Catalog Sunday

This Sunday I have scans from one of my pattern catalogs, the mail order company, Marian Martin. This catalog has no date, but judging by the fashions I'd say 1935-37.

Enjoy.

Chocolate 30s wool Crepe Dress Progress

Happy Saturday.

My internet is still out and I'm in a very sour mood about it, but I have more pressing things to worry about. Like this dress!

Actually it's nearly complete, and it turns out I have some place to wear it on Sunday. I'm going to Cicada! Mickey Rooney is singing, and apparently its a big deal, so a lot of us are going! Hehehe!

Anyway, the dress.

Last time we talked, I was working on attaching the two front pieces. My deal is when I have something that matches like this, to make sure it matches at the side seams as well. I know is supposed to anyway, but you would be surprised at how tough that can be, especially if you alter the garment beforehand.

*raises hand*

They didn't match too well so I had to do some altering. Like forty minutes of altering. I got them *near* perfect, I guess. I think that was my limit. The next time I make this dress, because let's face it, the bodice detail is fairly bitchin', I'll alter my pattern to compensate.

Another challenge I find is crepe. I do so love wool crepe but its not a very friendly fabric to work with. It can pull and tug and stress and you won't notice it until a bit later when there is no way to change what you did. Darn you, wool crepe!

One thing I've learned to do, and this might just be me, is I actually add about 1-1 1/2" to the waist and blend it in.

It takes away a lot of the pull that I find happens with wool crepe, especially if its cut into a gored skirt. Crepe is heavy, especially mine because I machine washed to kill some shrinkage, so it tightened up to a rather grand texture. Letting it hang like I mentioned in the earlier post let a lot of the skirt gather just fall out. I steam pressed out the rest.

Next were the sleeves. Again, my need to not have top stitching. I had a choice: Top stitch on the tie for the sleeves as is suggested in the pictures for the pattern (the instruction sheet was missing), or, do it my way which will take more time, but will look more awesome.

I'm sure by now your can tell which one I picked.

I gathered the cuffs of the puff sleeve and stitched where the tie cuff said it needed to be stitched. With sleeves with gathers, I always pay close attention to matching notches. In the past I didn't and I'd be all perplexed as to why my sleeve kept twisting. Well, stupid me, it's because those notches not only tell you where and how much to gather, but help keep the drape of the sleeve straight because that's hard to see when all that fabric is bunched up.

So look listen and hand stitch. I pinned the cuff to the sleeve and I decided to had stitch the inside first, then do a hidden stitch for the front. So I sewed each cuff on twice. Yeah, I know. But the stitches are not seen and you have to admit, it looks cool.

But then I had another dilemma. Okay, in a lot of 30s pattern I have, often finishes with tassels like this sleeve are instructed to simply be tied together, as if the fabric were as thin a silk and tying four layers of fabric into a know was nothing at all.

HA!

The crepe was way too thick to be tied. You think I would have learned that lesson after the skull cap hats :) In this case, I needed to have the cuff, which was a snug fit, be able to open and close, so a permanent tie was not an option. I decided to make a fake bow with the cuffs because I had to use all that fabric!

I bunched up each side of the cuff and sewed it down. Next I broke out my vintage hook and eye packets which I say I forgot how AWESOME they were! So much so that I must do a post on them later, seriously, they are amazing. With the hook and eyes I can simply open and close the cuffs at my leisure and the 'bow' the folded pieces make mimics the original design. I love it when a plan works out.

I put in the zipper and now all I have to do is hem the skirt. I am gonna look so cute! Hmm...what accessories should I wear with this!? A hat perhaps?

Way ahead of you.

Finished photos (of the hat) on NVL.

It's the little things...

Hi all.

I thought I'd start a new segment on the blog about all the little touches I often put in some of my garments. When I'm out wearing something I've made, often people notice a detail here or there that I could have easily left out. It makes me feel great when someone notices!

This blouse I'm sure you are all familiar with.

A 30s blouse victory

I decided now that my serger was up and running to go on and knock out a project that I have been wanting to do for some time.

As you all remember, when I was doing a mock up for my jeans, I intended on using them for jimjam bottoms and I wanted to go on and try out my 30s blouse repro for the jimjam top.

Well, I went on and did it.

I just love a pile of cut and prepped cotton chambray all waiting for the serger. It still amazes me how something like this, a pile of cut pieces will be a garment of some kind soon.

