Meet-ups are fun!

In the last week, I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet up with four wonderful women on two separate occasions!

First, I met up with Solvi who blogs at delfinelise and Kristen from Kristenmakes.  Kristen and I both live in Edinburgh and Solvi and Anders came over from Sweden.  We had such a lovely time!!  We went to W. Anderson's & Sons the amazing vintage store in Edinburgh:

Here we are walking to the store after having spent some time having tea/coffee in a local cafe:

And then we visited a charity shop that was dedicated completely to vintage clothes and items.  Here we are all kneeling around a suitcase full of vintage patterns (mostly 60's and 70's).  I absolutely love this photo!!!

And then I had the most amazing day with Sofia and Jen:

Sofia is an amazing seamstress, which must be a family trait because she just so happens to be Tasia the Sewaholic's sister.  Sofia and Jen were touring around Europe and were in Scotland for a couple of days and I was super happy to be able to show them around one of my favourite towns--St. Andrews!

One of the funny signs we passed was for this coffee shop:

As you may know, St. Andrews is where Prince William and Kate met.  The town is really playing it up for the Royal Wedding and it was loads of fun to see all the decorations and funny signs!

In addition to visit the University of St. Andrews, getting ice cream and walking along the coast and visiting the ruined cathedral, we also climbed up to the top of St. Rule (an old part  of the ruined cathedral) for some fabulous views around St. Andrews!

I had SO MUCH fun with with you ladies!! Thank you!!

My Burdastyle dress...

As promised, here are some photos of the Burdastyle dress I made.  I used Burda 02/2011 #101 for the pattern.

This was my first time sewing a Burda pattern.  I did struggle a bit with the different style of instructions.  I've been getting Burda magazines for awhile (I don't have a subscription but I buy them from the newstand when I can find them) so I really want to learn how to make their patterns.  This was a good first try.  The dress was somewhat difficult to fit in the bodice.  I think this may be because I have fairly narrow shoulders.  Despite fitting it in the bust area, the shoulders and the back, there was still a bit of gaping in the bust area.  I decided one way to remedy this (without making a new dress) and to add an interesting feature would be to do piping in the same polka dot fabric as my apron.

 

The cord I used was the only thing we had around the house and that was a cord used to wrap presents.  I put the cord in the polka dot fabric and wrapped it up and sewed it up as piping to add to the neckline and armholes of the dress.  I really like how it turned out. 

Here's a close-up of the piping on the sleeve and neckline:

Here's some outside photos:

I know it's cheesy but I absolutely love the red telephone booths!

I ended up finding some perfect red polka dot ribbon at Edinburgh Fabrics that matches the piping perfectly:

I wore this dress out to celebrate David's birthday last Friday! We went to a wonderful restaurant, had a lovely dinner and champagne!

Mission McCall Mondays: 9000-9020

This week's Mission McCall covers pattern numbers 9000-9020.  My goal is to update the Vintage Pattern Wiki so that it's complete for all McCall patterns from mid 1936-1940.  I'm covering 20 patterns this week because I don't have many of the images.  If you have any source images for any of these patterns, email them to me and I'll add them to the Vintage Pattern Wiki!

So here's what I have for McCall 9000-9020.  The first up is McCall 9004:

I found this pattern for sale at etsy from Sydcam123 in a uncut 36B!!!

Here's a close-up of the line drawings for this pattern:

There's also a version of the dress that is without the ruffle!

I also have the image for 9005:

Such a classic skirt.  The next image I have is for 9010 which is also a skirt pattern:

Hmmm...I don't know which one I like better!

Next up is McCall 9015:

Oh, I love this pattern!! Look at all those buttons!!  Here's a close-up of the line drawing with a different neckline:

McCall 9016 is already up on the Vintage Pattern Wiki, so I thought I would share it here too:

It has the same amazing collar as 9015!

Next up is another amazing dress, pattern #9019:

 Wow, I am loving the pleating on the bodice--what an interesting feature.  Here's some more close-ups of the line drawings:

 

From the line drawings it looks like you can do the double collar (which would be great for contrasting colours) or do a single collar.  I love the short sleeve version too (though I must admit I love the long and tight sleeve style of the 30's!)

Last up is McCall 9020:

Wow!!! Lots of tiny buttons!  This collar must be a design feature of late 1936!  I love it!  Here's the line drawings for this pattern:

I love how the tunic flares a bit at the bottom!  That's it for this week.

Which is your favourite?  It's a toss-up for me between 9015 and 9020!

Next week is McCall 9021-9030!

