My Royal Wedding Dress and Hat...

 Just watched the Royal Wedding....so beautiful!  This week our Sew Weekly theme corresponded with the royal wedding and making an outfit to match a super fabulous hat!  I decided to sew up McCall 3544 from 1939:

You may remember I blogged about this pattern last year.  I bought it from Top Tottie Vintage esty shop and I think this pattern singlehandedly sparked my love of 1939-1940 McCall patterns!!!

I got both the hat and fabric in the Pacific Northwest when I visited my family last August.  The fabric is from JoAnn's in NewPort, Oregon and the hat is from Urban Eccentric Vintage--a store in Vancouver, WA.  The hat was such an amazing find (only $20!!!)  I got it at the same time that I got my faux fur tilt hat!

We took these photos on the Water of Leith--which runs through Edinburgh.  While taking photos, we spotted a beautiful Blue Heron!!  Can you see him in the background:

I was also able to use one of the notions I got in the notions exchange we did as part of the Sewing Circle.  Amanda from Australia sent me a lovely package of notions and there was a vintage zipper that matched this fabric exactly! How amazing is that?

This dress has a lot of unique details.  The neck is gathered in the back which creates almost pleat like gathering on the bodice front.  The bodice front is also gathered at the waist for a neat effect. I also really like the sleeves, which use gathers on the sleevecap to create a puffed up look:

My favourite part of the dress is definitely the neckline.

Speaking of necklines, did you see Kate's beautiful wedding dress?

The dress is absolutely stunning! And I love the length of the veil:

I love that neckline and the lace, oh the lace...how beautiful!!!

Here's a close-up of the sleeve of the dress and the exchanging of rings:

I really like how simple the bridesmaid dress was:

I must admit, I did like all the pomp and circumstance :)

Meet-ups are fun!

In the last week, I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet up with four wonderful women on two separate occasions!

First, I met up with Solvi who blogs at delfinelise and Kristen from Kristenmakes.  Kristen and I both live in Edinburgh and Solvi and Anders came over from Sweden.  We had such a lovely time!!  We went to W. Anderson's & Sons the amazing vintage store in Edinburgh:

Here we are walking to the store after having spent some time having tea/coffee in a local cafe:

And then we visited a charity shop that was dedicated completely to vintage clothes and items.  Here we are all kneeling around a suitcase full of vintage patterns (mostly 60's and 70's).  I absolutely love this photo!!!

And then I had the most amazing day with Sofia and Jen:

Sofia is an amazing seamstress, which must be a family trait because she just so happens to be Tasia the Sewaholic's sister.  Sofia and Jen were touring around Europe and were in Scotland for a couple of days and I was super happy to be able to show them around one of my favourite towns--St. Andrews!

One of the funny signs we passed was for this coffee shop:

As you may know, St. Andrews is where Prince William and Kate met.  The town is really playing it up for the Royal Wedding and it was loads of fun to see all the decorations and funny signs!

In addition to visit the University of St. Andrews, getting ice cream and walking along the coast and visiting the ruined cathedral, we also climbed up to the top of St. Rule (an old part  of the ruined cathedral) for some fabulous views around St. Andrews!

I had SO MUCH fun with with you ladies!! Thank you!!

My Burdastyle dress...

As promised, here are some photos of the Burdastyle dress I made.  I used Burda 02/2011 #101 for the pattern.

This was my first time sewing a Burda pattern.  I did struggle a bit with the different style of instructions.  I've been getting Burda magazines for awhile (I don't have a subscription but I buy them from the newstand when I can find them) so I really want to learn how to make their patterns.  This was a good first try.  The dress was somewhat difficult to fit in the bodice.  I think this may be because I have fairly narrow shoulders.  Despite fitting it in the bust area, the shoulders and the back, there was still a bit of gaping in the bust area.  I decided one way to remedy this (without making a new dress) and to add an interesting feature would be to do piping in the same polka dot fabric as my apron.

 

The cord I used was the only thing we had around the house and that was a cord used to wrap presents.  I put the cord in the polka dot fabric and wrapped it up and sewed it up as piping to add to the neckline and armholes of the dress.  I really like how it turned out. 

Here's a close-up of the piping on the sleeve and neckline:

Here's some outside photos:

I know it's cheesy but I absolutely love the red telephone booths!

I ended up finding some perfect red polka dot ribbon at Edinburgh Fabrics that matches the piping perfectly:

I wore this dress out to celebrate David's birthday last Friday! We went to a wonderful restaurant, had a lovely dinner and champagne!

Mission McCall Mondays: 9000-9020

This week's Mission McCall covers pattern numbers 9000-9020.  My goal is to update the Vintage Pattern Wiki so that it's complete for all McCall patterns from mid 1936-1940.  I'm covering 20 patterns this week because I don't have many of the images.  If you have any source images for any of these patterns, email them to me and I'll add them to the Vintage Pattern Wiki!

So here's what I have for McCall 9000-9020.  The first up is McCall 9004:

I found this pattern for sale at etsy from Sydcam123 in a uncut 36B!!!

Here's a close-up of the line drawings for this pattern:

There's also a version of the dress that is without the ruffle!

I also have the image for 9005:

Such a classic skirt.  The next image I have is for 9010 which is also a skirt pattern:

Hmmm...I don't know which one I like better!

Next up is McCall 9015:

Oh, I love this pattern!! Look at all those buttons!!  Here's a close-up of the line drawing with a different neckline:

McCall 9016 is already up on the Vintage Pattern Wiki, so I thought I would share it here too:

It has the same amazing collar as 9015!

Next up is another amazing dress, pattern #9019:

 Wow, I am loving the pleating on the bodice--what an interesting feature.  Here's some more close-ups of the line drawings:

 

From the line drawings it looks like you can do the double collar (which would be great for contrasting colours) or do a single collar.  I love the short sleeve version too (though I must admit I love the long and tight sleeve style of the 30's!)

Last up is McCall 9020:

Wow!!! Lots of tiny buttons!  This collar must be a design feature of late 1936!  I love it!  Here's the line drawings for this pattern:

I love how the tunic flares a bit at the bottom!  That's it for this week.

Which is your favourite?  It's a toss-up for me between 9015 and 9020!

Next week is McCall 9021-9030!

Missing images so far: 502, 503, 505, 507, 508, 509, 510, 9000, 9001, 9002, 9003, 9006, 9007, 9008, 9009, 9011, 9012, 9013, 9014, 9017 & 9018. If you want to contribute to the Mission McCall--just email me the images or pattern covers and I'll update them in the Vintage Pattern Wiki.  myhappysewingplace[at]googlemail[dot]com.

Sewing Through the Decades PEEPS

You know what time of year it is?  Peep time!!!  I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective of the Sewing Through the Decades a la Debi style and then peep style.  So without further ado, let's take a walk through the decades...

1930's
 My 1932 gown that I just posted about:

The Peep version:

1940's
You may recall earlier in the year my 1940 faux fur jacket:

Well...the peep wanted a faux fur jacket and topper hat as well:

1950's
 I really haven't done much this year (so far) from the 1950's.  I did make a 1950's inspired skirt:

Not to be outdone, Ms. Peep wanted her own version of the skirt:

1960's
 I've only sewn one thing from the 60's and that's a classic shift dress:

Now for the 1960's Peep:

 

1970's
 Oh yes, I've ventured into '70's patterns and came out with this:

And the 70's Peep:

Happy Easter everyone!!