Category Archives: vintage dress making
The Walkaway Dress.
THe Walkaway dress, well we started it we put the three peices together then we put the bias binding on.
I can honestly say this was the most boring thing I have ever made, the other thing I would like to say is if Butterick sold so many of these patterns in the 50s where are they? I can’t help feeling that 1950s sewer had as much trouble with them as 2015 sewers and a lot of them went straight in the bin.
I did learn a couple of things, I made my own bias binding for the first time, the print I used in the end was too busy for a shop bought binding, the binding looks great. I bought a bias foot for attaching it I found that it didn’t make it easier or harder to attach the binding, Denise found it a lot easier not to use the bias foot at all.
I read up a lot on the internet before starting this dress, I was particularly worried about Denise’s chest so we cut her upper chest size to start off with and graded out for the bust, it is still a little bit gapey around the sides but fits her shoulders, it is unfortunate that she has lost a few inches from around her waist since we cut it out so it is a bit big in that area we decided to just fold over the excess fabric.
The other thing I am assuming is that the 1950s pattern did not tell you to hang the dress for 24 hours before hemming, that would have completely put paid to the ‘start at breakfast, out for lunch’ slogan.
Dress update
Hi, you might remember the Butterick 7556 and Butterick 7240
I managed to get out in garden this weekend and take a few photos, I gave you the dressmakers dummy photos but here are some full length photos.
Butterick 7556
The first two pictures look alright, the last two, I’m not sure if I’m standing but it looks like I have no waist.
Butterick 7240
here is a good look at the hip detail
The dress could have done with an iron but I didn’t want to miss the moment, the tripod does make a great deal of difference to the photos but I do have to try and get rid of the total look of concentration on my face while trying to use my iphone to remotely operate the camera.
Marathon Skirt making project
Don’t worry I havent forgotton my Haslam blouse, it is on the back burner at the moment, have you ever had a project that goes together fine in the testing stage but once you get to the actual putting it together what could go wrong will go wrong.
That is my Haslam blouse, first I made a hash of the corner trying to French seam it as per the instructions (got a small hole in the corner 😦 ) the second one I tried went together beautifully, then I noticed a small mark on the front of the section on the one of the fronts, normally I would have just swapped it out, but I’d just overlocked the whole lot, after deciding to give the french seams a miss.
This weekend I have made, or at least started 5 skirts, 3 are all the same pattern and for a friend, she has just had abdominal surgery, and her low waised ‘modern’ skirts and trousers rub in the wrong place, since going back to work she has practically lived in 2 skirts I made her for chistmas.
The pattern was created from the Lutterloh 70s book, I have already made another long skirt, but as she is about to go on a boating holiday they are not practical, so using the same pattern, but cutting it shorter here are three more skirts.
I have also made two skirts for me, one is an unblogged 70s skirt pattern from simplicity. The other is a Haslam skirt,
I made a mistake on my fabric choice for the Haslam skirt, the check doesn’t lead it self to darts and I’m not sure that it can hold the pleats.
The skirts are all put together and just need their waistbands and hemming, the Haslam skirt also needs its pleats.
Hopefully I can get some photos before my friend goes on holiday.
Haslam Blouse pt3
I came across an interesting piece of information while reading my haslam book of dressmaking, no wonder the sleeve looked a bit weird and pully across the front, apparently you don’t line up the under arm seam with the under sleeve seam.
I must admit after I removed the sleeve and reinserted it as per the instructions (which was also in the front of the drafting leaflet) it actually sat a lot better.
The facings and the collar have been inserted, the blouse is looking very good, I’m still not certain that I would wear in this coloured fabric but the blouse is wearable and the correct size.
Of course at this point I’m wishing I hadn’t done a shoulderectomy on my dressmaking dummy as the blouse was a bit droopy, but I soon fixed that with a couple of bits of card stuffed under the t-shirt.
