Sewing time has been very limited of late.. But I am determined to finish a baby doll nightie by this Sunday… Here is the pattern, the liberty lawn and trim…
Who doesn’t love a baby doll nightie???
Here is some more late 50s to early 70s inspiration from my collection of patterns and catalogues… Enjoy!
Its Australia day weekend here in Aus and it feels like I have spent most of the day “working”… Many years ago I chanced upon an elderly seamstress and acquired a number of items from her own collection of vintage patterns. You know, pretty Australian Home Journals from the 40s and 50s, a gorgeous 40s Vogue Counter Catalogue from 1947 (it was the first of a number of treasured volumes) and a very special dressmaking book from the 1950s, designed for the home seamstress who wanted to draft their own patterns. I feel such a bond with other seamstresses… Especially those who worked through the years of austerity during World War II- who doesn’t admire thrift, talented workmanship, the skill to make something from nothing in such times? At the time it seemed very dear but I knew from all the gorgeous designs I was going to treasure it… forever! The book was similar to Lutterloh and imagine how wonderful to know it is out of copyright and in the public domain.
So its taken me a while to reproduce it, but I FINALLY added it to my etsy store as an ebook today. For 225 pretty patterns including evening gowns, halter dresses, lingerie and childrens wear, I think its a value buy!
Anyway, here is the eye candy… All of these designs are in the book. The book shows you how to draft each corresponding pattern piece. It does assume a healthy knowledge of garment construction. I wish I had the figure for some of those Claire McCardell style bathing suits!!!
Gorgeous and flattering…
Claire McCardell images
from a February 1959 pattern catalogue in my collection. Almost a year after her death, her designs were still going strong…
It’s been hot and humid in Australia’s capital today – here is a dress for an endless Summer
Love the bodice (top right) which was clearly adapted from French couturier designs from Paris. What yummy dresses.
How is your post Christmas holiday going? We are enjoying a few days at Culburra Beach on the New South Wales South Coast- thanks to the generosity of my older brother who has been cooking for us and providing plentiful amounts of good coffee. Its wonderful to get out of your daily routine, to relax, to enjoy family… Culburra Beach is a typically example of the “Great Aussie beach”… Here are some pics to share with you…
Of course I couldn’t post without a little vintage fashion pleasure to share also… here are a few magazines I picked up at an antique store in Kangaroo Valley on the drive here. The drive is only supposed to be 3 hours from Canberra, but throw in two children in the mix and you can make that 5 (with stopovers etc)!
The last picture is an advertisement from VOGUE, July 1951… can you recognise the model? This (later) world famous actress modelled part time before she made it big… it was interesting to find the advert for “Lacto-Calamine”
I am definitely pleased that the weather in Canberra is changing- Spring literally is in the air- its almost like a different scent, the light changes this time of year… free of Winter the options for our weekends broaden. I can barely wait. Today could only be described as glorious. It was a gorgeous day actually. My husband and I made it to a little cafe in Canberra called Elk and Pea (in Braddon)- thumbs up, but do book ahead! The interior reminded me of the industrialised decor that is so popular in the cafes near Venice Beach in LA. It was a great feeling to head to the pool for an hour with my son and then some home to listen to them playing ball together in the garden. Life is made of those simple, magic pleasures. I felt so grateful to be alive.
Anyway back to my passion with vintage fashion… Having read a 1940s LIFE magazine article that has me now quite interested in other designers of the era including Carolyn Schnurer and Tina Leser, vintage style resort wear is definitely on my mind! And nothing is so classic as the halter- or as synonymous with the 1950’s, thanks largely to Miss Monroe!
