New patterns en route!

I "accidentally" stumbled into the Past Patterns catalog a couple of days ago, and talked myself into ordering a few new patterns ;P. I ended up with three 1920s patterns, and already have the fabric picked out for one of them. They should be arriving in the middle of next week :). 

 This is #2307 "Ladies' and Misses One-piece dress with vest front: Circa 1923-24"

 This is #3110 "Ladies dress with Separate shirt waist: Circa 1922-23"

This is #9412 "Ladies' skirt with hip pocket effect: Circa 1920" I have some lovely brown wool in mind for this skirt. 

An actual finished project!

Here is an actual finished project for you to marvel at ;P. I actually finished this some months ago, but decided to share it with you anyway..

This is also a Past Patterns pattern, #8340, entitled "Ladies' House Dress: Circa 1921." I really do like Past Patterns, and I think it's mostly due to their enormous collection. This pattern came with nearly no instructions..it was a single sheet that, at some point, was torn in half, so that I only received half of the directions. This was noted in the catalog on the Past Patterns website, as it is for a lot of her Vintage Revival patterns. I have many more patterns that I plan to pick up from her in the near future.

This one was a bit difficult, partially due to it being my first pattern of this era, I'd only sewn Civil War garments up till this point, partially because the instructions were half gone..and also because I made a terrible fabric choice. I chose a very lightweight, gauzy cotton, which was a real pain to work with. I'm ambitious, what can I say?





 The bodice is made up of 3 pieces: the back, and two front pieces that attach to the back at the side seams. I ran a gathering stitch along the bottom of all three pieces.  I laid the bodice out on the form, lining up the shoulder seams and neck opening (also making sure to lay the left side down first, as this dress closes on the right). I pinned down the back of the bodice to the form, and then pinned the side seams to the side of the form to hold it in place. I also pinned it down at the shoulders and around the neck to insure that it didn’t move around. I then pulled the gathers on each piece of the bodice individually to fit the waist of the form (which is always set to my measurements). I then promptly went to the sewing machine and sewed down the gathers so that I don’t have to worry about them loosening or tightening on their own. The next step will be to attach the skirt, which is also three pieces. I sadly did not get any photos of this stage of the process, but it went about the same as the bodice. I, of course, attached the three pieces to each other, and then lined up, pinned, and attached the skirt to the bodice. 

 
Here are a few photos of the finished project on my dress form. You can see that I opted for a white white eyelet fabric, which is also a gauzy cotton, for the collar, belt, and cuffs. I also used a set of pearl snaps for the closure. Were I to make this dress again, I would most likely go with buttons, as these snaps are really heavy for this light of fabric. The flower decoration I made myself from ribbon, using directions from a .pdf pattern I downloaded from eVINTAGE Patterns. I believe it was this pattern.

 

I should note that the waist for the pattern was originally 26 inches, so I had to alter it up to 34 inches. This was my first experience with significantly altering a pattern.

And here is a photo of me wearing the dress (I forgot the flower decoration). We took this while on a day trip to Birmingham to see the Vulcan statue. 

Preview of upcoming, soon to be finished projects!

I have been so terribly busy lately, as we are about to be moving..but! I wanted to give you a little sneak peak at a couple of projects that are nearly finished.

This is pattern #6611 from Past Patterns. It's entitled "Dress with Waist Yoke: Dated 1931." I actually started this dress in October of 2011, with the intent of wearing it at my brothers wedding in November, but as is my usual custom, I rushed it, and was not able to wear it to the wedding due to the arm holes being entirely too small..needless to say, I was pretty frustrated with myself, and so put the dress aside. I recently made a pact with myself to finish a few unfinished projects before I could start working on projects from the VPLL Titanic Sew Project, and so I have finished the dress. Photos, and a narrative of the construction will come soon, just as soon as I have the opportunity to do so.

This is pattern #7696 from Past Patterns, and is entitled "Ladies' One-piece bathing suit: Circa 1922. I began this project in January of this year, with the intent of wearing it while my sweetheart and I strolled along Tybee Island during our trip to Savannah in February, but sadly I was not able to complete it in time..I even took my sewing machine along with us! But it was not to be..so it too got set aside for a bit. However, I recently picked it back up again, and have only to attach a few buttons for it to be complete! I will be posting photos of it pretty soon (hopefully ;P).