The Collar looks a little bit wonky but I’m not sure if it is just the way that I have attached it or if the picture is off slightly.
The next step is to find a nice lightweight fabric and make one that will be nice to wear to work.
Haslam System of Dresscutting Pt2
Ok, I have made my Blouse, it went together very easily, no funny, I’m not sure what that bit is doing….
There are a couple of problems, one of which is to do with measuring and two, the ladies of the 40s must have been a darned funny shape in the hip/stomach region.
Item one – either I mis-measured my shoulder or I didn’t quite understand what the foundation booklet wanted. I measured my shoulder at 4 1/2 inches it wasn’t wide enough, when I measured it a second time I carefully read the instructions ‘measure from the prominent bone in your neck to the point of your shoulder bone then take 2 1/2 inches away’ after a re-measure it turns out that maybe it should be 5 1/2 inches, this actually corrects half of the problems I had with the blouse.
Item two – The hem of the back of the blouse wasn’t wide enough. I was going on the assumption that the side seams of the blouse should fall level with my under arms. Wrong!!! If I held one side level with where you would expect a side seam the other side was at least an inch out, maybe a bit more. Also I had a lot of fabric in the front, when I say a lot, each front nearly went from one side seam to the other.
Looking at the instructions you can see why this would happen, you take the hip measurement and quarter it, then you add an inch to the front, the back you deduct an inch.
On the bodice sloper craftsy class I have, you do something similar but only with 1/4 inch. May be I should have done this but I went the other way I measured my hips then I split the measurement up as my body split it up.
There was one other problem but that was connected to my fabric choice, I used a piece of poly cotton which was a bit stiff and I think the fabric should have a lot more drape to it. As it was the blouse looked very boxy and was quite uncomfortable across the back and sleeves, (this should be fixed by the nearly 3 inches added to the back piece across the shoulders).
I have redrafted the pattern pieces and cut them out in some sort of pink shiny fabric, that I’m not sure why I bought it the colour is totally not what I would wear.
Butterick 7556
This is another Sewing post, I am in the middle of sewing a second version of this dress, this one was done just before our holiday. It went together so easily and looked really good, I decided to make another one.
This one was made with a Lawn Cotton, I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia earlier in the year, the stall said it was LIberty, but I haven’t been able to track down the print, it was a good price and the fabric is nice and soft, also cool to the touch, it irons beautifully (which I haven’t done to take these photos).
I wasn’t really sure about the neckline but it does look better on.
After marking everything out, you stitch the four skirt bits together, then baste the pleats in, the skirt closure is different, the dress has a short zip in the bodice but because of the pleats the skirt has a placket, the last pleat on the left side front folds over on to the side of the left side back and is held in place by a hook and eye and two press studs.
The first time I made the dress I didn’t look at the instructions close enough and didn’t realise there was a hook and eye, as I didn’t fancy relying on two press stud to keep my dress closed I put in a waist stay and a skirt hook and bar.
It is a surprisingly comfortable dress to wear, especially if you get the zipper tab in just the right place, and I got a couple of compliments on it while in the States.
Tracy’s Adventures in HaslamLand
Before Christmas I bought the Haslam dressmaking system from pinkemilyrose on ebay. This is a drafting system slightly different to Lutterloh, with this one you start by drafting a pattern block, then you draft your dress, blouse or Jacket over the top. like Lutterloh you end up with a pattern drafted to your measurements.
These are the three peices of the Haslam System of Dresscutting.
These are the extra tools I needed.
I thought I would go through the process and hope at the end of our ‘journey’ I will have a finished piece of clothing that I can wear.
I have decided to try some thing simple first, a blouse, I have decided on this one
It looks simple enough to not cause me many problems putting together but with a couple of nice details.
I started by drafting the front block, I used wallpaper lining paper to draft the block, and a pencil, I strongly advise using a pencil, the first time I attempted to do this, I used coloured pens for the different types of line and got my self into a right old mess. 🙂 this way if you make a mistake or get confused it is easy to erase it and start again.
you can just see the base block under the tissue paper I have layered over the top. After I finish the block I laid a sheet of the Burda tissue paper over the top so I can use the front block again and again.
