pattern junkie

Web Junkie: January 30, 2010

Today I thought I'd share some of the fun stuff on patterns, fashions and other miscellany I've found around the web of late.  Enjoy!

• Worn Through is a fascinating website I stumbled across that discusses fashion from an academic perspective.  I really enjoyed this article on Paper As Textile, which included a background on the paper dress craze of the 1960s inadvertently kicked off by the Scott Paper Company (see above photo).  Many more fabulous photos on the site!
• Did you know that the Victoria & Albert Museum teamed up with Liberty Fabrics to produce commemorative fabrics for their exhibition on British quilts?  They'll be available in March, but you can pre-order now.
• Need to get rid of some of your fabric stash to justify buying some of the aforementioned fabric?  Pattern Review's latest Fabric Stash contest starts February 1 and runs through the end of March.  If tradition holds, I will enter with great ambitions to use up multiple yards of fabric and will succeed in sewing up one A-line skirt.
• Also on Pattern Review: sharp-eyed forum members spot a tag in the back of this new DKNY dress pattern.  Apparently Vogue designer pattern envelopes always feature actual RTW garments...who knew?  So the Tracy Reese dress that gave me conniptions actually made it to the sales floor?
• Unsung Sewing Patterns focuses on the utilitarian patterns of days gone by.  A really cool perspective -- after all, why should party frocks get all the attention?
• Male Pattern Boldness is a hilarious blog by that rarest of creatures, the male sewer.  Follow newbie Peter (who has some mad skills!) as he makes clothes for himself and his glam "identical cousin" Cathy.  The Selfish Seamstress has declared him her nemesis to boot!
• WhipStitch Sewing wants to know what your 2010 sewing goals are, and their survey runs through February 7.  They promise to come up with helpful guides with the results -- my question is, will they come over and match up patterns and fabrics for me?  Removing me from the decision making process would make my sewing so much faster. 
• Those of us who remember reading Highlights Magazine in the dentist's office as children will appreciate the "Goofus & Gallant" cartoon that accompanies the "Keeping Track of Your Patterns" article at The Sew Weekly.  It's a good accompaniment to the "Are you a tracer or a cutter?" question over at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic.

Are You There, Vogue? It's Me, Pattern Junkie

Wow, Vogue.  Thank you so much!  Once again, you've released a slew of lovely patterns that will end up in my pattern collection, waiting patiently to be made.  You manage to always put out three or four dresses that I absolutely fall in love with, and this time was no exception.  After all these years, you still know how to make me feel special!

I especially want to single out this pattern, 1170, for praise:

What is up with that fabric?  Are those chimney sweeps, or are they men with umbrellas being swept away by the wind?  Anyway, I love how they look like they're being sucked into the black hole of the knot at her neck.  It's not just a blouse, it's a natural disaster!  I would wear that ALL the time.  I mean it.  I bet you knew that, didn't you?  That blouse is our secret joke, isn't it? 

But I'm going to be a bit of a crankypants about Vogue 1158, the Tracy Reese striped dress.  See, Vogue, I have these four yards of beautiful striped rayon fabric.  (I told you about this, but you were doing that "pretend listening" thing again, as if chatting with Marcy Tilton was more important than finishing your conversation with me.)  And like the Ancient Mariner doomed to retell his tale, or Sisyphus fated to push that rock up the hill again and again, I am doomed to forever search for the perfect striped fabric pattern.  Immediately my eyes shot to that dress.

The back is so nice.  So harmonious.  Look at that stripe-matching:

It's beautiful.  Makes you feel like all is right with the world, doesn't it?  Granted, the stripes don't match on the belt, which seems like the easy part, but hey -- who's looking there?  It's the front people really pay attention to:

N-n-no! At first I thought you were doing something cool and complicated with the multi-stripe pattern, but no!  You simply DID NOT MATCH the stripes, and every time I look at the dress it makes me feel funny inside.  Like I might need to put on one of those McCall's crazy caps I posted about yesterday.

