pattern junkie

So Noted

I always love patterns with notations on them.  Jottings about hem lengths, fabrics, adjustments...all are peeks into the lives of the seamstresses who used these little pieces of history. 

And then there are the notes scrawled in frustration and madness...those moments all too familiar to anyone who sews.  McCall's 6079 from 1961 has both:

"Dark print," "Summer or winter," "Make in suiting or washable tweed."  Such great planning, don't you think?

We all know what they say about God and plans.

Check out the note to the left of the brown skirt:

"do not make this in brn, short sleeves, looks like an overgrown brownie!"

I'm assuming she meant a Girl Scout-type brownie, but it's just as amusing to imagine someone laboring over the washable tweed just to put on the finished dress, gaze in the mirror and think, "Shit.  I look like a giant pastry."

Like the pattern?  You can get it in a B32 -- complete with the notes -- over at DellaJane!

Gifts of the Vintage Pattern Wiki

Hello, lovely and much-neglected blog readers!

It's been stressful times in Pattern Junkie land for the past couple of months.  I was working away this morning, in need of something cheery, when I decided to take a break and head on over to the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki.  I hadn't been there in ages.  I clicked on the new photos page to see what wonders had been added.

Little did I know what gifts awaited.

First I spied McCall 7527:

I sighed.  "Wow," I thought.  "Wouldn't it be great to put on that dress and feel like skipping?"

I kept looking.

Oh, Vintage Wiki.  You know just what I need.  Because in the very next row, you presented me with the glory that is Vogue 6731:

YES!  That's a bra just FLOATING in mid-air!  Is there a strip-tease going on just outside the edges of the pattern envelope?  Is a torrid orgy underway?  Or is it a magic bra floating of its own accord, much like the cartoon mini-helper of Advance pattern fame?  I don't know, but that floating bra just fills me with delight.

But that's not all the Vintage Pattern Wiki had to offer today.  Oh, no.  It gets better.  Just take a look at Vogue 8898:

That's OK.  Look again.  Take a deep breath or two.  I needed a moment when I saw it for the first time.

Stuffed animals.  ON SLEDS AND SKIS!  Whizzing down a mountain!  (In case you're wondering, the brown lumps on the left are supposed to be hedgehogs.)

Who decided that the way to model stuffed hedgehogs, rabbits and possums was to put them in a toboggan race in a fake mountain diorama?  (Whoever you are, thank you!)  What were the alternate ideas?  Animals betting on horse races?   Pumping gas?  Hot tubbing?

I think I feel like picking up my skirts and skipping.

Monday Morning Eye Candy: More 1930s Ruffles!

OK, so it's more like Monday afternoon/early evening eye candy.  But who doesn't want a nice little pick-me-up come late Monday?

I don't know why I'm such a sucker for ruffles in the MMEC feature.  I'm not a big ruffle-wearer in real life.  Half the time I try them on and feel like a clown, and for some reason I'm convinced they make my face look round.  (Which, even as I type it, I know is an absurd statement.  But isn't it just the kind of advice you'd read in a woman's magazine?  I mean, the other day I was leafing through one at the supermarket and ran across a handy sidebar on "How To Wear Bracelets After 40."  I was utterly baffled.  As far as I can tell, you still put them on your wrist.)

Anyway, enough about my personal mixed feelings on ruffles and onto to this purty, purty slice of goodness, McCall 7954.  It manages to make the ruffles elegant instead of girly, don't you think?  If I had a steady stream of elegant cocktail parties to attend, I might just try it out.

 

 

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Ruffles Galore!

Oh, how I love the exuberant ruffles of McCall 8258:

Four rows of ruffles at the hem!  It looks like it would be so much fun to walk in -- you'd swish and rustle and make a grand entrance.  Let's not even get started on what it would be like to dance in it.

It's from 1935, but I can't be the only one reminded of this dress style that was so popular in the 1970s:

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Superfly!

Some regard the 70s as the worst of times in fashion.  I have to confess that I have a weakness for them.  Not for the hippie-ish headbands and caftans, but for the capital F FUNKY that abounds, from bizarre polyester prints to flared pants and (of course!) big collars.

So this week the 70s get some eye candy commemoration thanks to McCall's 2594 here.  That collar!  Those clean princess lines!  And oh, do those pockets make my heart go pitter pat.  In a coat like this, how could you ever feel frumpy or lack confidence?  That coat says "I KICK ASS -- even when wearing a crocheted beanie and granny glasses."

Unfortunate Fashion Friday: The "You Got Peanut Butter In My Chocolate!" Dress

Welcome to Unfortunate Fashion Friday, a new feature here at PJ where I share the odd, the horrifying, and the just plain wrong.  (Let me state right at the outset that I'd love nothing more than to be proven wrong about my UFF choices -- so when one of you makes an amazing version of something I've picked, send it my way!)

