Simplicity 4530

I have made this blouse which has been cut out for a couple of days,but due to various family commitments and meeting up with old friends ,I only had a chance to sit down and have a go and make it yesterday.The fabric I bought from a charity shop for £2 and is a gents shirt fabric but is quite a pretty pale blue and white design and is quite a good quality so a bargain considering the price I paid.I wanted originally to make the longer sleeve version but due to the stripe I had to be content with the shorter sleeve version.The sleeves themselves are supposed to be like a rolled over cuff which does look nice ,but I quite like to leave the sleeve remain unrolled. I was going to do bound buttonholes but as I was not quite happy with the way the collar went I did not think that it was worth the effort so I made do with machine made buttonholes.However I must have just hit the right combination of stitch length and width as my machine, that can be a bit temperamental when it comes to producing the odd buttonhole or two performed superbly so there are three perfect buttonholes.

I quite like the way that the collar at the back meets and overlaps even though the actual sewing of it is not that great. Apologies for the poor photo quality combined with lack of a good pressing but the blouse in real life does look quite nice and fits really well.

35 Dresses !

As my daughter happened to be wearing a dress I have recently made for her I thought I would take the opportunity and take her photo. Unfortunately it was one of the few gloomy days we have had weather wise here recently but never mind. This pattern is a McCalls number M5800 and is not a vintage one although I think it might be out of print by now. Lydia wanted a few years ago to have a dress made in the Sweet Lolita style and we picked this out as the most promising one to start with.As ever the actual Sweet Lolita dress still remains unmade although having made this one I think that it could work quite well with a few adaptations. I used a really nice soft cotton poplin and lined the bodice and skirt with a black cotton lawn.It hangs and falls quite nicely,swishes with pleasing effect and you can puff it up with various petticoats so it has a sort of vintage feel to it.
Lydia is now back at university and bearing in mind that her wardrobe hanging space is only 12 inches wide she took with her 2 petticoats,5 skirts,2 straw hats and 35 dresses and not a single pair of jeans or trousers. There still remains at home a large number of summer dresses that did not make the final selection for one reason or another together with the winter wardrobe now packed away.

Red Fabric Part Two

I had lots of this fabric leftover from the maxi dress and I saw this pattern a few weeks ago on ebay and I just had to have it because I just love ruffles. Again this pattern dates from sometime in the 1970's and I think it is just so sweet and pretty.I had to have the two ruffle version and it made up so nicely in this fabric, but I did shorten it to the same length as another favourite skirt of mine and it just swishes nicely about the ankles. I will make another one this shorter length and one as a full length maxi skirt. I don't think the top would suit me so that could be something for the daughter.Hopefully by the end of the summer my old ladies chicken feet will look slightly more tanned...

Red Fabric Part One

Unfortunately Myrna wasn't being too cooperative for whatever reason and I just couldn't get this dress to look right in a photo.Perhaps it is the way I made it but it did look nice when my daughter tried it on. The fabric is a nice soft viscose type cotton which drapes nicely and is nice and soft to wear.Anyway, the pattern is a New Look Maudella pattern number 6095 which must date from the early to mid 1970's and will be just right for punting on the river in the summer.

"That " Dress

They say that into each life a little rain must fall and I think that with this particular dress I was at the receiving end of a deluge. I have had this pattern for a little while and it is a Vogue reissue of an original 1957 design which I was,or at least thought I was, looking forward to making.However,this was most definitely "one of those" which reduces you to the primeval desire to run around the house stabbing wildly at things with pinking shears.EVERYTHING went wrong from the word go with the cutting out to the very end with the hem.Bitter tears have been wept over this dress and my daughter will be made to wear it or else. Either it is the wonderful spring sunshine or the fact that Myrna knows best how to pull off a dodgy neckline but it doesn't look too bad in this picture but I know how awful this dress is up close and I don't think I will make another one.

The Pink One

Hello and welcome to "The Makings of an Urban Rustic". In a fit of zeal and in an effort to rationalise my pattern stack and pile of fabric I thought I would not only make the effort and finish previously started dresses and skirts but also make some new ones for my daughters spring wardrobe.This exercise in thrift and frugality has slightly backfired in that I am now back into full throttle buying mode of both patterns and fabric,although I have found some treasures in the local charity shops ( they are some very well fed cats in our town now). One of the recent makes, modelled by Myrna in the garden,is from the pattern in the picture which dates from 1957.This was straightforward to make although the gathers around the neck and sleeves are held in place with ribbon drawstings.This is fine but the ribbon I have used is a bit shiny and I can see it undoing itself so I might have to change it to an elasticated gather with a ribbon trim. Also, I should have adjusted the depth of the tiers of the skirt before cutting out as my daughter is only petite in the height department. Instead I just went all out and made it before she came home from Uni and then did the trying on.On the bright side however I made the sash for the waist out of what I chopped off the bottom so I was thrifty after all.