Ladies' and Misses' Elegant Slacks

Every year my wonderful brother gives me a box of vintage patterns for Christmas- how well he knows me!
McCall 6794 is from this year's batch.

Vintage patterns have some nice details that are well worth stealing and adapting to modern patterns. For example, the pocket facings, above. This solution allows the sewist to use a lightweight fabric for the inside pocket, but with a facing of the pant fabric so the pocket fabric is not visible. Very nice. The pants have a side zipper inside the pocket treatment that I might steal borrow for a skirt.
There is one page of somewhat terse instructions that include recommendations for a hand-worked buttonhole.(Because everyone knows how to sew). They don't mention suggested fabrics because everyone knows what pants are made of.
I love old patterns and cookbooks not just for the information they put in, but for what they leave out.
Old cookbooks assume we all know how to cook, so their recipes are "reminders" of how certain dishes are made. Similarly, vintage patterns sometimes don't mention fabric types,  seam finishes, or other techniques, because they assume that all sewists will just know to do them.
  A pants pattern from 1947 also tells us that women were wearing pants for casual occasions. I'm assuming this is "casual" because the background of the illustration is somewhat "countrified". Nowadays we'd wear jeans. Fun fact: designer jeans specifically for women were introduced in the 1960's by Andre Courreges (who also invented the miniskirt, along with Mary Quant.)

P.S. Wondering what the difference is between a Ladies' and Misses' sizes. The pattern does not elaborate. Everyone must have just "known" this as well.

You'll Understand

You'll understand why, even though I have hundreds of patterns, the majority of which I will never sew in ten lifetimes, I felt like I had to have this one.

Don't you love that vintage patterns show you the pattern pieces as well as a line drawing? And how they call zippers "slide fasteners"? That took me a minute to process, until I realized that zipper was like Kleenex, a brand name that had become the common name. I can't see what kind of fabric they suggest,but maybe back then they assumed  that everyone knew to use a drapey rayon or silk or fine cotton lawn or wool crepe. I'm just guessing,based on what was available then. Don't you love the details? The gathered princess bodice - the better to do an FBA with, my dear - and those sleeves--the French cuffs-- that gorgeous neckline--the beautiful collar! You understand why I had to have it. It was Meant To Be, It was MY SIZE. If that's not a message from the Sewing Goddess, I just don't know what is.  Obviously 1948 is my fashion year.               

I won't ask if you have ever bought a pattern on impulse, because if you are reading my blog I know you have. Instead I'll ask - What is your fashion decade? I'm beginning to think I'm a Forties person. The signs are pointing that way. What decade are you?      

P.S.I also NEED that hat.                                                             

Out of the Box Thinking

Back in 1981, I was living in Maui, and I would have made a pattern like this one, but unlike the crazy creatives at McCalls, I would have worn shorts or a skirt with my top.
Of course, I am assuming that they meant this as a TOP and not a really super short dress, in which case I stand corrected.

Something's Missing

A friend commented on my last post and she said the reason we like vintage patterns so much was that they were "grown-up clothes". Nowadays, she said, the clothes are all for kids. "They never show what the clothes look like on someone over 16." she complained. "or a person of color, or a handicapped person." I agreed. It's as if anyone old or handicapped or ethnic doesn't exist in fashion retail world. "Don't they want my money?" she complained.
A co-worker asked me how I shop for clothes now that I can't walk that far. I shop online or I sew my clothes, I told her. Going to the mall is just too hard for me.
"They don't make it easy to spend money." she said.
This made me start thinking, why is it so difficult to find clothes for grown-ups? And why does retail ignore older women, larger women, ethnic women, handicapped women...basically all women who don't fit their very narrow demographic? Something is wrong if almost all of my coworkers, in all ages and size ranges, feel left out by retail fashion. They have money to buy clothes, but they can't find anything that fits. Or they can fit into the clothes, but the clothes are inappropriate for adults.
"You're lucky you can sew", my neighbor said. Believe me, I know it.
I feel like Carrie Bradshaw by ending my essay by asking, "Where does a woman find grown-up clothes today?"

Just in Time

Just in time for Season 4 of Mad Men:Simplicity 4036. Admire the short fitted jacket with raglan sleeves and the understated tie neck. That dress neckline was made for an elegant brooch. Nothing was ever placed in those welt pockets on her hips. Nothing - a lady never has anything in her pockets, my mother always said, (So get your hands out of there!) I can see Trudy or Joan wearing this.


