One vintage pattern can look so different!

 

I don’t have many bought patterns, vintage or otherwise, because I prefer to draft my own. I’ve used this vintage pattern several times now, simply because the shape fits me really well, and as every maker knows, the fab thing about a tried and tested pattern is that the variations of it are limitless! These images show some simple changes to one pattern. The pink blouse uses the pattern as is, and I added double buttons as a feature. The zig zag gives it a 70’s look. The cotton presses beautifully to form box pleats from darts that I added to the front pattern pieces. The lace collar adds a nostalgic charm, and this one is sleeveless.

This pink blouse is refashioned from the dress and featured here, if you haven’t already seen this post? I have not had to alter this pattern in any way and better still I can use it as a basic shape to use and explore in many other ways. The most obvious way to change the look of one simple paper pattern is to use different fabric types.

Version 2, refashioned from a kimono, giving it a bit of a 70’s vibe! With this fabric, I added 2 back darts and narrowed the sleeve and added cuffs. How to narrow the sleeve pattern is featured here.

Version 3. When I decided to make the pattern in this Moda fabric, 100% cotton, I knew it would be a fairly structured shape. Anticipating this, I lengthened the front and back pattern pieces, and used the already redrafted version of the slimmer sleeve, adding turn up cuffs. The body, when made up created a boxier shape than the previous fabrics I had used, which were much drapier, and because of this I decided to sew tucks into the fronts and backs, to create some extra shaping. I had already marked the position of the back darts for version 2.

I made the collar slightly shorter, to give more of a collar and rever shape.

I had blue vintage buttons and decided on a vintage look belt.

Version 4 is a refashion from a maxi skirt, it is sleeveless, only because I hadn’t enough fabric.

I used the back dart shaping, added side slits and multiple buttons. You can find this top’s story here!

And I’m not finished with this pattern yet!

Miss Marple, the muse, a refashion and reusing a collar shape

My favourite of all the Miss Marples is the one played by Geraldine Mckeown. I love the costume work of whoever designed the garments for this series. If I was younger I would dress like this all the time, but now I’m too old for doing that, when I say this I mainly mean the hats! But that doesn’t mean I can’t poach little bits and pieces for ideas for the things I make!

Found!! One giant, masses of fabric in it, waterfall cardigan. This one is perfect to refashion into a Miss Marple coatigan?

Once I find a shape I like I see no reason not to reuse it.

I used the collar shape that I had copied from my 50’s jacket. It was simple to make it a bit deeper by adding on 2 – 3 cms onto the outer edge only. I transferred the neck shape and the front rever shape too.

However, turns out, I don’t suit this coatigan at all, it looks better on the dummy than it looks on me. Time to rethink it? I decided simply to shorten it, unpicked and moved up the pockets and cut 15cm off the hem, leaving a new hem of 4cm. I also changed the buttons to a bigger size. The sleeves had been slightly too short so I added a narrow cuff.

It has kept a granny look though, maybe because the fabric looks like big plain knitting stitches, I don’t know, but at this new length it has become one of my new favourites!

 

Faux fur collars and how to cut and make the one that stays fastened!

 

I found this DVD, this is one of my favourite films, and books, ever…the chameleon like charm of the lead man, played by Tom Courtney, seems oddly familiar!? Or perhaps its the comedy and everyday charm that belongs to the Kitchen Sink Drama movement that makes me love the film so much!! However what I found myself looking at was the fabulous faux fur scarf worn by Julie Christie, and this reminded me that I had recently discovered my favourite method for fastening such a scarf.

Now I’m not new to these cosy scarves, I bought my first one many years ago and have found them occasionally in charity shops and sales since, but it wasn’t until I decided to write a post about the best fastening for a fur collar that I realised just how many I had. Let’s just add faux fur scarves to my obsessive collections list which already includes buttons, brooches, clocks and mirrors! The two above are the favourites. The one on the left was the first to be given a new fastening, I mean, if it doesn’t have a fastening of some sort, how does it stay on??

I added giant poppers.

The scarf on the right is perfection. The loop created in the sewing together of this fur scarf means that the scarf can move up and down through the loop so that it can be worn loose and low or high up and cosy!! I’ll add the pattern and how to make this one up at the end of this post.

How many of these do I have…I’m almost embarrassed to say…13!! and there could be more but I’m not going to look. Seems I have definitely made collecting fur scarves a new obsession!

