McCall 3556: The 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' Dress

This magical dress has all my favourite things: nice colours, neat border print, 1940s ruching and flowy design.

I made this dress earlier this year (catching up on my blogging) using McCall 3556: 

I bought this fabric on a recent trip to Malaysia. The fabric stores had the BEST border print dress fabrics and I was immediately drawn to this colourway:

I decided to use some of the border print on the bodice and just love the effect of the colours!

Overall, I really love the design of the pattern. Though I think the bodice ruching would only work well with a somewhat lightweight drapy fabric--which is what I ended up using. The only think I might change in future iterations is to bring the waist up just a bit on the dress. Though I might make a belt to match.

We took these photos in the glasshouse at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and I love how it looks like a tropical hideaway: 

And of course, I'm wearing matching What Katie Did purple seamed stockings and grey Bait Footwear shoes. I also found a fantastic matching flower for my hair!

I can't wait to travel to tropical destinations again! It's been so weird not to travel at all this year. But the silver lining was being able to discover more of my backyard and see things locally.

What about you? Where's the first place you want to travel to when you can?

Simplicity 3364: Blue Springtime Blouse

Here's a gem of blouse. Made from vintage fabric and a 1940 pattern.

Instead of my usual 1940 McCall pattern, I broke out and tried a McCall competitor from the same year. Enter Simplicity 3365 also from the year 1940. It's a very interesting design. If you look closely the short sleeve blouse has these interesting tucks on the sleeve which give a great puffed shape. There's an overlapped seam onto gathers with a button down front bodice.

I've had this vintage fabric in my stash for quite some time. It's a cold rayon and absolutely gorgeous. I don't remember where I got it from but I do remember wanting to make it into a dress and I was preparing to cut out, I noticed that there were several stains on the fabric and right in the middle! So I turned to thinking about using the non-damaged parts of the fabric to make a blouse!

And I'm so glad I did! It's such a pretty blue and I love the pattern and feel of the crepe fabric.

It goes absolutely perfectly with my 1940 McCall suit make--which is probably one of my favourite makes in my wardrobe.  So now I can say this entire outfit is made from patterns from the year 1940!

Overall, the blouse itself was straightforward to make. The sleeves were a bit interesting as I had never done tucks before like that on the sleeves. And I must say they are a bit tricky to iron.

I wish I had taken more progress photos to show you but I was just so enamoured by the fabric and the pattern that I totally forgot!

I found some small buttons that are blue on the outside and white in the middle as I really struggled with buttons that wouldn't distract from the print. Hopefully I found some that blend in well! I like them!

It's funny because I would say that I make 80% dresses and then 20% other things--as I tend to not wear a lot of separates. But I forget how nice making blouses and skirts can be! Maybe I should try making some more for a more mix n' match wardrobe! What about you? What do you mostly sew?

Ph: top by Sally Sparrow Photography, bottom by Tigz Rice
MUAH: top by Bethany Jane Davies and bottom by Miss Honey Bare
shoes: Bait Footwear

Butterick 6286: The Blade Runner Suit

Is this pattern testing whether I'm a replicant? Delighted to showcase my suit inspired by Rachael from the Neo-noir movie 'Bladerunner'.

I'm a big fan of all types of film noir and also Neo-noir or more recent movies that play with the film noir styles.
xx

One of my favourite Neo-noirs is Blade Runner...produced in the mid 1980s (with the 1980s love of the big shoulder just like the 1940s), the movie is set in the fictional time of 2019!  I just fell in love with Rachael's suit.  It's an amazing grey colour-block that suits the moody nature of the film.

So when 2019 rolled around, I knew I had to make a nod to this film classic with my own rendition of Rachael's colour-blocked suit.

Enter Butterick 6286, a reproduction pattern from the year 1944.

View B allows for colour-blocked suit and I knew it would be perfect for my Rachael suit.  So I found three different colours of grey wool that I thought worked well together.

I just came across this photo of my dear little Echo kitty when I was going back through my pictures. Here she is helping me cut out this fabric last January (2019). She unfortunately passed away in May but I now feel like this suit is especially blessed! Maybe it will be my good luck suit?

I put the lighter grey wool on the top as in the inspiration suit and used the darkest grey the bottom of the jacket and for the skirt.

The skirt was really simple and quick--it's a great skirt pattern to have.  The jacket sections came together quite easily. I kind of wish I had colour blocked the sleeves as well but that may have been too much!

The pattern was pretty straight forward EXCEPT for the jacket collar. Maybe it's because I've used so many vintage patterns but I sometimes find the newer (even repro patterns a bit confusing). I finally got it in the end but it required a bit of head scratching to begin with.

I decided the jacket needed some serious shoulder pads. Like the ones in the movie to help lift the shoulders.  There are two things I hate doing sewing-wise that this jacket entails (but that I didn't do..hahaha).  Number one is lining. I hate lining. With a passion. I will almost always leave something unlined OR if it's a coat, I'll have a go but with serious thoughts of grrrrr...I hate this. hahaha. The second thing I hate doing is making shoulder pads (though I hate this less than doing linings).

So instead of making my own shoulder pads, I bought some FABULOUS ones from MacCulloch and Wallis, a haberdashery in London. Check out these babies (which you can also get online):

Shoulder pads make all the difference, even then I could have probably brought the coat shoulders in by a smidgeon.

Overall, really pleased with the suit. Now I want to make a matching 1940s hat! I also have quite a bit of the dark grey fabric left. Trying to think if either a pair of trousers or an overcoat would be good (need to check how much of this fabric I actually have!)--even a pleated skirt would be nice.

Enjoyed playing with the Blade Runner props! haha. Living my Rachael cosplay dreams! teehee.  Are there any movies that you want to recreate the clothes from?

Photography: Alt Studio UK

MUAH: @evka.allen

The 'Economy Design Feedsack Blouse'

I'm so happy to share another recently finished sewing project that has been in the project pile for a couple of years!!

Meet my new favourite 1940s blouse pattern from Economy Design:

I've always enjoyed the pattern illustrations on these British patterns.  There is something about the drawings that are so rich in colour. And if you notice on the bottom left hand corner of this pattern it says it only needs 1 years of the narrowest vintage fabric (36").

Which made it the perfect pattern for this original 1940s feedsack fabric. There is an amazing history to feedsack fabrics ––which is basically that this fabric was actually a sack of mill/oats/grains at the outset of WWII. Amazing condition!!  When I got the fabric at an antique mall in Vancouver, WA, it was actually shaped like a sack with sections stitched together.  There is a great tracking link over at Collectors Weekly to find feedsack fabric on eBay (uh oh, I think I may become addicted! I just love the designs and history!!!)  So it's fairly safe to say that this is indeed early 1940s fabric.

There are a couple of amazing design features on this blouse that mean it can also use fairly minimal fabric.  What I love most is the scalloped collar:

How adorable is a scalloped collar?  I just love the effect--it's a bit of a every so slightly more feminine look than a peter pan collar.

The other design feature that is unique is the fake button placket down the front.  This is actually a slip over the head blouse. This also saves fabric and is why there is a slit at the throat that is then closed with a hook and eye just under the collar.  Absolutely brilliant construction.

I'm wearing the blouse with a pair of reproduction 1940s trousers from Miss Candyfloss which features a side closure with lots of matching buttons going up the side.  Love these trousers (though I will definitely also wear this with my me-made trousers from my tried-n-true (TNT) Simplicity 1941 reproduction trouser pattern (see the ones I've made here).

I made few alterations to the pattern except to make the bodice length a bit longer than called for in the pattern.

I do love the small details on this blouse including the bodice front detail of the overlapped seam over the small gathers.  This provides a great fit as well with the high neckline!

The back is very straight, no gathers or specific details but just a nice straight line:

These amazing photos were taken by @dashiee (instagram)--an amazing local photographer in Edinburgh at this small lane called 'Circus Lane'--it's so picturesque and seems very much like it hasn't changed over time. 

My hair was also done by the amazing Ariana at Vanity Thrills.  I just adore a mid-centre part a la Hedy Lamarr!!

I'm so, so happy with this 1940s blouse and I'm now on the lookout for more Economy Design patterns (don't worry--I'm still ultimately a 1940 McCall girl :)

Simplicity Reproduction Pattern 8050 from 1941

Well, well, well...lookey here.  Simplicity has just reissued one of their vintage patterns:

I was super happy to see this since I have sewn up this vintage pattern and I am VERY curious about what changes they make when they re-release the vintage patterns.  Here's my version called the 'Chocolate and Wine' Dress:

I opted for version 1, though I had originally thought about version 2 until I encountered the diabolical fabric loops for the teeny buttons which quickly prompted version 1 which closes with a zipper!

Here is the original pattern, which is Simplicity 3948 which I won in a giveaway from House of Pinheiro:

This is a great pattern and the options to mix it up (for example with a 'fauxlero' look) are plenty.  I can't wait to grab one of the reissued patterns to look at it side-by-side with Simplicity 3948!

Simplicity 3688: TNT 1941 Trousers

One of the first things I did when I got back to sewing was visit my TNT (tried n' true) pattern, Simplicity 3688.  I love this high-waisted trousers reissued pattern (originally from 1941).

I love this pattern so much that I've already made four different versions: one in navy blue, one in a checkered brown tweed, another in dark green and one in black:

For this version, I made it out of Italian grey wool flannel fabric from Bacci Fabrics.  This fabric is AMAZING.  It is so soft and easy to sew.

Very happy to have another staple pair of trousers in my wardrobe!  Any other recommendations on good TNT patterns?