Completed: Vintage Pledge: 1970's Shirtdress

We are now into the last quarter of the year, and I finally finished the first of my 2 vintage pledges for 2015. This is also the first of my A/W sewing plans, and it came from the "need" category. I'm feeling pretty smug right now. It won't last. My next project is already a bit questionable.

But back to the dress in hand. I came across this pattern last year when searching for a pattern from 1974 to make my 40th birthday dress. This pattern is from 1973, so didn't fit the bill, but I loved it so much, I bought it anyway. I made it part of my Vintage Pledge to stop it from becoming yet another unmade vintage pattern in my collection (I don't have many - maybe 15 or so, but I have to date only made 3).

For ages, I couldn't see past the red dress on the cover artwork. It was always about the short sleeve dress for me, and the lady in red just looks so fabulous. But then, suddenly chambray popped into my head. This particular chambray was bought in Goldhawk Road during my visit to London in July. It cost me something like £12 for 2.5m. I like Goldhawk Road. Its a nice chambray. A little stiff, but it has a nice slubbiness and texture to it. Frayed like crazy though, and it creases pretty badly too.

It was sunny! Far from ideal photo-taking conditions.

For some reason this dress took ages to make. I can't remember when I started, but I think it might have been August. It wasn't a difficult sew - it's a very straightforward pattern - but there were whole weeks where I wasn't sewing, due to life, that made this quite a protracted process. Particularly annoying as I would then forget what changes I had made. I made a muslin first, as it's a 36" bust, and I am a 34". The muslin swamped me, and the initial collar was beyond hilarious, so I made the following changes:

• Took 24mm out of the side seams
• Took 24mm out of the centre front and back
• Moved the bust darts up by 3cm and also lengthened them by 3cm
• Removed about half of the collar - taking out about 8.5cm in width. I actually used the collar pattern piece from the Archer shirt for the shape, as the original was also far too pointy.
• Took 14cm off the length, at the lengthen/shorten line.

In the end, I think I overfitted it. It fits, particularly in the bodice, but it's a little neat over the hips and bum - most noticeable if I put my hands in the pockets. When making my muslin, I took it in at the back, but made a note to redistribute this 24mm across the front and back, so the side seams stayed in place. What I think I might have done is rather than redistribute, I've taken 24mm off the front and 24mm off the back. As I say, I can't remember, but this would explain why my collar piece then ended up being too long... Ahem. So, yeah, not a great collar, but not bad for my second ever attempt. The bust darts are a bit too long now, so could do with reducing by about 1-1.5cm, and for some reason they are not level.

I can also see from these photos that there are serious draglines at the shoulders. I'm not sure if that's just from wear - I took these after wearing this for a full day - or if it's a fitting issue. If it's the latter, I have no idea what's causing them. Ideas?

Hands in pocket - tight over the bum. Now you are looking at my bum!

I made some construction changes too. The pattern came with a sleeve facing, which I don't like, particularly as the instructions have you slip stitch the facing down and then top stitch, which seems kind of pointless. Instead, I made bias binding from an old shirt of P's, and faced the sleeves using that, topstitching in place. I added in seam pockets. I french seamed all seams, including those pockets. I ignored the instructions to hem using seam binding and just did a double turn. It's a nice deep hem, so there was plenty of allowance to do this. I also topstitched it, as I liked the consistency with the other topstitching. I did consider topstitching the side seams, almost fake-flat-felled-like, but I couldn't figure out how to do that without sewing my pockets shut. Finally, I neglected to make the self fabric tie belt, as I don't care for them.

I really like the resulting dress. There are a few niggles, which I've mentioned above, but it's absolutely wearable as is. It's quite a plain dress for me, but I like its simplicity. I'm really pleased with my topstitching. This was the first time I've been brave enough to do it in a contrast colour. I picked the buttons to match the contrast thread (and did the buttonholes in the contrast thread too). Two are slightly more purple than blue, which wasn't planned, but which I quite like. It's not hugely noticable, but like the stripey bias binding, it's a detail that makes me smile.

Unbelted. It kind of works (pls ignore the creases).

I did think about adding another couple of buttons so it buttons right up to the collar, which would give it more of a modern feel, but my collar is wonky. Not noticeable as is, but definitely noticeable when I hold it closed. For a future version though, I think adding a collar stand would be nice. I considered it for this time but ruled it out as I've never sewn a collar stand before, so I thought doing a hack might not be the best place to start. I should probably sew an actual shirt first. Other variations to the pattern would be to add a back yoke, with maybe a pleat, or patch pockets, either on the skirt or as breast pockets. You could add quite a lot more "shirt" details which could be lovely. Or equally I could continue to keep it simple.