Serging (yay) the pieces took no time. Once that was out of the way I prepped the gathered pieces with a basting stitch and set those aside.

The blouse has a front button up placket. This was something I had never rightly done with much success. It's a very masculine type of blouse. I think that was on purpose. The fact that it's an over blouse and has a belt adds to the femininity of the look. In any case, this is for sleeping in, I think...so I was willing to make mistakes on it.

I ironed the front placket, pressing down the seam allowances. I didn't press in the allowance on the back fold of the placket. I didn't know how straight I was gonna be able to sew this thing, and I might need the extra fabric that that allows. Next I sewed closed the top part of the placket, sans the seam allowance. That was folded in, and any bulk was clipped away.

I then did the button holes on the front placket. This was the only time I can recall that I added button holes *before* I finished a garment.

I generally don't like to add finishings before the garment is complete because of all the alterations I tend to make. This time it was the only way I could do it because I don't think that I would have been able to get that button hole down there at the point!

For the under placket (both cut from the same piece) I snipped off the point and folded it under. I sewed that to the side of the blouse first and it went on like a champ. That was in part to my Gute thread and the fact that this cotton behaves like paper. Its wonderful.

I matched up the front placket to the markings and stitched it as the instructions said.

No problem.

Until I tried it on.

This is a prime example of what I mean when I say my upper bust is small for my size. See how the placket completely overlaps itself. There is in excess 2" up there that I'll have to get rid of. I marked the placement for the placket against my neck, opened the side stitches and figgled with the placket until I got it laying straight.

That's a lot of fabric off the front. If I had known it was going to be that drastic I would have increased the gathers at the yoke. I'll have to do that on the next one because if I alter it this way I'll be doing something funky with stripage if I decide to use that type of fabric.

The whole alteration, from cutting to repositioning took all of ten minutes. I was happy about that. Once I was done (I just folded back the excess fabric and repositioned the placket) I attached the sleeves and collar.

I did make a blunder on the collar. Well, one for me anyway. The collar attaches with a top stitch all the way around. Well, as I'm sure most of you all know, Mama don't like topstitching, but I had to do some for this one in any case. I attached the under collar first then sewed on the top of the collar. It was that meeting point in the center of the placket that I was concerned about. I started stitching about an inch inside from the start of the seam and I went back and hand tacked that part down.

It's a much cleaner look, but I wish I had paid more attention. I overlapped the collar just a hair too much and I'm getting fold over. Again, not a big deal to some, and because this is my first go at this pattern, totally not a big deal, but I now know that I left open too much seam allowance when I was stitching that collar on.

The rest of the blouse, because it's cut on the fold, was a cakewalk to put together. I did 3/4 sleeves because it's gonna be a night shirt and I also deepened the armholes a bit for that reason. I do really like it and I totally see this in a velvet or a patterned linen.

So now I have some complete pajamas! Yay! As for my wool crepe 30s dress, it's nearly complete. I'm letting it hang for a couple of days to let the fabric lay better. I just have to add the sleeves. For some reason I was just intrigued by the notion of slow sewing, like the slow food movement, and I do that anyway, I guess I'm just fast at it. But I do like the idea of crafting a garment rather than making one and even with this tester I wanted to have the same level of finishing as I would on any of my other garments.

Well...I did do one quick cheat.

I machine stitched my hems on the blouse and the sleeves. Eh, I'll let that go.

What to do in an Air Raid pt 3

The last installment of What to do in an Air Raid.

Also, I think I'm going to do a few things for the LA Air Raid. I was always thinking of doing a couple of wardrobe changes, so I think I'll show up in my overalls as an Air Raid Warden, whistle included. I got a great vintage air raid helmet online for SUPER cheap. Ill make a decal for the front and an arm band. I've got some great refrence photos. There you go!

Then Ill change into a basic frock and be a gal about the day, in her cotton stockings! Then for the evenin' I'll put on a wool dress. It gets cold there at night. Hopefully by then I'll have learned some steps and I'll be out there doing some dancing. Let's hope!

Anyway, here goes part 3.

See the above insignia? Isn't that cool!? I love the coffee cup! HA!

Catalog Sunday

This Sunday more images from the German pattern catalog I posted last week, Bunte Mode. The pages are a bit larger than my scanner, and not large enough to do two scans and justify the time (sorry all) so you'll get some cut off text, but all the images are good.

That's something, right!?

Enjoy!