The traditional hook and eye doesn’t work for me – it slides out of place too easily. So I will have to add a popper!

The unusual clip, like a hairclip, started out quite well, but the more it was used the less the grip worked!

The giant, gap, almost like a buttonhole gives a good shape, but eventually it needed help? I added a clear giant popper.

The strip, worked like a belt loop, and looks like it should work really well, but it also got the help of a popper.

I altered this one, last year, the scarf was simply a double strip of fur fabric and it wouldn’t sit well tied, too thick and bulky, nor would it sit straight down, too bouncy! I slit two lines in the fur fabric and sewed in a tube of lining, sewing the two sides of the slit into a circle, on both sides, making it almost like a hand muff. This seemed like a good technique, but its not the best one.

These 4 are more like collars and each one has a series of small elasticated loops that button onto corresponding buttons on a cardigan or jacket. This method works really well!

Finally the best one of all and the pattern.

You will need

A fur strip 126cm x 18cm, 2 pieces of lining 96cm x 17cm and 30cm x 17cm, add the seam allowances you prefer to use. The 1cm difference in the widths is to allow for the fur to roll slightly round onto the lining.

With right sides of the fabric together, sew the smaller piece of lining to the fur. Sew from the raw edges to the spot marked with the vertical pin, a seam allowance amount from the edge of the lining. Do this on both sides.

Pull through to the right side and fold over to meet all the raw edges together.

Pull the lining pieces and the fur together and pin.

Machine stitch across, keeping the long piece of the fur underneath and out of the way of the stitching.

And sew across, this forms the loop.

You should only have sewn 2 lining edges and 1 fur edge, the stitch line does not go through onto the main body of the fur!

5

Go back into the loop and snip to the stitches on both sides. Time to add the longer lining piece.

Pin from the snips in the fur fabric, leave the lining seam allowance as an overlap, do not stitch it, and then stitch all round the rest of the scarf.

Stitched round. Now pull through this part of the scarf, or…

because I’m a bit lazy with the hand stitching, I went back in to stitch across the opening as far as I could with the machine, then I pulled the right sides through!

If the fur was bulkier, I would probably have hand stitched across this whole seam, since the tail of the scarf has to come through it.

Hand stitch to close the opening.

Finished. I gave this a hovering steam press, not actually touching the fabric!?

Wear it medium, low or high! Depending on the weather! Now I have faux fur scarf number 14! I should add that this faux fur scarf was made from an old faux fur scarf! A refashion! The fabric is so so soft and smooth that it used to slide off, not any more!

Matching checks for a fitted jacket

This piece of fabric, a poly/wool mix, and the buttons are from Edinburgh Fabrics. My intention was to make a fitted jacket from a block I had drafted many years ago from instructions from a book of 40’s blocks! I have never managed to find the book again. It was the 80’s and with the shapes being so different, at the time, I had used part of this block and modified it into a vintage look jacket but with bigger shoulders and deeper armholes, of course!

I redrafted it onto paper and checked it on the dummy and off I went, cutting out the 40’s shape.

When I cut checks or stripes I cut each piece individually. I’ve used the sleeve piece as an example. I find a vertical stripe in the check and match it to the grain line, pin occasionally and cut out. I remove the paper pattern and use the cut piece of fabric to finish the pair, and remember to flip it over to make the pair!! The third image above shows the matching of the checks, but since it should be perfect and therefore invisible, I placed the pattern piece back on to show how it works. The last image shows how invisible it should be. Cutting each pattern piece individually is time consuming but it is really worth it. I interfaced the hems, top collar, and facings.

I like to get the tricky bits of sewing done first, so matching checks on the darts and then to construct the welt pockets. These darts are pinned across the checks and I pick out several horizontal lines to follow, and pin the dart shaping.

With the checks in the darts matching I mark on the welt pocket position. I do these before sewing up the rest of the jacket, then if there is a nasty incident I can recut!!

Sometimes I make the lining and facings before I make the outer jacket, and this time I was so pleased that I had. It wasn’t until I started to make it up that I realised it was not going to fit well at all. The main problem being the sleeves and armhole shaping, and the entire shape from the underarm up? So almost everything, but my top collar had worked and I really liked the shape of it and I had to recut the fronts and back, but saving the darts and welt pockets.