On to the mockery.  The Big 4 are busy releasing their new spring lines.  There's some great stuff out there, and then there's McCall's 6280:

Those of you who grew up in the 70s & 80s like I did probably remember the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ads that purported to tell the creation myth of Reese's yummy wonders.  A librarian might be standing on a ladder eating a chocolate bar, only to accidentally drop it into a patron's open peanut butter jar after he bumped into the shelves, or a quarterbacker running down the field might ram into a cheerleader and the same chocolate bar/peanut butter jar confluence would happen.  (No, they never explained why people were walking around eating from open peanut butter jars.)  The point is, the wacky collision would always result in one person exclaiming "You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!" to which the other would reply "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!"  Then both would realize that the two flavors were fantastic together. 

Here's an example:

 

Which brings us back to that dress.

It's never good when you look at a design and your first thought is "What the hell happened there?"  Really, I look at this dress and all I can do is envision the wacky, Rube-Goldbergesque collision at McCall's HQ that caused two halves of cute dresses to get stitched together like Frankenstein.  Maybe if it were done in all one fabric.  Maybe if that lovely cape collar extended to the other side...maybe if the interesting hip detail extended to the other side...

You see where I'm going with this.  Asymmetry can be cool, but these are two great tastes that do not taste great together!

Pajama Party!

I loved slumber parties when I was a kid.  Loved them.  Eating lots of junk food?  Screaming because...well, screaming just because you're a tween girl jacked up on sugar?  (One memorable slumber party of mine featured the lot of us laughing and shrieking in horror when our Irish Setter drooled in the chip bag.  The "ewws" and "grosses" probably carried for miles.) Staying up as late as you can manage?  Heaven!

So in my mind pajama parties are generally pure, innocent fun.  But when I look at McCall's 5649, I'm concerned about what Pink Ruffles and White Nightie have planned for Pink Gingham:

Ruffles and Nightie seem to be having a discussion about what medical procedure to perform on Pink Gingham.  (What IS Ruffles hiding in her pockets?)  Sadly, Pink Gingham -- who, I hate to say, looks about as dim as my aforementioned Irish Setter -- is right on board with the shenanigans.  She's prepping by taking her own pulse!

McCall's 5693 is more of the happy PJ vibe I remember -- but damn if it isn't WAY BETTER than any slumber party I attended:

Here Flowered Muumuu and Green's conspiring have resulted in something fabulous: Pink is FLOATING!  And I thought "light as a feather, stiff as a board" was fun!

(But...what is up with Pink's left hand?  It's freakishly long and quite possibly double-knuckled!)

Zigging on the Zagged Line, Part Two

Remember McCall's 3057, the awesome 70s embroidery pattern for giant guitars and chains?  McCall's issued a SECOND "Zigging on the Zagged Line" pattern in 1971, and it's got me so excited that I'm this close to putting up "Zigging on the Zagged Line" on a Café Press t-shirt.  McCall's 3058 is just as breathtaking and brilliant as its giant-eyed sibling:

 

Wowza!  Check out the GIANT TIE you could embroider on your frock!  The giant heart medallion!  The full body spiderweb and the anaconda!  Oh, but there's more!  Check out the back (photo courtesy Mary & Bill's Vintage and Newer Sewing Patterns on etsy):

My favorite is the flyswatter with the fly embroidered on it.  Very meta, I suppose.  Although a fabric flyswatter seems like the nastiest thing in the world -- just contemplating cleaning it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Still, I can't keep my eyes off those dresses and tunics emblazoned with giant things.  I want...i want Mondo from Project Runway to take this idea and run with it.  (Speaking of PR, how awesomely amazing was last week's episode with the downfall of Team Luxe and Gretchen?)  II'd love to see the judges contemplate a giant embroidered bird medallion!

Dancing Dress of a Dashing Modern Maiden

That's it.  I want to be a Dashing Modern Maiden!

How gorgeous is McCall's 7903?  The shoulder treatment, the bow, the flared mermaid skirt...the whole darn thing has me in a state of advanced dress lust.  I have a sudden need to search out 1930s patterns. 

Check out New Vintage Lady (a super blog!) for more images from this amazing 1934 catalog.  I want every single dress there -- including the ones that promise to add piquancy to my personality!

Attack of the Fifty Foot Scarves

Wowza!  Look at this recent addition to the Vintage Pattern Wiki, McCall's 2255:

Those monogram letters are six inches tall!  And View E, the super-long scarf?  108 INCHES OF SCARF FUN, BABY!!

You know what this needs, don't you?  Wait for it...

Yes!  It needs GIANT EYES and a GIANT ZIPPER!  It must be paired with that other 1970s pattern of legend, McCall's 3057!  (Readers, accept now that I'm going to refer back to 3057 constantly -- it's one of those things that will always make me laugh, much like BIRDEMIC and C.W. McCall's "Convoy.")

If you want to see the back of the fabulous giant scarf pattern, check out Patternaholic's post about it!  But please, if you make one of these, no riding in convertibles -- I don't want any of you meeting Isadora Duncan's tragic demise.