The Sisterhood of the Traveling Notions

I just got the most lovely package in the mail all the way from Australia from Amanda over at the Sewing Circle:

There was a group of us on the Sewing Circle that were so inspired by the Common Thread Project.  For those who may not have seen it, Mena over at Sew Weekly started the Common Thread Project by sending 5 yards of lace to 8 amazing seamstresses to see how they used it!  Check out their projects: there is the totally adorable pajamas made by Mena, the wonderful and awe-inspiring 1930's blouse made by Lauren, the awesome secretary blouse made by Sarai, the elegant and romantic 1918 blouse made by Casey, the va-va-voom beautiful dress made by Sunni, the fun and sunny dress made by Tasia, and the feminine and beautiful 1940's dress made by Charlotte.

So a few of us wanted in on the fun when Kat who blogs over at Macskakat had the lovely idea of organising our own travelling notions swap!  Anyone who wanted to participate just sent Kat their address and she randomly selected someone for each of us to send a packet full of notions to!  It was SO MUCH FUN!  It's really nice receiving something in the mail from across the world!  Our project now is to incorporate these new notions into our upcoming projects and document it!

Well, Amanda went beyond that and sent me two bonus goodies: the 1940's home notes magazine and this lovely pattern:

Isn't that so beautiful!  Amanda wrote a sweet letter to accompany the package that really touched my heart! Thanks so much Amanda!!

Oh and check out these buttons...I LOVE these tiny thistle buttons:

If you haven't already, definitely check out the Sewing Circle. It's so much fun and allows for much more interaction with fellow sewers than blogging usually allows.

Speaking of interaction, I'm also gearing up for the biggest UK sewing blogger meet-up that will be in London in the middle of May.  A big group from the Sewing Circle (from around the UK) will be meeting and going to the V&A exhibit AND we are planning to meet up with Karen from Did you Make That and more sewing bloggers for a The Goldhawk Road Fabric Fandango!  Ack! So much excitement!  No idea how many of us there will be but it will be big!  Plus, the ladies from the Sewing Circle are all planning on making outfits for the meet-up in the colours of red, white and blue (not necessarily all three together) for the occasion.  These are definitely my kind of people--we are going to have sooooo much fun! 

Lastly, a tiny (and I mean tiny because this picture is small! haha) sneak peek into what I've been working on this week for the 'Television' challenge over at the Sew Weekly.  I've coincided this week's Sew Weekly challenge with filling the gap for 1932 in my Sewing Through the Decades goal:

And that's the back of a dress (I know it might look like something else but I'm not that creative or daring, yet)!  :)

Mission McCall Mondays

I have a big goal.  I absolutely love Vintage Pattern Wiki--it's heaven for anyone who loves patterns.  I've been wanting to see if I can update the Wiki so that it's complete for all McCall patterns from mid 1936-1940! Crazy eh?  I have a few source documents and I figure between my own source pictures, the vintage pattern sellers that regularly contribute to the Vintage Pattern Wiki and all of my readers that we might be able to come up with the images for all of these patterns?  How AMAZING would that be?  Freely accessible to everyone!

So that's my goal and the start of a new feature on my blog called 'Mission McCall Mondays'.  It's going to take a couple of years.  I'm planning to tackle about 10 patterns a week.  I've decided to randomly start with McCall pattern numbers 9000 and go to 4000 (it skips numbers 1000-2999 I believe) AND kaumagraph transfer patterns from numbers 500 to 900.  I'll upload the ten patterns each week to the Vintage Pattern Wiki and see if we can get a complete pattern listing for these years!

Whose in?  There are likely to be many patterns I will be missing.  If you have a picture of the pattern (from a McCall magazine or Style News or other magazine) or if you have the pattern cover, either upload it into Vintage Pattern Wiki or send me the photo and I'll upload it for you!  I'll keep a running list of the patterns that I'm missing.  Even if you see it for sale, let me know and I can contact the seller to see if we can upload the image into the Vintage Pattern Wiki!  Oh, I'm super excited!

So this week's patterns are McCall Kaumagraph Transfer Patterns #500-510.  Here's what I was able to pull together:

This is McCall 500 a nightgown for girls in sizes 6-14.  It has an adorable flower to embroider on the neck yoke.  Here's a close-up of the pattern:

McCall 501 is also a little girl's pajamas this time in a top/bottom ensemble:

Here's a close-up.  I love how it is almost a mirror image of McCall 500!