Top stitching, and slightly wonky collar (where it joins the bodice, particularly on my LHS)

Buttons - the third and fifth down are a different colour. 

Bias faced armholes

I'm not sure I'll like wearing this under a cardigan. I just feel a bit mumsy wearing collared things under cardigans. But it might layer over a polo/roll neck or a long sleeve tee. It would have been perfect in summer, when I was meant to make it, paired with my clogs. Next summer. In the meantime I'm wearing it these lovely new shoes, c/o Clarks!

Also, I got new glasses! I actually have 2 new pairs. You'll definitely see the other pair in future posts. I really love these pinkish brown ones, but I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea. P took a bit of persuading. What do you think?

Finally, I have joined The Fold Line. This is a new online sewing community type thingy. If I'm honest, I'm always skeptical* about these things, not least because it just feels too much like hard work to have to post everything I make to a million different social media. I've pretty much given up on Kollabora, I'm rarely on Pinterest or Twitter these days and I hate Flickr since Yahoo took it over. However I thought I would give it a go. You never know, this one might be more like Instagram and keep me hooked. I did have an interesting sign up experience, where I created an acount and then was immediately banned from the site because it thought I was a spammer, but that was all resolved literally within 5 mins of me emailing them. Pretty good customer service! Unsurprisingly, I'm @grosgraingreen if you want to be my friend! And there is a Sewing Scotland group, for those that might be interested! Are you joining?

*Is that the correct spelling? It looks really weird, but autocorrect is telling me that "sceptical" is incorrect, and I'm too lazy to get up and check in the actual dictionary.

Vintage Pattern Pledge

I've been giving this some thought, as in this post, I said my goals for 2015 were to not make any goals. However, I like the idea of the Vintage Pattern Pledge hosted this year by Marie and Kerry, and I can actually tie the Vintage Pattern Pledge into my non-goal goal (which is to finish WIPs and use my stash). So I am joining in, but I am keeping things simple, and pledging to complete 2 specific patterns.

Firstly the WIP.

I started this coat in 2012. It saw a bit of progression at the end of 2013, but work stopped when I got to the bound button holes. If you've never sewn bound button holes before then you'll not know that unlike "normal" buttonholes which are pretty much the last thing you sew on a garment, bound buttonholes are pretty much the first thing you sew... yeah, it really hasn't seen much progression. I don't know how many times I have committed to finishing it, and then reneged on that commitment. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have got a lot of wear out of it this winter, since the 3/4 sleeves are not hugely practical, and it probably wouldn't look fantastic worn with a baby (in a sling) on top. But apart from anything else, I want it out of my WIP pile, and the fabric is far too beautiful to be sitting in a plastic bag in a cupboard.

Secondly, this pattern:

I found this pattern, when browsing for patterns printed in 1974. One seller on Etsy had listed this as having been printed in 1974, but actually it was 1973, but I loved the pattern so much, I had to have it. Just look at that sassy lady in red!!!! She absolutely sold me the pattern, but I also love the extended shoulder/cap sleeve of the short sleeved version. The seller was US based and didn't ship overseas, so I had her send it to my sister in law who lives in Yonkers, NY. My mother in law was over visiting at Christmas, so she brought it back for me. Since I went to the effort to buy this pattern, it seems obvious that I should prioritise it for this year. If I can make it from stash fabric, so much the better, but nothing that I have is currently springing to mind. Plus, I'm not sure I can see beyond a red version...

So, here I go:

During 2015, I, Helen of Grosgrain Green will complete 2 specific vintage patterns: Simplicity 6095 and McCalls 7619.

Are you joining in? If so, what is your pledge?

Fabulous Forty... and the blogger's not looking too bad either!

Today is my 40th birthday. Happy Birthday me! I'm actually currently on holiday. Nowhere exotic, just the East Neuk of Fife, but it's a holiday! In the meantime, though, I wanted to share a special birthday make, so this is a scheduled post.

I haven't sewn myself a birthday outfit before. No real reason other than there is usually quite a lot going on in December already thank you very much, but this year I decided to something a little different. The idea started when I saw one of Kerry's recent makes, and clocked the year her pattern was printed. An idea grew... why not make something from a pattern that was the same age as me? I'm not a huge fan of 70's fashion, but I did really like Kerry's dress and I figured I could probably find something similarly simple, not too "70's fancy dress" and make it wearable.

