Simplicity 6696, 1984
You can have the thread. All of it! Even the good Gutermann silk! And the metallics...here, take the rayon, too, I really don't need it. You want the plain black cotton? Sure! Take it!
Just please, please, PLEASE be gone in the morning.
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:
This week's UFF inspires terror in me for what it might do to my, er, assets...and I'm only a B cup. Who at Simplicity thought backwards suspenders (with their nice "cross my heart" look) and a tight empire silhouette was a good idea?
Normally I'd consider a long formless duster incredibly boring, but check out Simplicity 2495:
I adore the blue cat-eye glasses that Blue is wearing -- so much so, in fact, that her whole look strikes me as cool. Shoes to match your glasses? A coordinating dress and long vest? Sign me up! (I guess this "styling" the Project Runway judges keep yammering on about is important.)
I bet she makes a mean martini and has a wicked sense of humor. She knows where to find cool beatnik coffee shops, works in the best bookstore in town -- and even though she can't carry a tune to save her life, she's fearless at karaoke bars. I think I want her as my new best friend.
Say what you want about the classic designs of the 1940s and 1950s -- 1970s patterns have a special something that just makes my heart go all a-flutter. This one's so good it demanded a second post for today. Here you go, the perfect accompaniment for your jeans with giant chains embroidered on them -- Simplicity 8643:
Junk food pillows! Giant oreos! Obscenely huge hot dogs! A SATIN-BUNNED CHEESEBURGER COMPLETE WITH ONIONS AND SESAME SEEDS!
I'm about to pass out imagining the surrealist fun you could have with this and McCall's 3057. Who's ready for French fries with giant zippers on their sides? I know I am!
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?"
I never thought about how challenging it would be to illustrate a dolman sleeve until I ran into Simplicity 5286. The artist knocked it out of the park, don't you think?
The poses, from front to back:
Peruse vintage patterns for a while, and you'll quickly notice an oft-used convention in the illustrations: two "normal sized" models and one "mini," squeezed in to show the back view or a third option. Usually, it works just fine and dandy, like in Simplicity 2402:
There, the poor mini doesn't even get the benefit of a full body! Here's another example -- Simplicity 8535:
Sure, Magenta looks like the kind of bad girl who would beat up someone two thirds her size, but we just accept that Black is in her own separate reality and move on.
Sometimes, however, the Two Big/One Little goes horribly, horribly wrong. Take Vogue 1059:
Yikes! I don't know whether Black is petting Little Print with her absurdly large gloved hand or if she's just conjured her out of thin air, but I guarantee you she's up to no good. I predict she has a whole host of nefarious plans that she'll be sending Little Print out to enact. Is Red in on the plot? From the look on her face, I have to assume so.
This I do know: if I wake up in the middle of the night with Little Print standing next to my bed staring at me, I'm toast.
Mary sighed, pretending to be distracted by a flaw in her fingernail polish.
Kathy and Polly still thought "Guess What's in my Pocket?" was a good way to pass the time. Then they wondered why no one thought they were "sophisticated." As if a nice coat and long gloves were all it took!