Missing images so far: 502, 503, 505, 507, 508, 509, 510, 9000, 9001, 9002, 9003, 9006, 9007, 9008, 9009, 9011, 9012, 9013, 9014, 9017 & 9018. If you want to contribute to the Mission McCall--just email me the images or pattern covers and I'll update them in the Vintage Pattern Wiki.  myhappysewingplace[at]googlemail[dot]com.

Sewing Through the Decades PEEPS

You know what time of year it is?  Peep time!!!  I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective of the Sewing Through the Decades a la Debi style and then peep style.  So without further ado, let's take a walk through the decades...

1930's
 My 1932 gown that I just posted about:

The Peep version:

1940's
You may recall earlier in the year my 1940 faux fur jacket:

Well...the peep wanted a faux fur jacket and topper hat as well:

1950's
 I really haven't done much this year (so far) from the 1950's.  I did make a 1950's inspired skirt:

Not to be outdone, Ms. Peep wanted her own version of the skirt:

1960's
 I've only sewn one thing from the 60's and that's a classic shift dress:

Now for the 1960's Peep:

 

1970's
 Oh yes, I've ventured into '70's patterns and came out with this:

And the 70's Peep:

Happy Easter everyone!!

Happy Birthday David!!!

Today is my sweetiepie's birthday! Here's wishing a wonderful birthday to the most amazing man! 

This is one of my favourite pictures ever! It was taken in 2005 on our very first trip to Scotland (almost exactly six years ago today!).  This at the Loch Ness museum and that's Nessie herself in the background!

Happy Friday everyone!

My 1932 gown...

I am super, super excited about this latest sewing project for the television theme over at the Sew Weekly.  I knew right away that I wanted to make an outfit inspired by my absolute favorite TV show--Firefly.  Firefly is what is called a Space Western--part Sci Fi, part Western.  It aired in 2002 for 10 of 14 episodes but was cancelled.  Due to the huge fan outcry because of the canceling of the show, a movie with the same characters was made called 'Serenity'. The TV show has almost reached cult status because there is still a huge fan following and the DVD sales of the show are still going strong.

David and I are big fans, we are part of the 'Edinburgh Browncoats' fanclub (there are similar fanclubs around the world).  The TV show is fantastic.  It features an amazing ensemble cast and you really feel connected to all the characters. Definitely check it out if you haven't already!  I believe the Science Channel has been airing the episodes since March.

My outfit inspiration came from one of the characters named Inara Serra.  She's always very regally dressed. Here are a few photos:

I decided to use the Vintage Fashion Library's reproduction pattern of the 1932 DuBarry 1082B pattern:

Isn't it dreamy?  I absolutely love the shape of the back and the lines of the dress!!  The character, Inara, dresses quite a bit in lovely shades of red and gold and uses Chinese and Indian print fabric and I thought that would be perfect for this gown.  I found this amazing medium-weight Chinese silk at Edinburgh Fabrics and knew it would be a match made in heaven:

I love this fabric. It's a dream to sew with and I love the different colors reflected within the fabric itself.  I used a gold crepe back satin for the border of the bodice.

I am quite happy with how it turned out:

I made a belt to match and found an amazing belt buckle (at the last moment) on Etsy from UK seller jemimajay on Etsy that I think goes perfectly with the fabric:

 

David took some photos of me wearing the dress at St. Mary's Cathedral, which is apparently the largest ecclesiastical building in Scotland the only place that still maintains the daily choral tradition!

 The building is beautiful! Check out the doors:

And of course, the back of the dress is my absolute favorite part:

This dress is pretty easy to put together! The bodice front actually reminds me a bit of the 1934 Wearing History gown I made for Valentine's Day.  Both patterns have a gathered front bodice.  The instructions for the border of the bodice have you sew it on the inside and then slipstitch to the outside (almost like the opposite of facing)!

There is no interfacing at all in the border and it stays put fairly well.  You'll notice the pattern cover shows the dress with two dress clips--which would also look fantastic.

I'm going to try and make this pattern up as a blouse as well for the 1932 spot in my Sewing through the Decades Challenge goal and see how it works.  I think for the blouse version I might use interfacing in the back 'v' section because I plan to use crepe back satin for both the main body of the blouse and for the contrast material.  Don't you think it would look cute as a tuck-in blouse?  I'll let you know how I get on with that!

It has been unseasonably warm in Scotland--the weather was actually perfect for wearing this dress outside.  I'm planning to wear it tomorrow for David's birthday!  We were thinking of revisiting the place we went on Valentine's day :)

 

The flowers are all in bloom and Edinburgh looks so lovely! Check out this amazing photo David took of the flowers:

And this amazing photo of the church:

And I just have to share this last photo so that you can see how sunny it was in Edinburgh! This is a photo from the Prince's Street Gardens with the fountain and the castle in the background--one of my absolute favorite views in the city!