Here is the first pattern piece I created, it is part of the front.
you can compare the collar pattern piece with the diagram in the photo above
Here are my pattern pieces all cut out.
The next post will be on how it easy it was to be put together and the fit.
Butterick 7240
This is the ‘companion’ dress to Vogue 8781, they are only companions as the fact I’m making them together.
I also have this pattern, bought while I was in the phase of (what difference is there between a kimono sleeve dress and a set in sleeve dress) I still haven’t laid them side by side, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it sooner or later.
As I stated in my previous post I love this dress, it is totally impractical for wearing to work, especially with the office chairs on wheels, but if it gets hot enough I might just throw caution to the wind and wear it anyway.
This pattern is advertised on the packet as a long bodied dress, it has a front and back panel which runs the entire length of the dress, and you add two side skirt panels at hip height to give the skirt a lot of fullness over the hip. The back panel has a center zip.
I have machined the two front pieces together and the both the back pieces, I have even put in the zip, (unfortunately that will have to come out, as it isn’t sitting right)
Each side skirt consists of two pieces, they are also stitched together, all are waiting for the iron….
as you can see by this picture the hip inserts are long enough to wrap round my body as is.
it has one of those collars that is part of the front bodice then wraps around to the back, leaving a small stand at the back and a flappy collar at the front, more photos on that as I make it
We are going to see Mickey Mouse….
It is booked!!! two weeks in May, in Florida I can’t wait, we have a villa, the park tickets, we are swimming with dolphins, just as well we also have another week off after we get back we will be exhausted!!
The main reason for this post is ‘We’re going to see Mickey!!!’ and I need to think about my wardrobe. The temperatures are going to be between 22 and 32 degrees, I’m hoping for the middle to lower end as Simon does not do heat very well.
I’m hoping to create one new item of clothing a week until we go, this might be ambitious as a couple of things I have my eye on are in my Haslam books and as I haven’t completed one of the designs yet I can’t say with any certainty that it will fit properly.
Here are a couple of pictures.
I was also looking at a swimsuit pattern, I don’t do very well with stretch fabric, but I want to look nice for the Dolphins
As well as Gerties book for better sewing I have Gerties Vintage casual, I’ve been looking at the shorts, dresses and shirts. Here are some of the clothes I hope to be able to finish before we go.
Butterick 7203
Hi
This is a story about a pattern, it is a poor pattern and it had two missing pieces the back and the front 😦 however it did have all its facings and kimono sleeves 🙂 It was also a butterick pattern, of which you might have noticed I have rather a lot of and “some of them” have kimono sleeves.
I have recreated my front and pack pieces using one of the other patterns and the facing bits, I not quite sure how the bodice facings go together but I’m sure I’ll work it out.
I am using a cotton fabric, it might be Lawn as it is thinner than the poplin I usually buy, I really will have to start marking the fabric up as I buy it. It is white with green flowers on it.
The skirt pieces are self-faced while the top has a separate facing piece. I didn’t cut out the interface at the same time as the rest of the dress as the kittens were being a bit of a nuisance, I’ve now cleared my craft room door so that I can shut them out, they aren’t particularly happy about it, but tough. It is very hard to cut out a pattern when three of them are sitting on it.
much like this but with differerent fabric
I’ve so far done the skirt seams the underarm seam and attached 90% of the top to the skirt, (why 90% I hear you say) because I’m a very disorganised when I stitch, and the other pieces need interfacing which as I pointed out earlier I haven’t cut out yet. I have tried to iron on the interfacing after stitching an item together, it is not something I recommend, even if it is a simple piece, like a front facing for one thing the stitches are now under the interfacing and it didn’t iron on quite as smoothly as I would like.
this is what we have so far
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 