Monday, August 6, 2007

Another Sewing Contest


For my birthday last month, my good friend Ursula gave me a vintage pattern. There was no date printed on it, but the general consensus was that it was from the 1950’s. My mother remembers sewing a similar housecoat for her sister around that time and a check of pattern dating sites listed 1950 too. Which means the pattern is as old as I am. The outside envelope was starting to deteriorate but the inside pattern pieces were as good as new. Sort of like me, I hope. The present motivated me to search out all my vintage patterns. They were all over, in the attic and the basement. I know, I know, not great environmental conditions for archiving printed paper. Then I saw that there was a Vintage sewing contest over at http://www.patternreview.com/. To be eligible for the prizes, you must sew one garment from a vintage pattern or reprint of vintage pattern from 1920 to 1982. Yes, I signed up for the contest. It is just one garment, not a whole SWAP. But can I pick just one pattern? It is really tough. The time frame meant that the patterns I sewed in high school, in the early 70’s, are eligible. I still have them. Hipster elephant bell bottom pants, smocky tops by Kenzo and Ann Tice. I am tempted to make the bell-bottoms to give my kids a laugh. I will need platform shoes to complete the look. But from what I see in the magazine, platform shoes are coming back. Seriously, the patterns on my short list are....
One 1960 style dress. I have the perfect poly blend double-knit from a www.fabricmartfabrics.com free bundle. (I retrieved it from the give away pile). A 1940’s Vogue evening dress reprint from Eva Dress in olive lace and matching solid. A pattern, no name or date, of the type purchased through newspaper. And a 1920’s McCall’s pattern for a flapper type dress. Decisions, Decision. Oh yeah, and I order a bunch more vintage patterns from Etsy, which seems to have the best prices. This contest will be a learning experience in altering/resizing a pattern to fit me. None of these patterns match my measurements.

3 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make. I'm probably going to join, too.

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  2. ooh, I wish I still had my patterns from my high school sewing days (also the 70s)! but I was a size 6 then and it didn't occur to me until too late that I might be able (and want) to resize them. seeing them sometimes on ebay almost feels like finding an old friend.

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  3. I signed up for the contest also. I have a tendency to sign up and then don't complete or can't in the end.

    Just wanted to say I love 9069 pattern. Good luck on the contest.

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