The back suggests, among other choices:...brocade, shantung, faille, silk alpaca, peau de soie, satin, wools, crepe, tweeds...
Just imagine wearing this out to lunch or dinner in an elegant restaurant. Men would rise when you walked in. (They don't do that when you're wearing jeans.)
They race to open doors and hail cabs for you. (They don't do that when you're wearing jeans!) The only things in that purse (which smells of Shalimar inside, faintly) is a lipstick (red!), a powder compact, a comb and cab fare.

A summer wind, a cotton dress

Doesn't this dress just make you want to put on your gloves, spray on some ozone-depleting Aqua net and rush to the Junior League Tea to Fund Raise for some lady-like cause?



Here's the pattern back, for all of you Vintage Detail junkies.

This is a dress that wants to made out of some pretty cotton, with flowers. The kind of dress Richard Shindell was remembering.
If you want to be part of a Don Draper flashback, find it here.

Favorite Illustration

Vintage patterns have the best illustrations, but this one made me laugh out loud.
What caption would you add to the picture?


Pattern found here.

Aliens Among Us

An unusually long neck is a giveaway sign of alien life forms among us. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Pattern available here, for aliens who sew.

Seems to come out small

Notes on pattern envelopes are just one of the pleasures of collecting vintage patterns. Sometimes the previous owner notes colors, fabrics, or personal reminders, like "Sue's wedding party, teal blue taffeta."

Sometimes the notes are a little plaintive, like the one here, that says, "seems to come out small". Since this is a Junior size 11-12, bust 32, in my opinion that's already small. There's a whole novel of teen weight and size issues in that brief pencil notation. Was she in denial about her size? Did she, like every other teenager of my youth, wish to be smaller? Did she buy the right size to start with?
(When I write my novel, should I title it, "Seems to Come Out Small?)

(I always longed for hair like View B. Just look at her, she knows she is too cool for everyone else on the envelope. View C is having a hissy because View B got to wear the cool top.)



This one notes that it belongs to "Belle Dial, Period 4". I see that Belle is a practical girl. She is making this jumper for Home Ec, back in the days when girls took Home Ec. This pattern is from 1970, so I am imagining that Belle is about my age. I made a jumper like this one (mine was Simplicity, and yes, I still have the pattern) when I was in Junior High. The vintage patterns sometimes have swatches of fabric included. I like that best. I'll think, Oh view B is perfect in that creamy blue and tan plaid, or what was Belle thinking to use this green?




Belle was trying to be one of Charlie's Angels with this happening vest (cool 70's embroidery transfers included). She even left some embroidery floss in the envelope, but sadly no fabric swatches, so I don't know if she used fake fur shearling or wool or velvet. Either way, it would have been a vest Starsky and Hutch would have approved of.

What notes have you found on vintage patterns?

Coincidence?

Is it a coincidence that Best Sister Ever (along with best Brother Ever) gave me about 200 vintage patterns and most of them are her size? Just asking...

Favorites so far:
Miss Moneypenny jumper and blouse


I always loved Miss Moneypenny. She seemed to put Commander Bond in his place; I like that in a gal. A proto-feminist. All business. Maybe someday we'll see a movie where SHE gets a license to kill. And she can do everything a man does but in high heels. (A great concept, call my agent...)
I see this one in wool crepe with an English (of course) shirting. The cool striped kind.



Lolita jumper (is it just me, or is this pattern illustration ten kinds of creepy?)
Those knee socks, that school girl hair, those SHOES! Unless the wearer is 9 years old, this one is a definite DON'T. Simplicity made it up to size 16 Misses, so someone at some time thought this was appropriate for adults. The 60s were a strange time, class. The social scientist in me says that maybe someone wanted desperately to infanticize women so they would stop agitating for equal rights. Or they just had a weird Lolita thing going on. If I were 16 and had a Twiggy figure I'd make this in wool plaid. No knee socks, Go Go Boots. And fishnet hose. In for a penny...




That saucy minx in blue; doesn't she look like Doris Day? (I love her movies; she has the BEST clothes. Pattern companies- you should make a retro movie star pattern line. It could have categories like Doris, also Audrey, Katharine, Elizabeth and Marilyn... That's a million dollar idea! Call that agent back! Ari, baby, have I got a product tie in for you.) I like the use of rick rack on this one. We need more rick rack opportunities.



This one has both Dorothy Hamill and Farrah influences. I love the top with the flutter and long sleeves option - cause one sleeve isn't enough.