1950s style… eternal
Luscious red- 7454 made up in an early 1950s pattern book (Onondaga silk advertisement)… LOVE the cloth covered buttons…
Below is a 50s Vogue Pattern Book image of 7375 (featured in Vogue’s New Book for Better Sewing– don’t you love the old illustrations in these old pattern books. Art in and of themselves. I actually do have this pattern but making Claire McCardell’s wrap dress pattern is more appealing at the moment. Additionally, whilst I have the book, I misplaced it when we moved house last year. Very annoying… I had really wanted to use the book as a reference. Fortunately, I had made a back up on CD (so I could read it on my iPad using “SPLASHTOP”)… but its probably a little lower on the to do list, especially give it is totally backless… That said, I imagine it would be very quick to make!
Vogue Pattern Book, 1949
Its one thing to see a pretty pattern illustration, its another thing to see how a dress looks when it has been made up. Today I bring you an image from 1949… the pattern is Vogue 6757
Dating from 1949
Before Diane Von Furstenberg stormed the fashion world with her 1970s wrap dress, there was of course Claire McCardell whom I could wax lyrical about for… well… a while.
A couple of years ago I took my first shot at making her classic surplice wrap dress using Spadea pattern 1146… a dress of which examples occasionally pop up in vintage fashion stores and that are featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, typically in gingham and checks. It is one of my fav McCardell designs because it is so classic, generally flattering and wearable… decades after it was conceived.
I decided that with Summer around the corner here in the Southern hemisphere, Christmas get togethers, picnics and barbecues, another go at this McCardell dress – with what time I can manage before the baby- would be well timed. So I decided to mix a few of my fav things: McCardell, Liberty floral lawn and the colour RED. I confess, I bought some shoes from Lord and Taylor a year ago in the same print and thought why not a matching dress? I found the fabric at fabric.com and bought what remained of the yardage (barely enough).
Got it right this time? A McCardell bodice (made using Spadea pattern 1146… the bottom part of the bodice gets sewn to a gathered skirt (basically) with nice deep pockets.
The images at the Met have been really helpful in terms of interpreting the folds on the pattern which I did have trouble with last time. But I think I have got it right… now all I have to do is baste the way I have pinned! (I find that tricky too at times to be honest, its so much easier to work with fabric on a mannequin than at a table- you can see clearly what you are doing…
Hopefully I will have a few more little opportunities to make some progress!
What a gorgeous dress- elegant in every way. Nothing like a snap like this to inspire a little dressmaking. Griffe is one of my fav 50s designers… some of hi designs were adapted as Vogue Paris Original patterns.
Jacques Griffe… elegance lives through the decades
So Summer is definitely on my mind… or at least Spring! Though the weather has been literally freezing in Canberra I am pleased to have noticed a few little flowers poking their petals out towards the sun. Its a matter of weeks (if not days)? before our second child arrives in our lives. I am frantically working through what seems to be an ever growing to do list… all those little things I have been putting off (that typically involved some form of cleaning).
All the same, I still try to make time to enjoy some of the beautiful images in my pattern books.
I love the simplicity of some of the Summer dresses popular in the 1950s, not least of all Vogue 8003 which looks super easy to make… and yet so versatile for an afternoon at home, in the garden or at the market… what do you think?
Vogue 8003 as illustrated in a 1950s Vogue pattern catalog
Claire McCardell is my favourite and thanks to the generosity of an etsy seller, SweetBeeFinds, I am able to share these gorgeous photos of a Claire McCardell sun dress that recently sold at the store. I had been eyeing it off and wishing, but ultimately couldn’t justify the expense with a little one about to arrive… when it sold I wanted to mourn, I just love the back cut out and the pretty cowl neck at the front.
I’d like to think there would be an afternoon I could put my feet up in something like this on a hot day and drink lemonade. But with two little ones (soon) I don’t see that happening for a little while! I do have a McCardell sun dress pattern (Spadea) which rather ambitiously I have started cutting (knowing I probably won’t finish it for eons if baby arrives sooner than later….)
Feast your eyes McCardell lovers! Don’t you just love the colour??? Look at that back… divine.
Claire McCardell- a sunny colour, a fabulous style!
Twinkle Sparkle Shine 