Easier said than done, particularly since I didn't have a lot of time to play with. I needed to find a pattern that was a style I liked and was wearable, was my size (no time, energy or inclination for grading) and was in the UK (no time for postage from the US). Oh, and it had to have been printed in 1974!

A trawl of Etsy and Ebay eventually led to this dress pattern.

The dress has a slightly bloused bodice with gathers at the waist on both bodice and skirt (reminiscent of the gathers on the Colette Peony). The bodice has a stand up collar and an all in one facing at the neckline. The skirt has 4 gores and is A line in shape.

I wanted to make the dress in a modern fabric, and recently fell in love with this viscose from Atelier Brunette that I had spotted on their Instagram feed and which I bought from Guthrie and Ghani.

I made view 2, but with the short sleeves from view 1. View 1 is kind of cool with the quilting on the hem, collar and sleeves, but with such a busy pattern, I though it would get lost.

I muslined the bodice which fitted fine - a wee bit big, but definitely wearable as is. I initially thought the neckline was super low - indecently so - but when I went to make the change I wanted to the pattern piece, I realised I'd just sewn to the wrong marking!!! Luckily that was the only daft mistake I made as I was really up against it time-wise to make this. I only had a week, which for me, is not that long. I finished the hemming (machine sewn - no time to hand sew) at 10.30pm the night before the day I wanted to wear it!

Where I originally thought the neckline sat!

In terms of construction, I followed the pattern, only making the following changes:

• invisible zip instead of standard zip
• I didn't make the tie belt
• I omitted the decorative buttons on the front
• I took 1 cm off the skirt pattern piece when cutting, due to fabric limitations (I managed to get this out of 2m of fabric), and then took a further inch off the length when hemming.
• Insides are finished with French seams where possible, and the rest are overlocked.
• Added pockets
• Used a strip of fabric, rather than the seam binding that was called for, for the waist stay.

Invisible zip with perfectly matched waist seam. Win!

I'm really happy with the dress. The facings at the neckline are a bit annoying and flappy - I've had to tack them down with invisible stitches to stop them flipping out. They are not interfaced, which I think doesn't help, as the collar is interfaced and they don't have enough structure to support the weight of the collar. If I was to make this again, I'd try to do something different there.

Weird selfies so you can see the collar and neckline better.

Actually, I've just remembered I made a second daft mistake - I borrowed my pocket pattern pieces from Simplicity 2360 which has the top of the pockets caught into the waist seam. No problem, I could do the same here, only I managed to catch them into the back skirt pieces rather than the front ones - so the pockets were backwards! I only realised after I'd French seamed the waist. I didn't want to have to unpick the whole thing, so I have to say I hacked it a bit - I unpicked the second stage of the french seam, just at the pockets, and then cut them. I then flipped them forward and sewed them in place over the top of the french seam. My insides are now a bit messy, but I'm not too bothered.

The fabric is lovely. Soft with a beautiful drape. Really nice to sew with and to wear, although it does crease quite easily. All in all it's what I wanted: a really wearable, comfortable dress with a nod to the past, that is special to me.

I am not pregnant again, despite the fact I look it here!

I actually wore the dress over a week ago - as part of my birthday celebrations, my mum treated my sister and I to afternoon tea at The Balmoral Hotel, which is an iconic, old hotel in the centre of Edinburgh (where JK Rowling finished the last Harry Potter book). It was a lovely afternoon and the dress was perfect for the occasion- sorry I didn't take any photos while we were there, but suffice to say there was plenty of sandwiches, tea and cakes in beautiful surroundings!!

Palm Court - where we had afternoon tea!

Right, I am off to spend my 40th freezing on a Scottish beach, eating fish and chips in the local pub, and drinking champagne!  

ETA: forgot to add that I will be adding this to A Stitching Odysey's #vintagepledge

A catch up

Hi! How are you all? Gosh, it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted, which is most unusual for me. I haven't been on holiday or anything exciting like that, life has kind of just taken over for a bit. Here's what I've been up to since I completed, and wore, my Peony.

1. Work
Work has been, to put it bluntly, horrific recently. It's been unbelievably stressful. We've now lost over a quarter of the team, but up until last week were still doing the same amount of work (which, quite frankly, was already stretching us with a full team), were having to deal with several ongoing projects that are going horrifically, horrifically wrong, were having to field requests for new stuff (Finance: "we need you to change the files to support us better". Us: "with what spare 5 mins? Bugger off"), and were trying to transition our roles to a team who were willing, but had absolutely zero system access. It culminated with me in tears and as a result, a divide and conquer strategy. You'll be unsurprised to learn that this left me worn out, exhausted every evening and actually I just needed to take some time to do nothing for a change. "Nothing" included no blogging.