A quick unpick of the sleeves meant I could recut them in a much smaller pattern that I already had, the fronts and back had the darts and pockets stitched in place, so no changing them, but a bit of manoeuvring meant they could be saved. What surprised me most was the amount I took off from the shoulder and neckline? Anyway the purpose of this post was to explain how I like to cut out checks and since I had to recut almost the entire thing I was certainly getting in the practice!!

I also want to include my easy way of putting together a lined jacket with collar and rever. With everything recut and resewn, I complete the outer pieces and attach the collar ready to attach the facings and lining.

I attach the facings to their corresponding lining pieces and make the entire inside. When I sew the lining to the facing I always have the lining on the top and follow the notches, it doesn’t slide about as much as it would if the lining was underneath!

With the outside and inside pieces ready, I sew the two together, literally with the right sides together I join them along the outside edges, from facing edge right round to facing edge, sandwiching the collar in between. The images show the collar attached and ready to be sandwiched, the facing side rever and the outside rever edges. Turn through, press and hem. Oops, the sleeve was going to be too short, so I gave it a false hem. Finished.

The collar and rever shaping is from my 80’s jacket, I’m feeling the temptation to try a remake of this!

For Designin December. Another pattern hack, how to and a refashion #DESIGNINDECEMBER

 

This is an great idea from Linda of Nice dress! Thanks, I made it. and I did check with her if it was ok for me to join in as a refashioner! My inspiration for #DESIGNINDECEMBER is a collection of floral’s from Milan Fashion Week. I couldn’t find one particular image to use so my outfit is intended to sit alongside these. Ha ha! can you spot me?? I’ll include all the elements I enjoy in my making of this. A refashioned vest made from a shirt, a £3 pair of trousers, narrowed and shortened and a lightweight jacket made from a pattern hack of the Sewoverit vintage shirt dress.

So I’ve been looking for a pretty floral, 70’s influence and found one in one of my favourite sources for fabric, a sale rail, with palazzo pants for £9. It does have that 70’s curtain fabric look, which I really like, and the fabric feels great!

I had another idea for a pattern hack of the Sewoverit vintage shirt dress! To eliminate the waist seam, but keep the tucks at the waistline. And to remove the gathering at the shoulder seam and the sleeve head. Here’s how to

I started by drawing round the front bodice shape. I wanted to take out the shoulder gathering from the front. I found the bust point by folding out the gathering and cutting open the dart line that would have originally formed the front tuck.

redraw round the front.

The next bit

I drew round the top of the skirt pattern pieces and marked down the length of 10cm.

Cut it out and divide it into 4 pieces. Then cut the pieces apart. I always number pieces like this,because they look so similar to each other, to get them back into the correct order

As you fit the pieces onto the waist of the bodices, you can straighten them out. This gives you the side seam shaping and a reduced hem edge.

Draw round the back bodice, the new front is sitting alongside. The reason I cut the skirt pieces is because the original waist is on a curve and I need it to be straighter to line up with the line of the waists of the front and back bodices.

I redrew round the new front and back pieces, pinned them together, pinned the new tucks and fitted it onto the dummy, to check that the changes were sitting correctly. I then changed the neckline to be a band to fit round the front and back neck and hold the button and buttonholes. I also reduced the amount of ease in the sleeve head, to loose the gathering!

The pattern pieces are now ready to fit into the trouser.

I unpicked the inside legs and removed the waistband and pressed before laying out the pattern pieces.

And the finished jacket type blouse!

The trousers, bought for £3, are too long and wide. I chopped off 10cm and marked in 3.5cm each side, from the knee down, where I wanted it to be narrower. I always use the finished length line as a fold for the hem and mirror image from it. There’s nothing worse than a hem not having enough length to stitch round. This method guarantees enough length regardless of how deep the hem is!

Finally, to complete the outfit, a plain black vest top, already blogged about here and worn on very many occasions by me.

Cat’s back! His brother is totally camera shy! Anyway, complete outfit, I don’t usually find inspiration in this way, but I have enjoyed doing this. I’m out to eat with some pals this week and I’m planning on wearing this!

 

 

 

A 70’s Simplicity pattern

Then and Now. 70’s Simplicity pattern. Photo by Bejoy Sanjeev. Samples made by me. Everything created by KellyDawn Riot.

Recently I discovered the joy of working from a simplicity pattern. From it I discovered the perfect way to produce a V-neck. A V-neck tunic with a collar and facing. Ahhh! I’ve avoided one off these for a long time. However the instructions from the bought pattern were there for me to refer to and they were very clear.

