Yesterday was a glorious day: I got my hands on 43 vintage dress patterns from the 1950s and early 60s. All of them are fab, some more my style than others, and my plan is to make up all the ones that appeal, which is a great many, and sell the others on Etsy.
You can see all 43 patterns on my Facebook Page, “like” the page, then check out the “Vintage Pattern Collection” album.
I’m not going to post them all here, but just 12. I thought it would be cool to do a 12-in-12 project (inspired by Wilhelmina’s 12-in-12 costume project –LJ or blog), one of these vintage patterns each month, starting in June. It’ll go through May of 2012, unless I get lazy and don’t stick to it, but then you can beat me with sticks. Here are my choices:
June ’11
 |
| I love both of these. Fabric will be cotton or linen something, for summer. |
July ’11
 |
| View 1, maybe in stripe too. |
August ’11
 |
| View 2 for Summer, but I’m going to do this one again in View 1, in the future, it’s just too cute. |
September ’11
 |
| Probably View 1, maybe in a lightweight wool. |
October ’11
 |
| View A for the fall, but I’ll be back to do View B in the future. This is one of my favorites. |
November ’11
 |
| View A with the white jacket, and I like the brown silk material for November. |
December ’11
 |
| Christmas Dress! I have a gold brocade already, so it’ll be some other brocade 🙂 I like View 2 a lot, but View 1 is very sweet as well. |
January ’12
 |
| A coat for January, though this could be a dress too, depending on the material. I’ll make that decision in January, and depending on how cold I am 🙂 |
February ’12
 |
| I love the long lines on this dress. I like the tweed in View A, too, but for February maybe something different. Wool would be good, though. |
March ’12
 |
| Both the jacket and the skirt, and I love this color combo, or at least the plaid with a solid. |
April ’12
 |
| It’ll be View A, the classic early 1960s dress. Maybe in a dupioni…? |
May ’12
 |
| Party Dress! I’m intrigued by View A, but it’ll more likely be View B, and in a summer brocade I already have. |
So that’s the plan. Some of these patterns are my size, but most of them are one size too small, which means I have a little alteration work to do to add the extra inches on. I’m going to try to use as much fabric from my stash as possible – I have some nice brocades, and who knows what else – but I also want to take advantage of the wool section at my local weird fabric warehouse, for the Fall. Yay, plans!!
12 Comments
Elizabeth
May 17, 2011 at 10:06 PMThese look awesome! I'm currently battling with a vintage pattern that is a collared shirt and skirt and it is driving me batty with the shoulder darts! Hopefully yours won't be so bad!
Anonymous
May 17, 2011 at 11:42 PMWow, these are fabulous! Love them!
Lauren Stowell
May 18, 2011 at 12:20 AMElizabeth, you can pwn that collar! My problem is I don't follow the directions well, then mess things up, so I'm going to pay special attention, especially since vintage ways of doing things are interesting and eye-opening.
Ingrid Mida
May 18, 2011 at 12:57 AMWhat a lucky find!! I'm a little bit jealous but cannot wait to see how they turn out.
Samantha
May 18, 2011 at 4:25 AMSo lovely!
Charleybrown
May 18, 2011 at 4:46 AMLove those! Funny how I used to think my mother looked odd wearing such dresses and now I think they're so classic. Have fun sewing!
Rowenna
May 18, 2011 at 1:30 PMLove these! You'll have a gorgeous vintage wardrobe when you're finished 🙂 Can't wait to see how these turn out (will definitely beat you with sticks if you don't make these lol!).
Lauren Stowell
May 20, 2011 at 7:24 AMWe'll see how this "wardrobe" turns out. Sometimes I just don't want to sew at all, and sometimes that's all I want to do…
Joni
May 20, 2011 at 7:13 PMOoh, someone just posted that McCalls boatneck dress on Sew Retro:
http://sewretro.blogspot.com/2011/05/adorable-1950s-day-dress-mccall-3489.html
(Not me, sadly. But maybe I will get lucky someday and gfind it in a B36!)
Artemisia Moltabocca
May 22, 2011 at 3:47 PMWhat a score! So jealous! Can't wait to see them.
Lauren Stowell
May 23, 2011 at 6:16 AMJoni, I saw it on Sew Retro, but I was sad she didn't post a good photo of how it turned out. I'm curious! I guess I'll find out….
Angela Reichelderfer
May 25, 2011 at 3:04 AMNice! 🙂