 

The next pattern is already in the Vintage Pattern Wiki and it's McCall 504:

I absolutely adore this apron! The embroidered pockets almost look like tulips!!

Next up is McCall 506, which is also an apron.  This time with applique trim:

Here's a close-up.  I'm loving the cherry print border and the ruffled waist and pleats!

That's all the ones I have for this week.  I'm missing McCall 502, 503, 505, 507, 508, 509 & 510. I think these are all from 1936.  Do you have any of these patterns?  OR the images?  If so, and you'd like to add them to the Vintage Pattern Wiki, just email a picture to me at: myhappysewingplace[at]googlemail[dot]com.

Up next week is McCall 9000-9010!

My 1944 'Almost Easter' Dress

This week's theme over at the Sew Weekly was drawing inspiration from a childhood photo to recreate an outfit.

This is the photo I chose:

Heeheehee.... I'm totally glammed up! Check out those white gloves! And matching headband! I love that funny look on my face!! 


I wanted to capture the dressed-up Easter feeling of the photo above.  I particularly wanted something that had an interesting sleeve detail (check out those puffed sleeves in my childhood photo!), something light pink and something I could wear with lovely white gloves.

McCall 5676 from 1944 fit the bill perfectly:

 I used version A as my guide and did it up without the lace trim and without pockets.  I was originally going to do version B's sleeves but ended up going with A (to use some of the fabric details).

I've been eyeing the broderie anglaise at the local fabric shop for awhile.  It's so beautiful and I love fabric with a border.  I was, however, concerned that it was so sheer.  I also don't tend to wear pastels, so I wasn't sure how it would work but when Mena announced the theme for this week, I decided to go for it!

It was really fun trying to piece it all together and to use bits of the broderie anglaise for different elements of the dress.

 I used the scallop of the broderie anglaise for the hem and the sleeves of the dress.  This was very nice as it meant I didn't have to hem either of them!!  Of course the downside was matching up the pattern and also figuring out how much length I needed for the dress and translating that into how I made up the skirt (i.e. taking up more into the waist in front than in the back for my bum which affects the length of the dress!)

 

I also made self-covered buttons with the three-leaf clover design that was in the border of the fabric.  I really like how they came out!

Happy almost Easter everyone!

Giveaway winner AND my 1941 apron

Thanks everyone for such nice comments about the EvaDress competition!  It's so much fun to share good news with all of you!

Thanks also to everyone who entered the giveaway...I wish I could give each and every one of you the pattern of your choice (as I would love to see them all made up!)

So without further ado...onto the winner...

The winner of the giveaway is Seersucker Sally!  YAY! Congrats! If you're not already following Seersucker Sally's blog, you really must go and have a look! She made the loveliest blue swing dress as part of Casey's swing dress sew-along.  Congrats--can't wait to see what you make up with the EvaDress pattern.  Just send me an email (myhappysewingplace[at]googlemail[dot]com) and we'll get it all sorted!

I also finished my 1941 apron!!  I made it from a lovely polka dot cotton fabric:

It's from McCall 917 and I must say, I really adore this pattern.  Everything from the ruffled sleeves to the adorable pockets, to the t-bar and bow back!

Here's a photo of the bow in the back!

Instead of just narrowly hemming the bow in the back, I faced it with some black linen material (actually the same black linen material used to make the Burda dress I am wearing underneath the apron--pictures of that coming soon--I want to take some photos of the dress outside too!)  I did this because the back side of this polka dot material is white and I knew parts of the back side of the bow would show once it was all tied up and I thought it would look much better with the black background (I would have used the polka dot material--but I didn't have enough!)

Here's a picture of the arm ruffle....I did the same thing with the arm ruffles because I knew the underside would show.  The instructions said to just hem the edges of the arm ruffle, but like the back bow, I wanted a more 'finished' look.  I didn't want my hems and the backside of the material to show!  So I also faced the shoulder ruffles.

I also really adore the pockets on this apron, which have their very own ruffles:

 
Can I invite you in for a cup of tea?  These apron definitely makes me want to host a large dinner party or bake a loaf of bread....

Or whip up a souffle:

Or drink some wine! HA! That's my favorite part of cooking anyways ;-)

Cheers everyone!  Hope your week is off to a great start!!

The best gift ever for a vintage fashion lover...

Earlier this month my long anticipated birthday present from my parents arrived (even though my birthday was in January, it took awhile shipping from the States).