The original instructions tell you to stitch, and then double stitch, between the two dots. For me this meant two stitches!?

Two stitches!? Surely not? Surely you need to sew to a perfect V point!?

But no!? I stitched exactly as they said and produced the most manageable , perfect V ever.

Just goes to show, in the world of sewing you can learn and go on learning. This is one of my favourite tips

Who would think that a Perfect V would be created from TWO stitches, and this made it very much easier to snip into turn through and press.

photos by Bejoy Sanjeev

The images above are from the new menswear collection “formication” by KellyDawn Riot.

First version of my refashion using the two stitch V- neck technique.

These V-neck shapes are much softer than that of the simplicity pattern, but the technique still works really well!

Making samples, a polo neck top.

Polo neck top and flared trousers from vintage 70’s patterns, photo by Bejoy Sanjeev, samples made by me. Everything created by KellyDawn Riot

I recently finished sewing garments for a textile designer. I had to use one of the images from Kelly’s look book in this blog because I think they’re fab! You can see the entire collection “formication” by KellyDawn Riot here. I usually stick to pattern cutting for others, or pattern cutting and sewing toiles, or pattern cutting, sewing toiles and finished garments, or cutting patterns to be graded and manufactured industrially. And then for myself I re-sew virtually anything that inspires me! When you make up sample garments for someone else you cannot hide from the “bits” you let yourself avoid!! So what did I learn or relearn from this!?
I was working from vintage 70’s menswear patterns. Oh dear does the 70’s count as vintage, unfortunately I think it does!? And I must confess that it’s my first time using patterns not made by myself. What I found I liked was the decent amount of seam allowance they used – 1.5cm. I felt this allowed for any fabric fraying (which is often an unknown factor) and just in case any dreaded unpicking was necessary. I did read the construction instructions but found myself using my own methods, as a double check they were useful, but I was reminded of how tricky it is when explaining “how to do” sewing techniques.

I started working on the polo neck tops. They were all made in single jersey fabric, some printed, some plain. In industry the very fast way of manufacturing garments of this type is with a 4 thread machine, which is similar to an overlocker but the extra thread produces a far more secure finish for the seam. I have an ancient 3 thread overlocker which I use on everything but I wanted a good sewing machine stitch to allow for the stretch in the stretch fabric. My baby is a Bernina activa 240. It has so many types of stitches that I haven’t even tried yet? An excellent test to find out if a stitch type will endure wear and tear on a jersey fabric is simply to sew it as a straight line on an off cut of the fabric – and pull – if you hear the stitches “crack” then it’s the wrong stitch and try another! If it “cracks” on a finished seam on the garment it will leave a hole? I tried no.9 – the super stretch stitch, it worked well, didn’t crack, but took a long time to sew and used a lot of thread. Next I tried  no.20 – jersey stitch, no, then no.25 – lycra stitch, no, then no.26 – stretch stitch, yes, perfect. This stitch passed all my requirements and pressed very nicely too. The hems were easy. I used my twin needle to imitate a coverstitch finish for the sleeve edges and hems. This needle stitches the two rows of stitching 4mm apart.

Another of the polo tops. These images were taken by me at the opening exhibition of Kelly’s collection in July.

My overcoat remake

Someone reminded me of a coat I used to have that I loved and wore all the time. Pattern by me and made by me about 25 years ago! I had kept the pattern with the intention of making it again at sometime and since I had noticed these overcoat shapes appearing again in vintage shops and fairs, this confirmed the need to remake.

So I jumped straight in: got checked wool, cut out matching all checks, sewed in welt pockets. Quickly sewed it together, tried it on and it was huge (I forgot how much bigger 80’s shapes were) but with some perseverance I re-cut and sewed it together again.

Add a fur collar and fur edged gloves for those chillier days.

Recently, while buying a birthday card, the (much younger sales assistant) complimented me on my coat. I loved it and thanked her without saying I’d made it myself!!

Of course my shabby 80s pattern had to be re-drafted. This time with amendments done correctly and notches where appropriate.

During my years of cutting patterns for others to make or be sent off and manufactured in factories abroad I have become more and more pernickety with the finished patterns!

And it is well worth it.

I bought more fabric, in a lighter weight, composition unknown but i knew it would hang well, jacquard lining, this time adding a long back vent (just to see if I could still sew them) and now have new second coat. Can’t wait to wear it but at the moment it’s still too cold.

Welt pocket detail. Not as difficult to sew as it looks.