No, Vogue, I am NOT being hyperbolic.  Those mismatched stripes get under my skin. I just don't feel right.  I can't stop thinking about how -- stop laughing.  Vogue, if you tell me did this just to annoy me --

I am calm.  Let me just make my point. I looked through my sewing books from the '40s and '50s.  I was hoping to find a tongue-lashing on the evils of unmatched stripes -- the kind of thing Nina Garcia might say if this dress showed up on Project Runway.  But no, my vintage books quite simply and sensibly explained how to match stripes when laying out a pattern.  And then I realized --

Vogue, I am not having the discussion about how you use "real" designers while Simplicity cashes in on Project Runway.  The point is, I looked through my old sewing books and I realized that I didn't need to justify stripe matching to you.  You know why?  You know you should do it.

Yeah you do.  "Allow extra fabric to match plaids or stripes."

No, I am not twisting your words.  I am not taking them out of context.  You always say --

Vogue, cut that out.  Just admit you messed up!  We can get past this.  I just want -- I need -- an explanation!  Were you sick?  Did you forget to pay the utility bill again?  Were you on another bender?  You know I'm always good for the bail money.

Don't slam the door like that!  Fine.  Go out and get drunk with Simplicity.  Why don't you tell him to stop making sample garments out of the Joann's Casa Collection and experiment with something like silk or chiffon for once?!

Vogue?  Vogue?!

I'll wait up in case you call.

McCall's Crazy Caps: Vintage Asylum Wear

Pills, shocks, barred windows

Can't hide the truth.  My true face

Is a sunflower.

Thanks to reader Margi for this fantastic submission -- and apologies to The Selfish Seamstress, but a haiku was the only possible response to this stunner!

New Simplicity Patterns: Do Yo-Yo Animals Dream of Fabric Sheep?

This new craft pattern, Simplicity 2441, may be in the running for one of my favorite pattern envelopes EVER.

At first I glanced at it and thought, "A vintage re-issue.  Cool."  I like vintage re-issues.  And the green Simplicity envelopes were used in the early to mid 70s, which had some absolutely fantastic or some fantastically bad patterns, depending on your point of view.  Then I took a closer look at the envelope and realized that Simplicity had brought us right into science fiction territory:

The old pattern sits perched there, like a family photo.  Papa Monkey, Mama Hippo and Uncle Lion on vacation, perhaps.  Except that...there's no pattern number on the "old" pattern.

Did the old pattern ever exist?  Was it faked for the pattern envelope?  For that matter, why do Monkey, Hippo and Lion need a photo of their forebears?  (Or is the photo of their earlier, wilder 70s lives?)  We're entering Blade Runner territory now, and I'm hearing the Harrison Ford voiceover: "Why would a replicant...keep photos?"

My head is still exploding with the existential implications of yo-yo animal self-awareness when I notice something else: "Simplicity" is misspelled in the subheading!  Yup, someone's left the third "i" out of the word, so that "simplicity archives" reads "simplicty archives."

Whenever I catch one of my own typos, I want to poke an eye out.  But finding a typo on something that had to pass through many levels of approval?  Delightful!  Did this one actually make it into production?  You can bet that I'm swinging by my local Joann's to find out! 

New Vintage Vogue Pattern: The Aprons of Feminine Oppression

Between some fantastic reader submissions and new releases from Simplicity, McCall's and Vogue, it's like Christmas over here at Pattern Junkie HQ!  Sadly a case of the stomach flu has slowed my posting ambitions, but I awoke today ready to jump right back into it.  So much to share!  Let's jump over to Vogue's new patterns, shall we?

Lately there have been some fascinating blog discussions as to whether or not dressing/sewing vintage equals embracing the feminine oppression of the era.  I fall squarely in the "fashion is fun/embrace the freedom to wear what you want" camp, but I have a feeling the artist for Vogue 8643, Vogue's latest contribution to its vintage reproduction category, feels differently:

The aprons strike me as 1950s/early 1960s styles, but these aren't fun rockabilly chicks or sunny 1960s bakers.  Check out the black and white mod sheath dresses and the short haircuts on most of them.  These are mod girls!  Mod girls who've been plucked off the streets of London and Rome and forced into Happy Housewifery School.

