New Pretties
I know, but if I don’t buy them, who will? (Osiris is not noted for his adherence to any Christmas list but the one inside his own head.)
So I splurged a bit in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Although not enough ahead of time to have anything arrive in time to stuff in my stocking…
Anyway, I am now the proud owner of:
The Colette Sewing Handbook, the Negroni men’s shirt pattern, and the Clover pants.
AND,
Vintage Patterns
McCall 6288, a kimono-sleeve blouse pattern from 1945, and “Progressive Farmer” 2953, a 1950s dress from a mail-order pattern company. Both of these were ordered on a whim from New Vintage Lady‘s etsy shop. Both are a size 12; unfortunately it’s the “old sizing” size 12, which is the one where I’m a 14 or 16. These are made for a 30″ bust. My ribcage (underbust) is 29″. Happy grading fun.
McCall 6288 could be the Colette Sencha’s grandmother. It’s a cute, simple blouse pattern with an optional keyhole cutout and tucks at the waist, buttoning up the back. It’s also designed to be tucked in, which is an iffy look for me. We’ll see how that goes. I have a feeling I’ll be dropping the waist tucks… that also strikes me as an iffy look for me. Nothing like pushing your comfort barrier ;). Sherry of Pattern Scissors Cloth recently posted about finding “your decade” style-wise. And let’s face it, pretty as it is, 50s isn’t mine.
The mail-order pattern is a dress, with a neat front yoke/sleeve thingy going on and a yoke below the waist that creates a nice dropped-waist line. There is a waist-seam, but seeing as I’m going to be grading to make any use out of these, I can try to eliminate it at the same time. Depends on what the darts are doing (and how much I need to reduce them), anyway.
Wasteful? Possibly. Whimsical? Definitely. The only thing I’m in any real danger of making up in the near future is the Clover pants, for which I already have some fabric picked out. There are plans for the Negroni, too, of course, but not until I’ve recovered from the Hubs’ Jacket. Which I finally have the pattern all done. Yup, that’s right, it’s not even cut out. (In my defense, the pattern work—I’m following Sherry’s RTW Tailoring sewalong posts from last spring—is fairly substantial, as was the fitting.). But I think I’ll try to jump on the Clovers first. I was going through my projects the other day and realized the only things I’ve made for myself all fall are knit tops. Quick, satisfying, practical, and useful? Absolutely. But it’s definitely time for something a little more… more. Y’know.
Now, I must hunt down posts about the Clovers for those of us with a more rectangular shape…
Tanit-Isis Sews 
As I have a quest to own all sewing books ever published (I`m doing pretty well in my goal), I really want the Colette book. I have one question about it, I have heard the patterns in the book are vintage inspired, like her commercial patterns, is this true?
There are five patterns in the book, a skirt, a blouse, and three dresses. They are fairly simple, but similar in aesthetic to other Colette patterns, I think. If you check out the Colette Patterns Blog, during the fall they showcased each pattern, so you can have a good look at them even without buying the book.
Also, is that a blog link I spy? Wheeee!
Oh I love those pre-christmas post christmas ‘purchases’. Enjoy and good luck with the tailoring. One day, one day I’ll brave something “more”. :o)
The RTW tailoring is much less time consuming (although still fairly intensive!) than hand-tailoring. The actual cutting and sewing will be fairly straight forward—a lot of the work is in the pattern preparation. 🙂
The RTW tailoring sewalong posts are epic. So great. I kind of want to make another jacket.
Yay – presents for yourself! You deserve it, you are such a hard-working productive sewist!
What neat vintage pattern acquisitions – I can really see you in the purple blouse. Isn’t it great how they used to illustrate the patterns with plaids a lot, so you can see the design possibilities there?
Aww, thanks! I do love how they play with the plaid, and how it shows up the grainline. 🙂
Nothing like new, er… old patterns for the new year. Love your choices and the fact that you’ll be sewing for yourself. You’ll want to review the shirt sew-along at Peter’s MPB blog. He based it on the Negroni pattern.
Yup, I will. I followed along with it the first time, although I used a different pattern. Which I need to talk more about one of these days…
ooooh! i’m in lab and am heading to the bookstore straight after to get the colette book. i can’t wait to read it!!
I suffer the same “deafness to Christmas requests” in this house, so bought myself the Colette book. I am not sure the patterns are “me” but I am enjoying the wardrobe analysis pages. I definitely see you in the Clovers!
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I feel about it. But it’s beautiful and inspiring to read over, even if I don’t use the patterns (and I might, you never know! 🙂 )
Lovely choices. I have read through my copy of Colette but haven’t really decided what I want to tackle first. I love the vintage patterns you snagged. The dress is so pretty. I see how the blouse is like Sencha, lots of similarities.
I guess you are familiar with the ‘cheat sheet’ for trouser fitting from the Coletter Patterns blog?
(by the way, you asked about my ‘flat-butt adjustment’. My particular ‘problem’ wasn’t even on that sheet: wrinkles below the butt and the back sitting higher on the body than the front. I found out that for me, just taking material away from the top at the center back seam solved my issues (about 3 cm at center back, tapering to nothing at the sideseam. and remember to keep the resulting top of the back the same length as the old one. Obviously, that may be different for everyone. My butt isn’t really that flat, just less rounded in comparison to my hip shape than on that non-existent ‘average figure’)
About those patterns… Who doesn’t love vintage patterns? I recently splurged on some vintage ’50 and ’60 pattern magazines myself. As soon as I receive the second batch I’ll post about them…
You could try and muslin the top as it is, that style often comes with quite a lot of ease.
And good luck with that coat. Fitting men’s jackets is such a challenge…
I am—I’m more looking for reviews of it ;). (I guess I should hunt through the Colette forum if I’m really curious). It’s not so much a lack of methods, as a bit of bewilderment as to which might be the best in that situation. And yours sounds different again! 🙂
I plan on checking the blouse pattern against some others I have, but just taking some measurements off it it’s still probably a bit small. Depending on whether I do the tucks in the waist, anyway.
Heh, I “had” to buy myself a Christmas present for the same reason, but I went the way of a Japanese book since my library has the Colette book (which I will get to use after the 30 people in front of me!).