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!

Cut As Is Sew Right

You really can't argue with the note scrawled on Simplicity 6030 here:

"Cut as is sew right"

 

Who's Wanda, I wonder?  Is the note addressed to her, as in "Cut as is sew right, WANDA!"?  Or is Wanda a harried home ec teacher who's finally given up on teaching the finer points of sewing and now just instructs her students to "sew right?"

When Is A Blouse Not a Shirt?

I was going through some patterns to list in my etsy shop today and ran across this 1980s wonder, McCall's 2070:

All that Dress for Success wonder!  The shoulder pads!  The pleated jabot!  The bows!  But what really intrigued me was the note written in the bottom right corner:

"Collar is large Blouse is short" -- clear enough.  But then...

"True Blouse Not Shirt"

This gave me pause.  What did it mean?  I've always considered "blouse" to be a subset of the larger category "shirt."  If you asked me to define a blouse, I'd say it was a woman's dressier shirt made out of woven fabric. 

But could something be a blouse and not a shirt?

I don't have access to the full Oxford English Dictionary Online, but I looked up "blouse" at AskOxford.com.  

blouse

  • noun 1 a woman’s upper garment resembling a shirt. 2 a loose smock or tunic. 3 a type of jacket worn as part of military uniform.

  • verb make (a garment) hang in loose folds.

(Ask Oxford also informed my that in Britain "big girl's blouse" is a phrase meaning a weak, cowardly or over-sensitive man.  I'd like to work it into my vocabulary, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue: "Stop your crying and cook me some dinner, you big girl's blouse!")

Anyway, the Oxford folk seem to be defining "blouse" as something different than a shirt.  What's your opinion?  Is a "blouse" actually a different item than a shirt, or is it a kind of shirt?  What is the meaning of "True Blouse Not Shirt"?  And am I spending too much of my time puzzling over other seamstress' cryptic notes?

Scratch that last question!  No pattern mystery is too trivial to pursue.  In fact, I may have to kick this one over to wordsmith Erin at A Dress A Day for answers!

Diane. Let Me Know About This Skirt.

I love the note written on the pattern envelope for Simplicity 6161:

"DIane.  Let me know about this skirt."

Well, it's a straight skirt.  Side zipper and darts.  Pretty basic.

Why the note?  Obviously the writer didn't have the opportunity to show Diane the pattern and ask, "What do you think?"  Was it slipped under a dorm room door?  Left on a daughter's pillow?  Dropped on a co-worker's desk?

OR...is "Let me know about this skirt" code for "The premier will be arriving at 11"?  Was this pattern used by an international superspy?  The copyright date is 1965, so it was issued right in the middle of the Cold War.  The pattern is cut out, so our superspy could sew as well as evade the KGB.  Just think how wrong the Bond movies and Mission Impossible have been all these years!  Spy safehouses the world over were probably stockpiled with sewing machines and fabric so that these men and women of mystery could whip up new disguises.  I bet 007 himself, in addition to mixing a mean martini, could topstitch like nobody's business.

Perhaps the Greatest Pattern Notation Ever

I LOVE this little note written on the instructions for Butterick 6956:

 

"Goofy great" just might describe all of my favorite clothes!

We Don't Need No Stinking Pockets

Here's another great note I found on a vintage pattern, Simplicity 6175:

 

No Pockets!  Apparently the seamstress who owned this pattern was so upset about the pocket situation that she wrote the same thing on the envelope back -- lest she forget her anger during the process of flipping it over, I suppose:

At first I thought the fury stemmed from a sneaky "fake pocket" situation -- but no, the patch pockets on the jacket are real.  Was she upset that the pants and skirts didn't have pockets?  Or was it a Joan Crawford-inspired "NO MORE POCKETS!" rage?  I'm hoping it was the latter -- in which case I shudder to think how she would have responded to this skirt or this dress that were featured over on Dressaday.

God-Awful.

You gotta appreciate a seamstress who's honest in her feelings about a pattern -- in this case, Simplicity 3600:

  I'd really love to see the garment that prompted the summary "GOD-AWFUL BIG NECK!"