They got me a 1940's Montgomery Ward's catalogue and get this, it has the fabric samples in it!!!!  After ooohing and ahhing...I still can't put it down!

It doesn't have a year written on it but by looking at the styles and this inside ad, I'm guessing it's from around 1943:

Here are a few of my favorite outfits and their corresponding fabrics:

This suit is made from Julliard's 100% Virgin Wool.  The wool is amazingly thin and supple:

I've seen lots of similar patterns to this spring suit-style dress but with the black and white photo is hard to imagine how colorful this really is:

These are the fabric samples for the skirt....I am loving the vibrancy of the color in these rayon crepes.  I can't decide which is my favorite....

These dresses are made out of linen-look rayon fabrics:

Stripes! I love this striped spring suit!

ackkk....I really want this fabric! I can never find the perfect striped fabric for the 1940's look at my local fabric store...

This is one of my favorite dresses in the entire catalogue:

And here's an up-close picture of the amazingly beautiful rayon crepe!

My second favorite print from the entire catalogue:

Love, love, love this fabric!  I think the navy and white one is my favorite!

I am definitely in heaven!  I would so love to make one of these dresses with similar fabric!   Which is your favorite?

Also, just a heads up that there is a whole month of LOVELY pincushion giveaways at the Sew Weekly.  Check out this cutie--today's giveaway:

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway for the EvaDress pattern of your choice!  Go to this page and leave a comment!  The giveaway closes tomorrow (Thursday) at midnight EST!

Aprons, Aprons, Aprons

Everywhere I look there are aprons.  Who knew that such a specific utility item could have so many interesting variations?  Here are a few apron scans I thought you would enjoy:

This is a McCall apron pattern from 1940.  Such a cute rick-rack planter pocket!  I have this pattern and hope to make it up sometime in the near future.

This is also a McCall pattern, this time from 1941.  I really like the way the apron folds up to look like a necktie.  I see this pattern all the time and EvaDress also has a reproduction of this pattern.

I've been seeing loads of really neat large flower petal design aprons from 1950's on ebay.  The one above is from the Pattern Peddler.  I would love to make one of these aprons one day!

This pattern is from 1947 and like the ones above has a neat design and features an applique as well as heart shapes in the pattern.  This is also from the pattern peddler but from their etsy shop.

I love 1940's aprons particularly.  For this week's challenge I'll be working with McCall 917 from 1941:

I'm going to forgo the embroidery (though I would love to make one up with embroidery at some point in the future).  Which leads me to a question for all of you.  How do you preserve iron-on embroidery sheets?  Can you use them more than once?  Do you transfer them to something else?  Thoughts on this would be great!

What's on the sewing table...

I've got a few projects going at the moment.  So here's a sneaky peak at what's on the sewing table (or probably more precisely strewn across the sewing room..)

One is the Unfinish Object (UFO) 1930's DuBarry dress that you've all managed to get me really excited about again!

This next week's theme over at the Sew Weekly is Kiss the Cook.  Oh yes! We'll be making aprons this week.  I'm super excited to make up a 40's styled apron with some great polka dot fabric I got recently:

This week's challenge is two-fold: To make our own aprons pop, we'll also be making this BurdaStyle dress in black.

 Now, I gotta get cooking on this!  What are you working on this week?

Fabric Giveaway Winner

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last Sew Weekly challenge outfit!  It was fun to read which challenges you've found the most fun!

I'm very happy to say that I've randomly selected the winner of approximately 3 yards of this lightweight pinwale corduroy fabric in a deep purple.

And the winner is.....

Amy from Diana and Me!  Amy wrote:
Totally groovy Debi... I love that you went full-on with both poncho and headband in the middle of Edinburgh!

My favourite theme so far is "And the winner is..." I am so often inspired by the costumes in films - sometimes it distracts me from the storyline. It was fun to see everyone's taste in films as well as fabrics! 

Do check out Amy's blog--she's got a beautiful quilt she's working on at the moment as well as having finished one of my favorite skirts I've seen so far, which includes absolutely gorgeous fabric with magnolia flowers!

Amy, email me with your postal details (myhappysewingplace[at]googlemail[dot]com).  Can't wait to see what you make with the fabric!


Don't forget I've got another fabulous giveaway going on for an EvaDress pattern (winner's choice).  Enter by commenting on this post before midnight (EST) on April 7th (that's this next Thursday).


Happy April everyone!