pattern junkie

Have You Seen This Sun Hat?

It's summer, and my thoughts have turned to sun hats. 

Actually, let me clarify that.  What I really mean is that I've become obsessed with searching out one very specific hat pattern.  One that's been marked in my etsy favorites for quite a while:

I don't think I need to explain the siren-like call of the hat.  I mean, what's not to love?  The baggy top!  The oversize pleated brim! It's REVERSIBLE!  Clearly I need to make one or twelve RIGHT NOW in the brightest colors imaginable.  I live on one of the streets doomed to be clogged due to this weekend's "Carmageddon" in Los Angeles, so if I'm going to be trapped in my house for the weekend I might as well hunker down and make obnoxious sun hats while drinking mojitos. 

But...the item listed as "Lady's Vogue Reversible Sun Hat PDF Pattern" is on Etsy no more.  The seller no longer exists, so the ghost of the item can't even be viewed.  Only this scrap of information remains.  I scoured the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki and have yet to uncover it, although after stumbling across Vogue 6805 I feared to explore summer hat territory further:

Is it a bandana?  A veil?  A veindana?  Are those fake flowers on view 3 -- and could it be a wedding version?  I'm very, very confused.

While I ponder the conundrum of Vogue 6805, please report any sightings of the Vogue Reversible Lady's Sun Hat to PatternJunkie HQ.  Do not approach the hat or make eye contact with it, as it may be armed and dangerous!

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Baby Got Back, Part II

Usually back views are relegated to the background, but they're the main attraction in Vogue 348:

Not that there's anything wrong with the front -- I'd say it's pretty sharp.  Still, I'd find a reason to walk backwards into rooms if I were wearing this.  Having to look over your shouler while talking would cramp your neck, sure, but I think it'd be worth it.

Monday Morning Eye Candy: 60s Cool

Ah.  To be as hip, as cool, as "with it" as these women in their gowns from Vogue 7148:

They don't merely walk.  They slink.  While your hair is sliding out of place and sticking to your skin, theirs remains perfect.  Their champagne glasses are always filled.  Witty bon mots and sly double entendres drop from their lips with ease.

Yeah, I hate them too.  But I do love their outfits.

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Baby Got Back

Nothing has made me want to put a few extra yards of fabric on my tush as much as Vogue 484 here:

And with perfectly matched stripes, no less!  It's simply scrumptious.

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: Delicious Draping

Put down that latté and take in the pretty that is Vogue S-4730:

The draping!  The bows!  The way the two women are just so, so elegant...while clearly ready to give anyone a piece of their mind if need be.

Personally, I don't think I have the build for a hip bow...but this pattern is almost enough to convince me to try.

Flasher Fashion

Oh, Vogue.  You've come out with some scrumptious dresses for spring...and then there's your new pattern for men, 8720.  This goes straight into the Department of WWTT (What Were They Thinking?):

Was it really necessary for the coat to be buttoned all the way to the neck?  Did the model need to shove his hands forearm-deep into the pockets?  And why, in the name of all that is holy, did someone decide to throw sunglasses into the mix? 

I don't see this and think, "My goodness, there's a stylish man!"  I think "That guy's getting ready to expose his junk.  Remind me not to look his way."

Monday Morning Eye Candy: New Vogues Edition

As you probably know, Vogue released their new spring patterns a week ago.  I don't know about you, but I found several drool-inspiring dresses.  There are the two great Donna Karan offerings, 1219 and 1220, which both feature lovely details.  I'm also lusting for 1233, but you all know what a sucker I am for big collars and 70s-inspired fashion. 

Which to choose for eye candy status?  In the end I decided upon 1232 by Pamella Roland.  Check it out:

I love the curved seam along the front and the asymmetrical hem.  The flower's cute, but I think the dress would be just fine without it.  What I adore most of all is the ruffle at the bottom.  It manages to be sophisticated rather than little girly, and it seems like it'd be an awful lot of fun to wear. 

By the way, I found a photo of it in her spring collection -- quite pretty, don't you think?

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Elegant Lounging

Sip your latte and take a gander at Vogue 6153:

The Vintage Wiki listing describes it as a housecoat, but I vote for wearing it out and about whenever possible.  Look at that princess seaming!  The extended shoulders with a double layer of ruffles!  The ruffles manage to look elegant instead of girly-girly (not that there's anything wrong with girly ruffles, of course.)  I love the long-sleeved view -- it manages to be sexy and elegant without showing skin.

Sadly, the Vintage Wiki doesn't have the back view or even a pattern description.  Does anyone out there have this beauty?  Have you made it?  And will you send it to me?

Mini-Me

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.