Sew For Victory – project finished!

Two weeks ago I joined the Sew For Victory sew-along, and I finished my project, a 1940s day dress, right in time!

 

Pattern: Vintage Simplicity 3417, bust 34”

Fabric: Printed synthetic fibre

Haberdasheries: Three buttons, a belt clasp, fusible waist band and a zipper

The fabric was a bit nasty to work with, mainly because it pulled. I really had to keep all the seams stretched as much as possible to get them to look alright, and some I sewed with pattern paper in between, which worked well. The fabric’s quite thin, but the even thinner cotton I used for my Teens blouse, for instance, didn’t pull at all. I do really like the leafy pattern, though.

The fabric appeared to be rayon, that is, until I melted a hole into it with my iron :s. Strange, as I actually ironed the fabric several times before, but maybe I used less heat those times. Of course the hole was at the centre front, but luckily, besides having a layer of facing behind it which made it less visible, it is also covered entirely by the overlap from the other side of the front.

At first I found the sleeve design for the short sleeve rather peculiar, but I quite like it now. The instructions said to sew all seams at 1/2” except the underarm seam, which should be sewn at 3/4”. I took that to mean both the sleeve underarm seam and the bodice underarm seam, but the sleeves would have hugged my arms if I had made the seams that big, which I didn’t think looked very nice, so I didn’t. Maybe I also shouldn’t have made the bodice side seam that big (but then the bodice would have become wider than I liked), because now the sleeves were too big for the arm hole! So I gathered the tops, which already had three in-sewn pleats. But then I found them too puffy at the top, so I pulled the fabric down and hand-sewed it down lower on the sleeve, which actually looks nice.

The skirt would have been very long if I had followed the pattern exactly! That’s odd, since I’m 1.74 m tall, which would have been very tall in the 1940s, and the picture on the wrapping shows the skirt ending right below the knee. To achieve that, I actually had to shorten the skirt by about 7 cm.

I made a belt of the same fabric, using fusible waistband to make it firmer. This was in my mum’s stash and had a very old logo of the favourite Dutch shop Hema on it, but it still worked very well. I picked the belt clasp to match the buttons.

I also almost finished a blouse in time for the Sewalong; I only need to put the sleeves in, but I’ve got some issues with the pattern. It should be my size, but I had to take it in a lot, and now the shoulders are still really wide. So I could probably have finished it by tonight, but I prefer taking a little longer and doing it right.

I’ll add some detail photos later!

Sew For Victory

I’m joining the Sew For Victory sew-along organised by Lucky Lucille! I was on holiday for the first two weeks of April, but there’s still time to make something 1940s-style this month, which is the goal of the sew-along.

In June, I will be going to Normandy for the commemoration of 70 years after D-Day. We will be wearing period clothing for four days, but as I’ve still only got the one outfit I made for my first WWII event (skirt, blouse, knickers and a knitted cardi and turban), I need to expand my wardrobe a bit! Which coincides nicely with this sew-along.

I want to make:

- A dress

- A jacket to match my skirt

- Another blouse

- A pin-stripe skirt

- Suspenders

- Two more pairs of knickers

I certainly won’t be making all of this before the end of April, but some of these should be manageable! My first project will be a dress:

1940s blouse

Pattern: Vintage Simplicity 1430, size 16 (bust 34”)

Fabric: Printed cotton

Haberdasheries: Four cover buttons

I made this blouse for my first 1940s event, along with my brown skirt and yellow knitted cardigan. However, I didn’t have time to make the bound buttonholes at the time. Also, when I wore it, it peeped out of my skirt, so I decided to lengthen it.

The blouse pattern I used is from 1945 and unprinted. However, I didn’t find it difficult to understand what the holes in the unprinted pattern meant (it was all in the instructions), so working with it didn’t pose any problems. The difference with printed patterns from ‘40s isn’t great at all, as they mainly have printed signs instead of the holes and notches, so the principle is the same.

The fabric is old; not quite 1940s, but probably from the 1980s. I thought it looked nicely 1940s-like because of the bright floral pattern. This cotton fabric was easy to work with.