I know the 16 year old me would have made this pattern if I had seen it. I even had a Dorothy Hamill haircut when I was 16. I wonder if I made it now, if it might be a classic example of mutton dressed as lamb. At least views one and two. However, I reserve the right to make view 3 out of scarf print fabric. I'm not that old. Also Mr. Hunting Creek says I have been looking younger lately. I really must have his eyes checked...or maybe not. :)
Who is going to argue when he says stuff like that?
Happy Sewing!

Christmas Presents!

My family decided that there are three stages of Christmas: stage one is when you are So Excited you can't go to sleep Christmas Eve. The day seems endless and parents heartlessly send the kids to bed at the regular time. Now of course we know that they needed time to finish wrapping and assembling all the toys. My father says the three most frightening words in the English language are "some assembly required". This is from a man who assembled not one, not two, but THREE bicycles one Christmas Eve. The second stage is when you have kids yourself, so YOU are the one staying up til 2am getting everything ready. And finally, the third stage is when you have older children and get everything done ahead of time. The kids let you sleep late, so no need to get up at 6am to see what Santa brought. We are at that stage at Chez Hunting Creek, so we get to sleep late, drink coffee and open gifts in a leisurely fashion. We started Christmas Eve at my sister's house, and opened gifts there too. It's just nonstop gift opening from Christmas Eve til Inauguration day here.
Ann said she wanted to know what everyone got, so here goes:
My brother and sister, who shall henceforth be known as Best Sister Ever and Best Brother Ever, shopped Victoriously on eBay and had scored over TWO HUNDRED vintage patterns from the 1940's to the 1970's. Here is a picture of one of our favorites:

This pattern was declared by all present as the BEST. It is multi purpose: you can use it for Manson Family-style cultwear, I Dream of Jeannie fantasy wear, and I'm not even sure what the blond in the bizarre Jetson pigtails represents. Did we really dress like this in the 70's? If yes, Time has mercifully drawn a veil over the memory.
I took a picture of some of the patterns spilled out on the dining room table...but that's not even half! See picture at the top.
I also received perfume, cool new speakers for my computer so I can listen to tunes while I work, a giant bottle of Mexican Vanilla, a designer Apron, and several new books, including a biography of Colette and a memoir by Marcella Hazan. We will have another celebration with our family on January 17th when my daughter returns from her Christmas in Italy (oh the life she leads!) We will open Even More Presents then.
I hope Santa brought everything you wanted.
Merry Christmas!

More Vintage Men's Patterns

This week I found more great vintage men's patterns for my holiday gift projects. As a bonus besides the actual patterns, I love the artwork on the envelopes. If I were still teaching, I would point out to my students the manliness totem objects in each picture. For instance, why is this gentleman holding a golf club in his pajamas? Would we think he was insufficiently manly without it? And the man behind him in the nightshirt is smoking a pipe. That pipe! Why is it that no men's shirt pattern from the 50's is missing the guy with pipe picture? Did all men smoke pipes back then? I know that my dad didn't smoke a pipe. I don't even know any men that do. Very interesting, I wonder what Dr. Freud would say?
Contrast these to the pattern below from the 70s

The men in these pictures are younger, and they are wearing the same shirt as a girl! This clearly shows the changing gender roles of that era.. No fifties Dad would ever be caught wearing the same clothes as a girl. And note that they have no pipes! No golf clubs! And longer hair. It's clear in this one we aren't sewing for Dad any more.
I was thinking as I looked at the great artwork on the older patterns that the pictures would make great quilt blocks. What an awesome wall hanging or throw that would make. And now that I've noticed the guy with pipe theme (he was on that pattern I wrote about last week, too.) I'm feeling a little obsessed.(I think I will have to collect more of these. My daughter will read this and say NO! You've got enough!) I wonder how many it would take before the Smithsonian would ask me to curate a men with pipe pattern retrospective.

Like Finding a Unicorn

When it comes to vintage patterns, my favorites are the men's patterns. Old patterns for men are the ivory- billed woodpeckers of patternland, but who doesn't love a challenge? My son is a retro fashion fan, and he asked me to make him some retro attire. Look what I've found so far:
I LOVE that the guy on the right is smoking a pipe, supposedly at the beach or poolside! And those are some really short shorts, buster! This pattern includes two shirts, one of which is reversible. How cool is that?
And how about this groovy number?

I'm not going to recreate this look in polyester doubleknit. But when you read in the fashion pages a few months from now that Italian sailor shirts and men's leisure suits are BIG with the kids, you'll know who is responsible.