pattern junkie

Specs Appeal

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.

Again With The Chairs

What is it with pattern illustrators and chairs?!

Granted, McCall's 3493 isn't as maddening as McCall's 3435, the pattern illustration that nearly drove me out of my mind.  The chair actually is part of the main illustration, instead of being thrown in as an odd focal point.  And it's pretty.

Still...why is Blue staring at it with such admiration?  And look at how Brown has her foot perched precariously on the chair.  As distracted as she is, she's going to trip and fall as soon as she tries to move.  Is that what Blue is secretly hoping for?  Or does her fascinated gaze have less to do with the chair and much more to do with the proximity of her gloved hand to Brown's bare one?

Monday Morning Eye Candy

Ah!  Some Monday morning eye candy to go with your coffee:

Isn't McCall's 8509 divine?  I usually don't use words like "divine," but that's really the best adjective for this dress.  The petals folding away from the bust!  The wiggle skirt!  The flowing overskirt!

I know the women's studies side of my brain could come up with a good critique of this dress: how it presents its wearer as a flower to be picked (and wrapped up like a gift to boot!).  As fascinating as that discussion would be, I can't get past my simple reptile brain response: pretty!  Pretty!  Pretty!  Want!  Want!  Want!

Unfortunately, the usually-informative Vintage Sewing Patterns Wiki doesn't have the official description for this pattern.  I'd love to get a better idea of how those curling petals are formed -- boning?  Heavy duty interfacing?  What do you think?

I Can't Hear You

We've all been stuck in conversations we can't get out of.  Pity poor Red in McCall's 5864:

 

"And then Linda said she was going to bring a lemon pie and I said no, I wanted to bring my lemon chiffon cake and we can't have too much lemon at the luncheon because when there's too much tartness in a menu it really takes away from the savory quality of the casseroles, which is what anyone who knows anything about cooking knows but would you believe that Sheila Johnson said..."

Sometimes being overly polite, like Red there, just leads to pain.  It doesn't hurt to take a page from the animal kingdom in these situations.  I once had a wonderful dog named Hopkins -- a Corgi/Shepherd mix full of attitude who basically looked like a German Shepherd who'd been hit by a shrinking ray.  Anyway, every morning we'd walk by a house where another dog would throw itself at the fence, barking its fool head off.  Most dogs, given that situation, would bark right back -- but Hopkins would trot on by without a break in his step, without even a glance to that yapping idiot.  And I can't help but be reminded of that every time I look at Advance 9798:

 

There's Purple, yap-yap-yapping...and Black and White just blissfully tunes her out.  Well done!

Web Junkie July 12, 2010

First, a little Monday morning eye candy, courtesy McCall's 3696:

The dress is gorgeous, but the hat?  The hat kills me!  And the gloves and purse?!  Amazing.

Lots of fun stuff around the web lately, and I meant to get it up this weekend.  Instead, here are some clicky-clicks for your Monday:

• It's bad enough that all of you super-prolific sewing bloggers turn out gorgeous piece after gorgeous piece with such regularity (how do you have such great time management skills?  you don't actually work or cook dinner or do anything else productive, do you?), now I find the blog New Dress a Day.  The goal?  To refashion 365 dresses in a year for $365: 365 dresses, 365 days, 365 dollars.  With 140 days to go, she's made impressive progress -- I'm envious!  (Plus she's based here in L.A., so she must be scouring the legendary Jet Rag dollar sale!)
• Sewaholic has a handy tutorial on how to match prints along seams -- a good thing to know, since mismatched stripes can only lead to trouble!
•  It's not sewing-related per se, but Jessica at Chronically Vintage is having a fantastic giveaway for a $75 gift certificate for vintage eyewear at etsy shop Collectible Spectacle.  More swooning!  Hurry, the entry cut-off is midnight EST tonight!
• One of my fave new vintage blogs is The Freelancer's Fashionblog, which I initially found when looking for vintage hair tutorials.  Vintage fashion, fun musings and great photos...not to mention a Finnish perspective.  Check it out!
• I keep forgetting to link to this hilarious post at CoudreMODE, Edie Scissorhands.  Just click it.  Trust me on this one. 

McCall's 3435 and the Dreaded One Note Bird

When Mr. Pattern Junkie and I first moved in together, we rented a nice little house (emphasis on "little") in the hills near the Hollywood Reservoir.  The house, besides listing so badly to one side that visitors would be momentarily seasick when they entered, had one major flaw: the Dreaded One Note Bird.