Asian Print Apron is the headmistress.  She reminds me a little of the head ballet instructor from Suspiria, and if you've seen Suspiria you know that that's a scary thing.  Heavy-lidded Red with her egg-beater print apron (egg beaters!) forlornly carries drinks, while Yellow searches her gigantic pockets for keys to escape the asylum.  Polka Dot (with her broken wrist!  My wrists bend like that, but I have hyperextended joints) calls for help on the Phone with the Cord to Nowhere, while Green Flowers presents her Cake of Despair.  That cake has gray icing on it, people.  Gray.

Still not convinced?  If you click to see the pattern description on Vogue's website you'll be treated to an actual model shoot they did for the pattern.  Tell me the real title of this isn't "Hopes Drowned in Palmolive and Chardonnay:"

Of Wind Tunnels and Deception: McCall's New Spring Patterns

McCall's and Simplicity just released their new spring patterns a few days ago, so it's time to turn our mockery to modern styles for a bit.  McCall's did have some nice dresses and shirts -- they always do -- just nothing that jumped out as something that different from what I already have in my stash ad nauseaum.

You know what I really loved about the new patterns?  Realizing that McCall's must have used a wind tunnel at the photo shoot.  Note this model's blown-back locks:

Reminiscent of an '80s hair metal video, aren't they?

But they CERTAINLY wouldn't have dared to use that wind tunnel on this pattern, McCall's 6025.  They call this pattern -- this is important -- "MISSES' DRESSES IN 2 LENGTHS."

No.  No.  NO.  McCall's, you CANNOT do this.  You know this is not a dress.  Look at how the poor girl is holding her hands on her hips.  She can't MOVE in that outfit -- much less go out in the wind -- without risking exposing, well, everything.

Don't tell me it's short and flirty, McCall's.  I read the backs of pattern envelopes.  You list the finished length of this "dress" as ranging from 30 1/2 - 32".... while on McCall's 6031, your "TOPS, TUNICS AND DRESSES PATTERN"...

...you list the back length of the TUNICS as ranging from 31 1/4" - 33".  Please.  Some poor novice seamstress is going to pick up this pattern and have her heart broken, not understanding how she messed up and made a dress that exposes her more than a hospital gown. 

Say Hello To My Little Friend

 

My first thought upon seeing this pattern was something like "want-this-in-my-size-where-can-I-get-it?", which is usually my first thought upon encountering any vintage pattern.  My second thought --

-- well, I had no second thought.  My neurons all misfired at once.  When I came out of the void and stopped staring at the pattern envelope in gaping, awestruck wonder, I began to imagine the discussion at Advance HQ before the pattern envelope featuring this chic housewife and her cartoon friend hovering a foot above her kitchen chair went into production:

HEAD OF MARKETING:  Great, so we're all set on 3115.  Moving on to 3116...well, gorgeous job on the dress, Betty.

BETTY:  Thank you.  The yoke is very well-designed.

HEAD OF MARKETING:  That it is.  Your seaming is beautiful as always.  As for the illustration...well, Pierre, I do like the hands on the hips pose.  It's very jaunty.

PIERRE: She is like a French sailor, oui. 

HEAD OF MARKETING: Why is she so much smaller than the other model?

PIERRE: You do this all the time in American patterns, no?  One giantess and one little one?

BETTY: Why is she floating a foot above the wicker chair?

PIERRE: Ah!  It is very hip, no?  Like the Rolling Stones song.  She is Mother's Little Helper.

HEAD OF MARKETING: I'm sorry.  I don't think they're referring to -- no.  I don't really know what they're singing about, but I'm quite sure it's not a floating mini-helper.

PIERRE: She is like a genie then?  Like the television show with the woman in the bottle, except that she lives in the chair --

BETTY: You can't live in a wicker chair.  There's no way to close it up for the night.

PIERRE: How can you really live in a bottle?  It's magic.  You  must suspend your disbelief.

BETTY: A bottle has a top, a bottom and sides.  A wicker chair has -- where does she sleep?  Where do her velvet curtains and pillows go?

PIERRE: Mother's Little Helper, she is ingenious.  At night she hangs --

HEAD OF MARKETING: Approved!  We're moving on to 3117.