Pattern Sale Part 2

More patterns for sale! Just like yesterday, all patterns are complete unless otherwise noted. Prices do not include shipping from the US.

 Advance 7015 1950s evening dress pattern size 12 bust 30 $15

Simplicity 3750 1950s dress pattern size 14 bust 32 $10

McCall 7259 1950s blouse and skirt pattern size 12 bust 30 $5

McCall 7580 1950s dress pattern size 14 bust 32 $10

Butterick 6943 1950s dress pattern size 32 bust 14 $10

McCalls 8918 1950s day dress size 14 bust 32 $10

If you would like to purchase one of these patterns, email me at girlwiththestarspangledheart[at]gmail[dot]com and I can get you a shipping quote.

Sewing Bits

I've been eking out bits of time for sewing. Since I had to grade up my graduation dress pattern, I thought I'd do a wearable muslin first.

Blouse in progress. I choose an old thrifted sheet that would be cute enough to wear but not beloved so much that I'd be crushed if there were issues.

Skirt front! It's coming along quite nicely. Alas, it'll be about eight months before it's warm enough to wear.

I also had a friend give me a pile of vintage patterns! There were some super cute 50s and early 60s ones!

And there were also some really cute little girl patterns. We're not planning on kids any time soon but they were too cute to pass up!

Repro Patterns and Where to Find Them

Reproduction patterns are a great way to wet your feet with vintage patterns without having to deal with all of the issues that come with actual patterns. I'm just going to give a mini review and some info about some of the repro pattern companies I've used. You can find everything from hand traced copies of original patterns to completely remastered and multisized patterns.

The Big Four

Butterick 5281

Simplicity, Butterick and Vogue do have reprints of vintage patterns. Pros: cheap, easy to find, loads of styles. Cons: They took perfectly good vintage patterns that actually fit on a person and added, oh, five or so extra inches of ease.
 
Eva Dress

Some Eva Dress pretties!

Eva Dress has a huge selection of 20s-50s patterns! Most of them are single sized but they have recently been putting out multisized patterns. The website is easy to navigate and you can search by decade or bust size. I've had great success with their patterns.

Past Patterns

A 1930s Past Pattern in my stash

Past Patterns carries repro patterns from the 20s-40s as well as a historical patterns. Most of the vintage patterns are Vintage Revivals, which are hand drawn copies of vintage patterns (one sized) with a photo copy of the original directions which may or may not be legible.  They also do have some multisized patterns as well but I've not used any of them. Their website is not the greatest and the pictures on the main page of each decade are often tiny and hard to see so you have to click on it to tell what it is. But they are great for hard to find styles like 19-teens. And they are based out of my town!

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a darling pattern company that does historical as well as vintage patterns. They come professionally printed and drafted and have good directions. Now, the only time I sewed one of their patterns, it came out way tiny! As in my husband had to cut me out of my first muslin. So I haven't quite figured out the ease for their patterns but lots of people have had good luck with them and I'm planning on giving them another go sometime!

Wearing History

Even more Wearing History love!

I love Wearing History! I have 9 or so patterns and have sewn them all. Some several times! This company focuses on 40s and 30s patterns but has recently been branching out into historical patterns as well. There are two pattern lines, Resto-Vival and Signature Styles. The Resto-Vival patterns come straight from vintage patterns but with modern markings. They include original directions (but not a photocopy!) and retain the original vintage fit. Some are multisized and some are not. The Signature Styles are based off of vintage patterns but with reworked step-by-step instructions and many also have been adjusted to reflect a mix of vintage and modern fit. Recently, Wearing History has been re-releasing patterns in e-pattern format for those of you who love e-patterns.

Fabulous Early 40s

I've stated my love of early 40s here before but the return of chilly weather has got me in the mood for some more pre-war fashions! So when I found a whole slew of them for $6 each, I snatched them up!

First up is Simplicity 3938 from 1941. Love the bows for a hint of femininity.

Simplicity 3997 with some gorgeous gathers! Not to mention the hats.

Simplicity 4113 is actually a set of chic separates! I'd love this in a wool jersey.

Simplicity 3977 is a simple dress perfect for showing off a great print or trim. I have some vintage printed rayon that would be perfect for this dress.

Simplicity 4013 is a classic 40s suit pattern. I've been wanting to do a 40s suit for a while.

McCall 7032 is a great 40s basic skirt. I'm totally converted to the awesomeness of separates.

McCall 7259 is more of a late 40s pattern but also a great separates pattern. (And I need more blouses!)


Has the fall season inspired you in a new fashion direction?

Psssst..... Lucky Lucille and I must be on the same brainwave because she posted a free download of a Simplicity 1940 winter fashion booklet today!

Fall and Winter Sewing Plans

I know it's the middle of summer, but fall will be on us before we know it! My husband and I have a busy fall wedding season and then we'll be moving so I'm hoping to get a head start on my chilly weather sewing! Here are some things I'm hoping to sew!

Blouses! On an unrelated note- check out the tiny watch hanging off the blue skirt on Advance 8511

 I love a slimmer skirt for fall and winter to keep your legs warm!

I could not resist this adorable 50s pull over pattern! I need one in plaid flannel!

Another great winter pattern! I've got some teal corduroy for this!

I'll be pulling out the Wearing History WWII Home Front Overall pattern to whip up some jeans! :D

I've got some great brown plaid suiting with tiny orange stripes and I want to make a matching dress and jacket!

What things are you dreaming of for fall?

Birthday and Anniversary Swag

It just so happens that my birthday and wedding anniversary are just two days apart (and usually right up near mother's day for when we get to that stage). Which means May is everybody loves Stephanie month. :) And this year I got gobs of vintage and sewing related things from people who love me.