 

I don’t think I’ll be making bound buttonholes again any time soon. They’re fiddly, and, though they do look neat, they’re almost entirely covered by the buttons once the blouse is closed!

Here’s where I lengthened the blouse. I added 6 cm.

A close-up of the bow. I love this. My Grandma used to wear clothes like these! Both in the 1940s and later ;).

Regency officer and gentleman shirt

Pattern: Improvised (see below for dimensions)

Fabric: White linen

Haberdasheries: three mother-of-pearl buttons, red silk embroidery floss

After making the previous shirt, I read that Regency men’s shirts didn’t have ruffles on the sleeves. So I looked at paintings and fashion plates of Regency men, and though it is often hard to see, their shirts seem not to have ruffles in most cases, so I omitted them on this shirt. That made this shirt slightly different from the last one, which is nice, as I’m not that fond of making exactly the same thing twice. I also used a piece of fabric for the ruffles that was 1.5 times as long as the one I used for the previous shirt, as I thought the ruffles could do with a bit more fabric.

This type of shirt is referred to as ‘square cut’, because it consists almost entirely of squares and rectangles. The image below shows all the pieces except the collar, which is also a rectangle. Only the side bottom gussets are triangular. I cut the pieces on the grain, which makes it easier to get them neat than pinning a pattern to the linen would.

Dimensions (incl. seam allowances):

1: Body: 63 x 101 cm (cut 2)

2: Sleeves: 50 x 50 cm (cut 2)

3: Sleeve gussets: 14.5 x 14.5 cm (cut 2)

4: Neckline ruffle: 15 x 116 cm (cut 1)

5: Cuffs: 18 x 26 (cut 2)

6: Bottom side seam gussets: 9.5 x 9.5 x 13 cm triangles (cut 2)

Collar: 28 x 46.5 cm (cut 1; not in picture)

The shirt is machine sewn, with all hemming, and the buttonholes, done by hand.

 

 

 

 I read about embroidering a number on shirts to track progress, and did that here, too.

Two pairs of PJs

Pattern: Drafted based on tracksuit bottoms

Fabric: Printed flannel

Haberdasheries: 1.06 m of ribbed elastic

Having a pair of tracksuit bottoms that I think have a very nice shape, and seeing a really cute flannel fabric with birds on branches, made me decide to make myself some pyjama trousers based on the trackie bottoms. Then I saw a dinosaur flannel as well, and decided to make two pairs!

I drew a pattern from the tracksuit bottoms, omitting the ribbed band of the original, but adding 3.5 cm at the top for a foldover band with elastic threaded through it, instead. I folded the band in at 2.5 cm. Here are some photos showing the steps of making the band; an easy method with a nice result, I think:

The selvedge of the fabric states: “not intended for children’s sleepwear”. Apparently this means that the fabric has not been treated with flame retardants. I think it very strange that there are countries where it’s compulsory that fabric be treated with harmful chemicals in order to be deemed suitable for children. But anyway, this fabric was not treated, so that’s good to know.

I had 2.3 m (2.5 yard) of each fabric, which was exactly enough! I needed twice the length of the trousers because the fabric was very narrow, only 1.1 m wide. I have a tendency to buy too little fabric, but this time I made a good guesstimate! I’ve got about 0.6 m² left of each fabric, so that should be enough to make a cute baby item some day, as well.

Ruffled curtains 2.0

A while after I made the curtains for our bedroom, I read about sleep quality, melatonin, and the importance of sleeping in a properly dark bedroom. Exposure to light at night can substantially lower your melatonin level, which lowers sleep quality, and can cause a variety of problems, from weight gain to depression. I’ve always had relatively thin curtains in my bedroom, and thought that getting as much light as possible into my bedroom would help me wake in the morning, which, er, isn’t exactly something I’m good at. But I didn’t realise the artificial light coming in as well, from street lights close to the house, may actually have been making this harder.

So I set out to replace the bedroom curtains by blackout curtains as soon as possible. I really liked the ruffles, though, so I added ruffles to these as well. Because the fabric is much thicker and less supple, they drape less well than the previous ones, but I still like them, and our health does come first.