The Dreaded One Note Bird had a "song" consisting of one monotone note: tweet.  Every time the same length, the same note, usually at very regular intervals.  All day, every day.  Now, you could go days without noticing the Dreaded One Note Bird.  But then, suddenly, it would permeate your consciousness: tweet.

At that moment, you knew you were doomed.  Because then, the only thing you could notice for the rest of the day was the incessant tweet of the Dreaded One Note Bird.

What, you may ask, does any of this have to do with McCall's 3435, what with its pretty Peter Pan collar, flared skirt and knife pleats?  Really, it's just a darling dress:

Except for that chair.

The more I look at this illustration, the less I can tear my eyes away from the chair.  Why is it there?  Why?  What mad impulse made the illustrator think, "Hmm, this drawing needs a little something more...a little something to, oh, draw the eye away from the dresses...Should I put a plant?  A tiki stand?  A garden umbrella?  No, a chair would be perfection!"

Really, I try to focus on the pretty puffed sleeves of the yellow version or the knife pleats and pearls -- but DEAR GOD WHY IS THERE A CHAIR IN THE BACKGROUND?!  And why, if you must put a chair there, why oh why dash off the plainest most boring chair ever seen?  Put some effort into a wingback, please, or maybe entertain me with a chaise lounge or -- WHY THE CHAIR?  Is there some symbolism I'm missing?  Some hidden message?!  Is this a statement, or are you just messing with my mind?

Tweet.  Tweet.

Tabs, Tabs and More Tabs!

Today's piece of eye candy has my heart are a-flutter:

A darling silhouette, yes -- but look at all those button and tab details!  Sure, actually measuring and marking them and sewing them would make me lose my mind...but if someone could make a dress like this for me, I would wear it to death!  (Cool colors only, please...I look horrible in orange.)

You can find Spadea 1061 at Heavens to Betsy Vintage, which is where I found this drool-inducing image.  Click here for the vintage wiki listing.

On The Awkwardness of Outgrowing Childhood Friends

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!

Simplicity 4612

Juvenile Delinquents

When I first encountered Butterick 4149, all I could focus on was that doll.  It left me speechless, breathless and everything in between:

Look at its freakishly long arms and legs, its blank-eyed expression and its stringy stringy hair.  It's ghastly!  The hairline is receding!  Its hand is shaped like a dog bone!  It's the stuff of nightmares and horror movies.

But on a second look, the little girl holding the doll is much much scarier.  Towheaded little Buffy looks so sweet, so innocent...yet don't you think she's in the process of slamming that doll facefirst into the ground?  The doll's limbs are in motion because Buffy there is bashing its little cotton brains out on the rocks, a sweet smile on her face the whole time.

Speaking of little girls up to no good, how about these two in Simplicity 4880?

I don't know what Checks is hiding behind her back -- a tortured cat?  a lethal combination of cyanide and Coca Cola? -- but I know that she and Blue are Up To No Good.  Those innocent looks don't fool me.

Finally, meet the sweet little girls of Vogue 2867:

So ladylike!  So patrician!  So Upper East Side with their painting and tea party settings and contemplation of tulips!

I'm sorry, but someone needs to let these children play in the mud, pronto.  Otherwise they are going to hit puberty and EXPLODE. 

Let's Get a Little Bit Meta

I'm planning on doing a post on 1950s maternity patterns soon, and recently stumbled upon McCall's 3516.  Take a look at what Blue is holding:

It took me a minute to figure out what that red scrawl was: "McCall"!  She's holding a McCall's pattern book or magazine -- because, of course, she sews with McCall's patterns.

I realized I hadn't seen this before -- a pattern illustration that actually suggests that a woman sews.  Isn't that interesting?  You'd think that since the intended audience for patterns are sewers that you'd see more representations of, well, people sewing.  Instead the illustrations show people at parties, at barbecues, at the beach...enjoying the garments they've sewn.  I suppose that's why they work so well -- I for one look at the picture and imagine myself in the completed garment, completely forgetting that it will take time and work to get there!

What do you think?  Would seeing a pattern illustration of someone in a fabulous dress picking out fabric or draping a mannequin make you excited to sew?  Or would it remind you of the work involved and make you less likely to buy the pattern?  Have you seen other pattern illustrations that show women sewing?  If so, please send them my way!