Thursday, November 26, 2009

Changing my mind...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I was very excited to take today off of work--especially after all the travel I have been doing for work.  And I woke up today feeling sick....arrrrggghhh!  So annoying!  Well, I did manage to use part of the day on sewing related projects.

First, I am reassessing my next project.  After I relooked at the instructions for the 1930's silk teal dress I want to make, I recoiled in horror:


Wow, no step by step guidelines....they really did expect a certain level of existing knowledge related to dressmaking in the 1930's!!!  So, I unearthed another project for a blouse that says 'easily made'.  It is also an unprinted patttern but it is from the 1940's.  I want to make the one on the right, view 2A (still deciding if I want the pocket or not):

 

The directions are much more manageable:


I am making it from a lovely fabric I bought on the Oregon Coast about two years ago--I wish I had gotten more of it!

You can see I am just starting to mark the tucks that are on the bottom front of the blouse.  Since this is an unmarked pattern, there are only small circles cut out in the pattern that tell you where tucks, darts, seams, etc match up or should be put.  The first thing you have to do is mark all of those on the fabric.  My vintage dressmaking book shows how to make tailor's tacks:


That leaves little pieces of thread in the spots that are to be marked for tucks or darts.  You can see the little pieces of thread in the fabric I am using:


I'll see how much I can get done on this today--I have a feeling I will be mostly marking and basting (appropriately on Thanksgiving!!).  Basting is running a seam that has really long stitches first so you can see how it looks and adjust without having to rip out really tight seams.  When you are happy with seam, then you can do the proper tighter seam and just take out the basting.  I just love the term :-)
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4 comments

  1. Just checking out your blog! Very excited about your projects. Particularly liking this blouse. I just can't get enough of gathers at the shoulder. They are so fab. Looking forward to seeing your finished version.

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  2. Thanks Stephanie!! I am really excited to do the gathers (first time)!

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  3. I made a dress that had gathers at the shoulders like that, and I aboslutely adore how it fits. I now scoop up any pattern I see that has those gathers. I especially love this shirt. (Oooh! Just noticed the size--I'm loving that even more!)

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  4. Thanks Mary! This will be my first time doing gathers...so I am very excited!

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I read each and every comment--thank you so much!

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