On a more positive note, I have been recognised with a company award for the work I have completed on the transition, and so am £250 richer as a result! And the new team finally received system access on Friday, so it feels like we are starting to move forward again.

2. New job
Nothing to report on this front, but I am still looking! D day is mid October, so I still have time.

3. Silk

The one at the top

Gah! Silk. So beautiful, so drapey, so irresistible, so... silky, so difficult to sew. So, "nothing" doesn't actually mean absolutely nothing - you didn't think I hadn't even picked up a needle in the past fortnight, did you? I haven't done a lot, but I have been attending my sewing class every week. It's a good stress reducer, it's fun and it forces encourages me to sew for at least 2 hours every week. I have been working on a Grainline Scout in a green/turquoise ditsy floral silk. The fabric is stunning, but sooo slippery. I had hoped to have a finished garment to show you last week. In fact I did finish it on Thursday night ( I squeezed a couple of more hours in last week), tried it on and thought "oh, the hemline looks a bit wonky. But it's probably not that noticeable to non-sewers". However, when I did my "tah-dah" twirl for P he said "the bottom looks a bit weird". "Yes", I said, "it's a high low hem. See?" (Standing sideways and pointing.) "Long at the back, short at the front". "No", he said "the front bit is a bit... squint?" If a non-fashion-interested, non-sewist man can spot it straight away, it needs to be re-done. I have unpicked it. It seems when I cut it, I haven't cut it one layer straight, so it will need some neatening up, before I re-hem it.

4. Small boy
We have been toilet training since July with mixed results. This is not helping the stress levels. He absolutely has the ability to do it, but he can be wilful and has quickly established that if he's not receiving the attention he seeks, weeing himself will go some way to improving that situation. I won't bore you (or put you off your tea) with the details, but it is ongoing. In addition, he has really been working on his tantrum skills, which are coming on a treat! This is just a phase, right?

We have also been sorting out his bedroom, getting rid of some of his outgrown toys and successfully selling his changing table on Gumtree. Yay to some positive stuff!

5. Jam

Last week we went fruit picking. It wasn't the sun filled, beautifully photographed trip featured recently on Coletterie, rather a mud-filled, cloudy but humid day spent in poly tunnels. But we had fun anyway! We picked raspberries, blackcurrants and some weird purple and green runner bean type beans, which disappointingly turned back to green when cooked. We had a few days of raspberries and ice cream for pudding, and then I made jam with the rest.

6 Making sewing plans

I don't really need a sewalong in my life at the moment, as you can tell already, there is quite a lot going on, but I have been lurking the Fall for Cotton Flickr group and despite my best intensions, I have chosen a pattern and bought some fabric. I can't really ignore a sewalong that is tagged as "a vintage sewalong for cotton lovers". It's perfect for me. And after the silk, I need a nice well-behaved cotton to work with. However, I am being realistic. I have another sewing deadline this month which takes precedence (details below). I am not going to allow myself to become stressed by the sewalong. If the blouse becomes too difficult or challenging, or it's not working in anyway, I will leave it. Similarly, I'm not going to be bothered if I don't finish for the end of Sept. I will eventually have a blouse, and I will eventually have sewn a vintage pattern and they are challenges enough for me.

I bought the pattern from Miss Betty's Attic on Etsy a while ago. I won't be making the two piece, just the blouse, due to lack of time and lack of fabric - there simply wasn't enough remaining on the bolt, which was just as well because I couldn't really afford it if there had been: I am making it in Liberty Tana Lawn.

This one to be precise. Isn't it amazing? Having Googled it tonight, I have discovered this is from Liberty's A/W11 collection inspired by musicians and artists and called Liberty Rocks:

"A Boy Dreams Liberty Print was created from original drawings by Blur guitarist and solo musician Graham Coxon. The final design is reminiscent of rock poster artwork of the 1960s, with wood cut line work and the vibe of Esher and Mucha. Coxon is a multi instrumentalist credited with being one of the most gifted guitarists of his generation. He has also created artwork for Blur’s album covers as well as his own."

I love the 60's vibe which will work well with the pattern, which itself is from 1965. I will make view 2, the short sleeve and I think I'll use self covered buttons for the back.

