Vintage patterns

I do have another bear to upload - honest!

It has been peeing it down with rain today, so I haven't been able to take him outside to be photographed. My indoor photography is rubbish (as you may have noticed). Unfortunately, it's getting to that time of year when I am just going to have to make do with very-bad indoor shots.

I thought I'd post anyway though, to show my new vintage patterns!

I have been advised to just throw myself into the garment-sewing thing, and learn by trial and error. I am not getting on very well with the idea of making underwear which I won't wear and which I couldn't squeeze myself into anyway (a lot of the vintage patterns available are tiny sizes), so I decided to look for patterns for clothing which I would like to wear.

Love the yellow suit (first pic)! It is a few sizes too small though, so I shall have to figure out how to upsize it. The second pattern is for a basic A-line dress, which I like. Not sure about the fitting at the waist - having no discernable waistline myself, I tend to look a little porky if I wear a belted style like that. Love the pussybow blouse in the third pic. With the fourth pattern, I guess there's nothing I really love about it - it's just that they're wide-legged styles, and its a Vogue pattern, which I am told are the best in terms of instructions.

Indeed, there are rather a lot of instructions... the dress pattern has four A3-sized sheets of them. I have to confess, I am feeling rather intimidated!

I was planning on making a muslin for each pattern anyway - to make sure the fit is good - but I think I shall need to practice getting the instructions right too.

Note these steps - from my first incredulous glance at the dress pattern: regarding the seams to the bodice, you have to stay-stitch the edge and then 'ease-stitch' about an inch inside of the first line of stitching. You then sew the rest of the dress, and then (presumably, having tried the dress on), adjust the ease stitches. Huh?

Well, ease-stitching is a new one on me anyway. I have heard of stay-stitching, but I'm no longer sure I know what it means. Ah well. With any luck, by the time I've made all these things, I shall know a great deal more than I do now.

I will probably try the blouse first - encouragingly, that pattern is marked 'very easy'. I have to go out and buy muslin, and find fabric for the final version, but I will do an update on it soon, hopefully.