My Vintage Pattern Collection

One of the things I've quietly been doing in the background is collecting old patterns from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Mostly the 50's, though, as I just love the full-skirted look. I have a small collection at the moment. I keep changing my mind about which one I'll make up first. Advance 7011: this one I bought because of the neat faux-bolero.

Pirate Shirts are Big

Well, I finished the construction of the shirt from Simplicity 4923, the pirate costume. As I mentioned earlier, it was a very simple shirt, and I made it difficult for myself by deciding to embroider it.

It uses a dropped shoulder as a feature, and unfortunately they accomplish this by making the main torso section huge. They could have chosen a yoke, like the style of Simplicity 3519, and had the torso fit more comfortably.

Yarr...It be a Puffy Shirt

So, I have begun the construction of the pirate shirt I promised Jon for last year's pirate fest, and then last year's halloween. :/

In actual fact, it's a very straightforward shirt: I could finish it in an evening.
So, naturally, I decided to embroider the cuffs and neckline.

I'll have to get a better picture later. But long story short, I make life difficult for myself.

Oh, ruffles...

So, when I bought a whole bunch of eyelet trim for the farthingale, I thought I had enough. Nowhere near. So I went out to buy another 15 metres or so.

Well, I couldn't find it at the local Fabricland, nor the nearest three, nor the huge one on Ottawa street. It turns out they've discontinued it! And, moreover, the company that makes it has been acquired by another, and they don't really exist anymore!

I happened to get the one employee from the old company on the phone, and she knew what I was talking about, and found me some old stock buried in the warehouse somewhere. I had to buy a lot of it, though.

It's just my luck that the trim I base a whole article of clothing on goes discontinued just in time for all stock to run out at the time I've discovered I need more.

An Underbust Corset

I was quite inspired by the new corset pattern by King and Company. I decided that I wanted to make up a quick underbust to add to a basic deep green satin dress to make an old-fashioned Snow White costume for halloween. Guess what didn't happen?

Fathingcoat! Pettigale?

So a long time ago I decided to create one of the undergarments for the Tudor Gown. It would need a farthingale to make the skirt stand out straight. It would then need a petticoat to hide the steels. I had a brainstorm. A combination farthingale-petticoat: a farthingale with rows of ruffles sewn right onto it. And I began. I spoke about the scads and scads of ruffles previously.

I had an idea that I would need to get proper steel for it, but I did not like the thought. I figured, maybe if I get the cheap plastic boning, but put a few rows right beside each other, they'll reinforce each other and be fine. Take note: this does not work. It makes more work for you, in fact, because then you have to painstakingly pick out the stitches for all those superfluous horizontal rows.

Anyway, I finally got them unpicked and I have some proper steels, and I have sewn the casings on (measured meticulously) and started to sew the flounces on.

It takes longer than I anticipated. Also, I have decided I need to make an actual skirt with three flounces at the bottom -- I kind of like the look of this.