And so to the other sewing deadline of September. I am making a dress for my niece's 2nd birthday at the end of this month. I have chosen a pattern but have yet to find fabric. I won't share this project on the blog until after her birthday as I want it to be a surprise for my sister. I don't think she really reads my blog, but just in case! The birthday dress is clearly higher priority than the Fall for Cotton sewalong but I am hoping I can manage both. I do hope this is not a recipe for disaster.

What about you? What are you sewing and are you joining in with Fall for Cotton? Or even the By Hand London Anna Sewalong?

Distractions

Isn't the online sewing world distracting? I mean this in the most positive way, and I'm only distracted because I let myself be, but... isn't it just?

I really enjoyed Sew Grateful week. The number of different takes on each day's theme was so interesting - is it bad that I didn't write that I am sew grateful for my husband for allowing me to indulge in my sewing obsession, permitting me to take over most our our very limited available storage space in the house, for rushing home from work to allow me to rush out to my class, and for dealing with a tantrum-ing toddler as a result of said class ("No want you Daddy! I want Mummy!")? - and the little bit of exposure and additional (some!) traffic I got was lovely! But it was also great to just be acquainted to so many more blogs, that I hadn't previously discovered! This brings with it more inspiration, more "friends", , more hints and tips and more pretty things to look at. The downside, however, is twofold: 1. Even more time spent glued to the Bloglovin iPhone app, and 2. Even more shiny challenges to inspire but also divert me away from my aims.

I posted here about my plans for my Charlotte (now completed) and my 60's coat, which I am procrastinating on because I am scared. I really, truly want to make this coat before it becomes too warm to wear it (Ha! I live in Edinburgh! I'll probably NEED to wear it in August!), but it just seems so difficult and will take ages and I'm scared the wool will be horrible to work with, like my Charlotte skirt and... oh! I've just spotted something sparkly, new and tempting... 

Initially I thought, that looks like fun, but I don't watch the show, I don't want to go out buying even more patterns, and it's unlikely I'd get much wear out of something that qualified for this challenge anyway. Then, I thought "well maybe it's just any old 50's or 60's item that would fit the era" - which would be a good incentive to start on the coat. But Julia's rules are clear - she wants either a copy of an actual Mad Men garment, or something that is inspired by an actual Mad Men garment. I did flick through her Pinterest board in the hope that I might see a similar shaped coat, but nothing doing. But of course, while you flick through, you inadvertently start re-pinning, and then you start clicking through to the links and doing a bit of browsing and before you know it you've spotted this:

And just as you're packing up the laptop for the night, and getting ready for bed, suddenly you remember you actually own the below pattern, which has a very similar neckline, and before you know it you're digging out patterns at 11pm and then lying in bed, devising plans in your head!

I have not yet confirmed that I am joining the Mad Men Challenge, I need to work this out and to see if I can find some appropriate but not too pricey fabric, but here are my thoughts...

The neckline of the vintage pattern (which, along with the back neckline, is the reason I bought this pattern) would work here. I can't find pictures of the backs of the inspiration photo, so I figure I can do what I want there, as long as it's appropriate. However the vintage pattern is much looser fitting. I did briefly think I could just take it in, but then remembered my Elisalex pattern, which has very little ease in the bodise. The Elisalex also has sleeves which the Joan inspiration dress has, so I figure I could trace the bateau neckline onto the Elisalex bodice and I have two ticks in the box! The Elisalex has a back zipper but the vintage pattern has a side zipper, which I kind of prefer for this dress. Am I simplifying things, or is it as straightforward as cutting the back piece on a fold and then installing an invisible zipper in one of the side seams? How would that work with sleeves?

Now to the skirt - the Elisalex has a tulip shaped quite full skirt, but Joan's looks more straight in shape. I am wondering if I could use either the Charlotte skirt, or this DIY Couture tulip skirt (which is more pencil at the hem) instead. I kind of like the idea of the tulip shaped pencil skirt as this will give me the illusion of Joan's hips, which I do not possess. 

For fabric, I'm thinking a cotton with a slight stretch and a slight sheen would be good. I'll go floral if I can, but am not too bothered. This would definitely be an interpretation rather than a copy!

I have only once tried to Frankenstein 2 patterns, which was really just a matter of adjusting the sleeve length and shape, and I managed to do something wrong with the grain then, meaning my seams twisted. So I'm aware I'm probably punching above my weight with this idea, but hey it'll be development! It'll stretch me! And I'll hopefully learn something new along the way (even if it's what not to do).

What are your thoughts? Is this doable? Any tips, suggestions or advise? Or should I just forget it and crack on with the coat?