Another nice way to improve your sleep quality is by installing the free f.lux software on your computer, smart phone or tablet. It’s not only the amount of light you’re exposed to that influences melatonin levels, but also its colour. Digital screens tend to give off blueish light, similar to daylight, so using them before bed can make you more awake. f.lux solves this by causing a sunset on your screen, and turning it slightly orange. I also find it fun that this way, I’m much more aware of when the sun actually rises and sets.

Teens blouse

Pattern: Folkwear 205 Gibson Girl Blouse, heavily modified

Fabric: Cotton batiste or muslin

Haberdasheries: 15 hooks

Next year marks the centenary of the beginning of the Great War (not called thus because it was so great to fight in it, I’m sure). The teens style had been one of my favourites for a while, so this seemed like a nice reason to start making an outfit in that style.

For my first blouse, I used the Folkwear 205 pattern. But I modified it in several ways, because I didn’t like every part of the design as it was, and also, because I had a clear image in my head of how I wanted the blouse to look.

Firstly, I wanted a front closure for practicality. I tend not to have a maid with me, so it’s really quite handy to be able to close things myself! Also, I found the suggested lace insertions a bit strange, and wanted to do vertical tucks over the entire front instead, so I combined the yoke and front part. In order to be able to take out space by making the tucks, I first had to add that space to the pattern. As the blouse did need to fit closely at the shoulders, this resulted in the blouse being quite a bit wider at the waist than at the bust, which I initially thought was a bit strange, but I saw a blouse pattern from the period online which also had this shape.

I followed the pattern for the collar, but made it a bit higher and added a very small ruffle at the top. I also lengthened the sleeved, added a tucked cuff to it, and attached a small ruffle to that as well. But I did attach a waistband according to the pattern ;).

White seems the colour of choice for most people making teens blouses, whereas I read in the early 20^th century Dutch magazine De Gracieuse that they could have a wide variety of colours – even white with black stripes, and chequered! So it seemed fun to make a bright-coloured blouse. However, with the fabrics for my two planned skirts in mind, white was also the best option for my blouse.

Late Victorian or Edwardian bathing suit

Pattern: For the bottom part I used the drawers from the Laughing Moon #100 Ladies Victorian Underwear pack, but closing the crotch until about halfway and attaching it to an improvised bodice. For the skirt and separate waistband I used the waistband from the Laughing Moon package, but modified slightly.

Fabric: Dark blue Dvala fitted sheet from Ikea, 180 x 200 cm, 100% cotton. I used about three quarters of the fabric, maybe more.

Haberdasheries: About 9 metres of petersham ribbon and 9 metres of ric-rac ribbon; 10 red buttons; two snap fasteners.

Bathing suits like these could consist of different parts: a sort of jumpsuit with or without a skirt over it, or a dress with bloomers underneath. I chose the first option and made a separate waistband, so that I can also wear the swimsuit without the skirt.

First, I cut the drawers from the Laughing Moon #100 Ladies Victorian Underwear pack, then an improvised bodice with the same waist circumference as the drawers. As I didn’t want any bagginess at the shoulder, this meant the bodice actually got wider towards the waist. I attached the drawers to the bodice creating a tunnel, which enables me to evenly gather the fabric at the waist before putting the skirt or separate waistband on. I based this on an image of an original bathing suit.

For the skirt and separate waistband I used the waistband pattern piece from the Laughing Moon package, modified: it is supposed to be folded in half, but I didn’t do that, and cut another piece for the inside. The skirt is just a rectangular strip of fabric 178 cm long and 65 cm high, including seams, gathered at the waist and sewn to the waistband.

I decorated everything with ric-rac ribbon sewed on top of petersham ribbon, which I think creates a nice contrast and old-fashioned look.

The suit without the skirt:

My bathing suit was mainly inspired by the images below. The one on the left is an 1893 navy blue flannel suit (agelesspatterns.com). In the middle is a 1900s British suit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I can’t find the source of the photo on the right, but it’s a two-piece from around 1900.

And these are the photos I tried to recreate; the one on the left is from 1910, the one on the right from 1900: