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?

McCall 3823: The Perfect Staple Dress

I'm absolutely in love with the design of this dress. And the plain navy fabric means this will be a staple in my 1940s wardrobe.

This dress was made using McCall 3823, a pattern from the year 1940. I made an exact copy of view B on the pattern envelope in navy blue.

The dress features a lovely shaped neckline (almost a heart shape but a small one) and a button down bodice. Both the bodice and the skirt are pleated to match each other. This dress has 3/4 length sleeves --or bracelet sleeves as the pattern calls them.

I made this dress from a very lightweight wool that I picked up on holiday in Florence many moons ago. It's so lightweight that it's silky and buttery smooth and a dream to work with. 

The fabric held the pleats beautifully. I first pinned down the bodice pleats and sewed them.

The back has pleats as well and I just love having a plain yoke and then having the pleats. The skirt matches this design as the top part of the skirt is smooth and then it goes into an inset skirt piece with the pleats.

Here is the bodice top coming together:

Sewing the yoke to the pleated section using a lapped seam takes some slow sewing but the fabric helped immensely as it was easy to iron in place prior to sewing:

Yay!!! I paired the dress with some light pink details -- a small light pink belt, vintage navy gloves with little light pink flowers on them and some light pink/nude1940s style shoes from Bait Footwear.

We took these photos in Falkland,-- a small village in the Kingdom of Fife area of Scotland. Some of you may recall that when I first moved to Scotland, I lived for a short time in this picturesque village.

It was so lovely being back. This village is such a gem. It has some incredibly nature walks, a historic palace, cobblestone streets and a proper village square and lots of little nooks and crannies that are so beautiful. And it's small--only about 1,200 residents.

The amazing Darja Bilyk and a lovely friend of mine took these photos and I'm so in love with them. She captured the beauty and mystery of Falkland.

I also had my dear friend Ariana from Vanity Thrills style my hair before this shoot--I just love her 1940s styles: 

This is right on the corner where Vintage Quine is--a lovely vintage store in Falkland. 

This is Falkland Palace in the background...where Mary Queen of Scots and her parents would come for their summer holidays:

Yay! I can't wait to try different ways of styling this dress. 

I might also make another version in a lighter colour so that the details really stand out. What colour do you think I should make?

McCall 3658: The Stairway to Heaven Dress

Finally getting around to blogging about this dream dress pattern.

My creative process always starts with the fabric--never with the pattern. I find a fabric I love and then decide which pattern matches it best. This allows me to sew most frequently from my stash and gives me lots of creative freedom to play around with different vintage patterns and decades.  So when I purchased this AMAZING and lush Liberty of London print fabric, I knew instantly that I wanted a pattern that would show it off. I only purchased about a meter and a half so I knew it would have to be part of either a dress or made into separates. I've been less into separates lately and more focused on building my dress and suit wardrobe.

Enter McCall 3658, the most perfect pattern for showing off a fabulous print! The bodice of this dress is quite simple with a button down shirt front. The really unique detail is that there is a matching jacket but the jacket uses part of the bodice fabric ATTACHED at the back to the jacket to form the bow. It's really quite unique! You can see it in the line drawings on the pattern cover:

I made the rest of the dress--the skirt and the jacket from a great sturdy purple gabardine fabric:

I really adore the look of the jacket with the bow:

And because the bow is sewn onto the jacket back, it sits perfectly under the edges of the jacket, I really love that design feature. You can also see the vintage-like buttons that I found that match the olive green pattern in the fabric and blend in a bit more than a purple button might:



I can also wear the dress without the jacket and love how it looks like separates but isn't:




It's funny how most of my fabrics in my stash are already 'destined' for certain patterns...I have it all in my mind. So when I pick up the fabric say three years after I bought it, I know it's 'time' to match it with the pattern that I always had in mind for it. This is such the case with this fabric and I'm so happy to get to sew it to it's vintage pattern match!

We took these photos at a local garden just outside of Edinburgh--and we were the only ones there!  It was very beautiful! Thank you to my dear friend Darja for the taking these photos.

What about you? Do you start with the fabric? Or does your creative process start with the pattern? Or do you start by looking at inspiration pictures?

McCall 3872: The 'Mr Sandman Pyjamas'

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream..... the dream of making these lush velvet 1940s pyjamas. Thank you very much.

The idea for this project came when my friend Rachael decided to host a vintage pyjama party at her vintage store, Carnivale Vintage. I was so excited as I have been wanting to to make some vintage styled pyjamas to match one of the 1940s bed jackets that I bought from her. The peach bed jacket has amazing red velvet buttons and collar.

So enter McCall 3872, a 1940 pattern that I've been wanting to make for some time. I decided the cropped top version B might be perfect for a bed jacket.

I had originally wanted to sew with silk velvet but the fabric store didn't have any shades to match my bed jacket. BUT I did find some stretchy velvet which did. I've never sewn with this type of fabric but it was such a perfect match I had to get it!

The trickiest part was by far the bodice. The interesting thing about this bodice top is that there are NO closures. It pulls over your head. Also the bow at the bottom is mostly for decoration.  The pieces themselves were relatively easy to sew --the fitting is a bit tricky with stretchy velvet. Already, I'm thinking I might need to add either 1) some elastic in the bottom bit OR 2) another dart or pleat to the back because I think over time, this will definitely stretch because of the fabric I've used. What would you recommend?

The trousers were fairly straightforward--though a ton of fabric. But they are basically gathered to the waistband. I used some basic but soft interfacing for the waistband --as I do want to sleep in this!

The fabric was much easier to sew with than imagined. My feed dogs on the sewing machine had no problem and I didn't have to use a special needle.

YAY! Super happy with how it turned out (minus the need to address potential stretching in the bodice to avoid under boob! hahaha)

I think it's also interesting that the trousers close with a button AND zipper at the back! Ladies weren't kidding about dressing for bed!  It's actually very comfortable.  I did a feature over on my instagram about these type of pyjamas that could also actually be worn outside (with a jacket/coat if needed) that were popular in 1940 because of the war and the need to be prepared to go to the bomb shelter at any time of night. It basically meant you had to be presentable to the public even in your loungewear. Apparently Churchill himself had a pair of velvet 'lounging' pyjamas made for the likelihood of having to go the the air raid shelter!

I'm so happy to get to take some very vintage looking pictures with these PJs. These photos were taken by Nicola in her vintage bedroom set. I just love them!

This is part of my 1940 McCall project--where I attempt to find and sew all the patterns produced by the McCall pattern company from the year 1940. You can follow my attempts on this page. I'll be updating this soon with all my projects! YAY!

McCall 3601 'The Mulberry Hill Dress'

This may be my FAVOURITE 1940 McCall make of 2019. This pattern has turned into the perfect 1940s day dress!

Perhaps it's the fabric or maybe it's the autumnal/winter brown but with a splash of colour? Or maybe it's the tailored shirtwaist design?



I used McCall 3601, which has quite an interesting bodice design. There's these little pocket type things on a somewhat princess seam. The pattern also features a four panelled skirt and my favourite--pleated sleeve caps!!

The bodice shape is actually quite slimming. It fits really well but I probably could have done a minor  Full Bust Adjustments (FBA) to get rid of that horizontal crease on the bust line.  But I'm actually ok with it because you can't really tell it's there with the fabric print unless it's a close-up!

I was super excited to find this fabric as it reminded me so much of a very similar fabric I saw in one of my 1940 McCall's magazines! I was actually holding out to use the fabric with this exact pattern but I still haven't found that pattern and I really wanted to use the fabric!

I even had the most perfect buttons in my stash--I got these many years ago on a shopping trip with Mena from Make This Look to one of her favourite haunts!

My friend and stunning photographer, Darja Bilyk, took these photos at the Edinburgh Botanics Garden. All of nature seemed to match the colours of the dress! It was magical!

They had set up the park for a holidays light show in the evenings--so we conveniently used the Christmas props! Love it!

The fabric I used is a mid-weight dress cotton --which is nice for this time of the year and holds the lines of this more tailored dress well including the shirtwaist!

And I just love the pleated sleeve cap detail. One of my favourite fashion trends from the late 30s/early 40s! I actually like this sleeve detail much better than gathered sleeve caps (and it's much easier to sew too)!

My other lovely friend, Ariana, put my hair up into a nice 1940s set that lasted for days!

I'm wondering if I should make a matching belt for this dress or whether you think it's fine without? I opted for without as I don't know if it would show up--but maybe it would look nice? What do you think?

YAY for classic shirtwaist dresses. There's some blue in this fabric as well--so I think I can play with that and wear this year round, even in springtime!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and best wishes for a 2020 filled with sewing, vintage fashion or all the things you love!