing from inside the sleeve side rather than the bodice side if that makes sense. After a good old pressing they looked great.

I took three inches off the bottom for the hem allowance rather than the two and three quarter as specified on the pattern, and voila I was done.

So here I am in my new dress.

There are a couple of things to consider:

I have started going running. A lot. Which means my hips are now smaller than they were, hopefully I don’t look like I’m wearing a tent.

I love that it’s not fitted because I feel free! I love wearing more structured garments but there is something so gloriously comfortable about this shift dress while still looking super smart.

What do you think? Have you made anything similar? I;d love to see your version – link me up!

New Pattern Purchases (& Pattern Giveaway)

Published on July 20, 2013 by Stacey Stitch5 Comments

I appear to have somewhat of a pattern buying problem at the moment.

I’ve recent added these beauties to my collection:

And I have also added these two. Tim thinks they’re horrible but I’ll be the one laughing when I’m all snuggled up in winter in a lovely flannel gown!

Giveaway

Can you give the below 2 patterns a good home?

The first is this Simplicity 6197 Bust 44. It was advertised on wrongly on ebay as B34 so I don’t think I’ll use as it’s it’s quite far off my measurements. More details can be found here.

I haven’t checked the pieces but in the original listing it said they were all there.

The second is this repro Vintage Vouge V1072 40s suit pattern. It’s in size DD (12-14-16-18)

It’s brand new and uncut. More details on the pattern and sizing can be found here. As far as I am aware this pattern is now out of print.

When I first started to get into vintage clothes I was very much in love with 40s designs but I’m more partial to late 50s -60s rather than earlier now so I don’t see myself making this up at any point.

If you’d like either of these patterns please comment below (with Simplicity and/or Vogue in the body of the text) by 28th July, follow my blog and I’ll announce the new owners on here on 31st.

I’ll be using a random number generator to pick the winner/s.