My 40's dress -it's looooove!

A long story short: went to Singapore in July, walked by Paragon mall 4 times a day every day, couldn't avoid latest Miu Miu campaign, NEEDED a 40's dress without spending $4,105 and felt like adding my own touch:


Here we are with a genuine 1945 pattern, McCall's 6249 that I had already tried and loved, some plain black cotton for the top and awesome hawaiian polyester fabric for the skirt. Awww, is there anything I could not love about this pattern? It has lovely details on the bodice:


Keyhole front cut-out, rounded shoulder yokes, external darts and looooong, puffly sleeves with cuffs (plus I added some ties, omg cute!); the bottom is simple enough, a gathered A-line skirt-I prefer it this way. I'm wearing a purchased belt but I'm probably going to sew one from the skirt fabric and I can also wear the dress without one, of course :) Last but not least, thank you bf for the pictures!

McCall 6249

Hey there! I's time for my weekly girly outfit, so here's McCall 6249, a 1945 dress pattern that is among the most beautiful I've ever seen! Have a look:


I made view B with short sleeves (not shown here), as I managed to lose the instructions I had a brief wth moment to attach the front yokes to the bodice but I finally got it. However I didn't pay attention to the fact that I was sewing the darts as usual on the inside when they were supposed to appear outside... Next time I'll be careful :) The finished garment:

My usual "arms-crossed-in-the-back" pose doesn't work out that well with the keyhole opening :(

It's, erm, yellow cotton as you can see and I finished the inside with some cuuuute lace.


Now, for your information, I live in a French-speaking country but of course we also have our local language, creole, and one of my favourite expressions is the one used to describe see-through garments: television^^. Well, this is a television dress so I had to make a quick half-slip to wear underneath -I folded in two a rectangle of peach polycotton before encasing an elastic at the waist.


That's it for today, see you soon!

The girly week: day 2

Hello! Today's outfit is the new version of the 1941 McCall dress I made last week: this time I cut the front piece on the fold and put a slit at the back. The fabric is some rayon I bought a few months ago. I may add small shoulder pads later because the sleeves seem to drop a little, anyway I'll wear it today and see if it's really worth it after! Have a nice day, see you!

A gift from the sewing Gods!

The title says it all: I've had this wonderful McCall pattern since May (bought it at Vintage Martini, great choice and impeccable service with delivery worldwide), I was very impressed by it and wondered if I'd ever be able to make it. Indeed, it looked soooo gorgeous on the illustration, it had geometrical seams on the bodice, darts/pleats on the sleeves and even the simple gathered skirt looked glamourous. See:


So, 2 days ago I was gazing at it once more when I decided to just give it a try, I copied the pattern, went for some paper fitting and the proportions seemed to work, I just lowered the neckline a little because it looked extremely high -I've been chocking in a few vintage blouses so I came prepared this time^^. I cut the dress in some good quality navy cotton, had no problem assembling the square seams (CLIP' em), sewed the sleeves' darts in 3 minutes, set them in effortlessly -the armhole and caps matched perfectly- handmade the buttonholes and facings' finish, sewed the gathered skirt with the bodice and finally handsewed a regular zipper and... that was it. I put it on, the fit was GREAT, I was so shocked! I swear I heard that Alleluiah song when I saw the finished dress^^. I was so eager to show it to you I took pictures myself, hence the horrible lighting and strange centring.




I'm already thinking about the next version -flower rayon and long sleeves- and the after next one^^ -beige and black, to enhance the seams. See you!

McCall vintage blouse take two

Long time no see :) I hope everyone's fine, I've been sewing a lot these days but for others, that's why I didn't have anything to post -and I have more work but I'm definitely not complaining about that. I've finally managed to make a little something for me, it's this McCall blouse; I used a beautiful white eyelet my dear friend Sophie brought me from Mauritius in February -she also brought a slightly different version in the most gorgeous sand colour and now my mum wants a top in it :( why, oh why.
This time I was careful not to make the same mistakes as with the polka dot test (no fusible interfacing, I clipped the curves and lowered the neckline) and I must say I'm quite pleased with the result! To be honest, I've also been dieting like crazy so I guess it helps with actually being able to sew the darts and tucks and to fit in the blouse^^! I'm so glad I was able to shed a few pounds, I hope my 40's dresses will look a bit better on me now. By the way I'm sewing a 1941 dress, I still have details to finish and I hope I can show it to you soon! See you!

I put snaps at the back and sewed fake small self-made bows along the placket.

McCall 1941 dress

Hi there! I'm continuing my vintage sewing experiences, this time with McCall 5430:


Sheer elegance! Well, you'll see that my version is faaaaaar from producing the same effect, I actually call it my country dress^^. First I chose some yellow cotton fabric that had a cute, simple print, not exactly sophisticated:

Then I didn't put the sleeves and let me tell you that this happens once in a blue moon with me. As much as I love my tattoos I don't like my thick arms and I always try to hide the chunky part above the elbow! But with this design -and I'm still not sure why- it seemed that the dress was more pleasant as a sleeveless one. I asked my mama, my best friend and Tatie (my sewing guru) and all 3 agreed so I went with my idea.




The making was not difficult, only I used a regular zipper instead of an invisible one with a more or less OK result. I checked the skirt all along the process because I just KNEW there would be a problem with the half pleats in front and I was right since despite being cautious it's wonky as hell! But I like my dress, when I see it I think of the French word "désuet" which is one of my favourite concepts. Plus I'm positive I'm not going to find someone with the same outfit anywhere^^.

McCall 1947 test blouse

Hello! I won the pattern for this blouse a few weeks ago on ebay. This is McCall 6769, copyright 1947:


So beautiful, so graceful, I could totally see myself in view B! Except that I had forgotten the petty detail that my bodytype doesn't exactly resemble that of the women portrayed on the enveloppe... I had to do without the front and back darts. When I'm making it again (fortunately this time I used cheap fabric, more on that later) I'll add a little room at the hip and I'll redraft the yoke neckline a bit deeper because even this part is tight :(

Too tight so the back opens :(

I'm NOT choking, ok?!

So, the fabric is a cheap (in quality as well as price) polycotton with tiny black dots. I had to line it with the same type of fabric in plain white and that didn't help with the gatherings and pleats that look bulky. I put black piping to define the yoke and a little ribbon bow to try and spice things up because the result looked monacal to me. I should also remember not to use fusible interfacing for the yoke, it's too stiff.
I'll admit that despite all these flaws I'm not too disappointed in this blouse and I'm sure it'll show all its potential when I make it with better fabric and I follow the changes I've mentioned. If you have any other advice to improve this lil' number please tell me in the comments!

Flower shirt

A quick post to show (from afar!) a shirt I made a little while ago. The pattern is McCall's 5664, view B.


I used this soft black cotton printed with tiny flowers bouquets to make it:


Sewing was fairly simple and I finished it in a day. I used black bias tape to finish the short sleeves and for the hem. And the ties are not made of contrasting fabric!



I wear it with my new incredibly smoooooth Uniqlo leggings, I'm so glad the shop opened in Singapore before I went :)