Patterns! These I picked out myself with birthday money. I love birthday money especially since the stuff I really like other people would have a hard time picking out for me. But I never ask for it because it's just awkward.

This little beauty I had spied a few months ago at a used bookstore. It's a huge 1951 catalog.  It was still there when we went back last weekend and my hubby sneakishly bought it for me. :D

And look at all of the pretties! I really want to make some scans to share but we'll have to see how the scanner behaves.

I also spied these vintage confetti earrings at a near by vintage store the same day I spied the catalog. They too were still there so they just had to come home with me! I like to do that sometimes. Wait and see if something is still there. If they are, great. If not, it's not meant to be. If I completely forget about it, then I must not have really wanted it that much in the first place.

A local sewing store called Sew Dayton was having a vintage fabric destash sale so I picked up these two beauties. The left one is a suiting and someone had bought almost the whole bolt because there's 7 3/4 yds here! The right fabric is possibly cashmere and it feels divine. Only 5/8 yd here but I couldn't pass it up! My dad also got me a Jo Ann's gift card. Yay for sewing!

And last, but certainly not least, Wearing History's 1940s overall pattern. The hubby and I weren't planning on doing anything big for our anniversary this year. (We did go to Disney for last year's though.) So this is what I asked for.

What kind of birthday gifts do you like? Do your friends and family buy you vintage or sewing related things?

Lilly Rose

Today I'm bringing you the fruits of a "secret" project I've been working on-testing the Lilly Rose dress pattern from The Tailor's Apprentice! She has several new 1940s patterns in the Miss Page Vintage 1940s collection but I was immediately drawn to the Lilly Rose dress. The collection also includes patterns for an evening gown, a sailor outfit, a land girl ensemble and a wedding gown.

Tada! 

This pattern was a pdf and it prints on both A4 and US letter sized paper (which I didn't notice till after I'd printed it on A4 paper....). I really liked that it had a grid on it so that if you are type A like me, you can measure out the size of the squares as you tape them together so they end up straighter than with other pdf patterns. I don't normally like pdf patterns because I don't feel my taping skills are up to snuff but this helped out loads.

I opted not to do a muslin and the top came out the right size but I did something really dumb when cutting out the skirt piece. I cut out the waist two sizes too small! Eeep! I don't know what I was thinking since I cut out the top and waist band the correct size. Oy! This was completely a user error, and had I cut out the correct size, the pattern would have fit great. And I didn't have enough fabric to recut the skirt pieces. I was able to let a bit out of each seam but since I did French seams, I couldn't let nearly enough out. I really wanted to use this fabric for this dress, so I did what I think any thrifty 40s gal would have done in the same situation, I added strips of fabric to the side seams to make up for the width needed at the waist. The busy print mostly hides it.

On the bright side, all I have to do for next time is print out the skirt pieces and cut the pattern out with the correct size.

The neckline on this dress is just gorgeous on the front and back. Pretty enough on the front that you don't need a necklace and the keyhole on the back is just darling! The original design had contrasting bands on the sleeves too, but I ran out of fabric. I really wanted a matching bolero to go with this dress and I didn't end up with enough contrast fabric for all of the things so I left off the sleeve contrast. It was a bit chilly with the bolero so I swapped it out for a sweater today.

I choose to do a bunch of French seams on this dress and hand stitching the hem and the contrast on the neckline (because I couldn't find thread that matched well enough) so it did take a while to stitch up but it came out really nice and I love the little details that make a dress special.

Overall, I really enjoyed working with this pattern. I'd make a few changes next time I made up this pattern-cutting out the correct waist size, adding the contrast back to the sleeve and using a contrast fabric that is more similar in weight/stretch etc to my main fabric because they didn't really play nice with the shaped waist band. The directions are clear with lots of pictures and include info on extras like dress shields and making your own shoulder pads.

The pattern is recommended for intermediate sewers but I think an advance beginner would do ok if you were confident in installing a zipper and you were willing to be patient with the more fiddly shaped contrasting neck piece. The hardest bit for me was the fabric chart which was only available in meters but I believe an English chart is being worked on. I used 2.6 yds of 56" fabric for my main fabric and I used a mix of sizes 8, 10 and 12 (which is normal for me).

Note: I was given this pattern for free in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

New To Me

I love getting new things but new to me things can be just as nice.

I recently went on a bit of a vintage pattern shopping spree. Some of these I bought for a specific project but some were just good deals.

A cute 40s dress complete with original embroidery transfer.

A cute scalloped 50s dress with fabric swatch pinned to it.

I also got this scalloped dress pattern with fabric swatch from the same seller as the one above. Both have handwritten notes on the envelope and I think they may have been from the same sewer's collection.

Super cute late 40s dress with detachable collar. I planned on using this dress for my white rayon until I found this pattern:

Super awesome early 40s shirtwaist dress!

One of my friends asked me if I would be interested in some of his mother's old hats and I said yes, of course!

A cute navy hat with 3 rhinestones.

A pink hat that looks like it may have had some veiling at some point in time. I'm thinking that I'd like to replace it.

And a very pretty white floral hat.

And right after I came home from Costume College, there were two surprises waiting for me!

Last summer when I went to visit my grandparents, one of my dad's cousins offered to give me her serger that she never used any more. Well, her house wasn't exactly on the way home and there was no room in our car to take it back home anyways so I figured it'd be a while before I ever saw the serger but my dad was nice enough to pick it up and drop it off for me when he went to see my grandparents while I was at CoCo. My dad's cousin also gave me a hemmer machine. Both the hemmer and serger will be visiting a sewing machine repair shop in the near future (hopefully) for a tune up before I use them but I'm super excited!