Author Archives: lorene

Butterick has just published their new patterns for Summer 2015. It includes two Retro Butterick dresses and one vintage inspired Patterns by Gertie top. Let’s take a look.

Butterick 6211

The illustration for this dress makes it look pretty cool and I appreciate them trying to recreate the same look for the sample garment.

But this dress just looks sloppy. Maybe it was poor fabric choice and the lack of a crinoline, but I find it very disappointing. The free edges of the overdress are bumpy when they should be crisp. Very meh.

My thought about the lack of a crinoline is that they are trying to make the dress look like the technical drawings. But maybe they should just include a crinoline pattern.

Butterick 6212

I don’t understand why pattern companies keep reproducing vintage apron dress patterns. I’m just not a fan. I actually love the front of this dress – the sweetheart neckline and the skirt yoke are totally cute. But the back is just unnecessary to me. Check out how adorable this illustration is!

Then look at the sample dress. The best I can say is that at least this one doesn’t look sloppy!

Here’s the technical drawings for 6212.

Butterick 6217

This pattern is for a vintage inspired top in Patterns by Gertie line. I might actually buy this one but I don’t quite understand the boob-dana tie On my adult sized chest this would look ridiculous. I like view B though! View A is actually cute minus the tie.

Double Vision: Southport & Adelaide

posted by lorene

on 05.02.2015

The latest issue of Seamwork Mag from Colette came out yesterday and I immediately went to check out the patterns. In this issue you get a dress pattern and an odd cropped top/jacket. The Adelaide dress is pretty cute and I was about to buy it when I realized how much it looks like the True Bias Southport dress I bought recently.

Seamwork Adelaide (left) & True Bias Southport (right)

I realize they are not exactly the same, but when you look at the technical drawings you can see the the bodices are nearly identical. They differ on the skirts and how the waist is pulled in. On Adelaide it’s a combination of back darts and a tie belt. Southport uses a drawstring. Lastly, the snaps on Adelaide run the whole front, while Southport just has buttons on the bodice. But it would be easy enough to hack one into the other!

Since I already bought Southport, I’m going to make that up. I have the perfect fabric to make the maxi version! However my next one might be an Adelaide hack since I already bought the snaps!

Spring for Cotton: Butterick 4259

posted by lorene

on 05.01.2015

When Rochelle announced Spring for Cotton I knew it was finally time to sew one of my many vintage patterns! I have a huge stash courtesy of a family friend, but they are all single sized. Since they were also the wrong size, I was reluctant to try to make them but after taking my Palmer/Pletsch class I’m much more confident about fitting and grading!

This was my original plan for the dress. I had picked up this gorgeous fuschia crossweave cotton at Josephine’s Dry Goods before the downtown location closed. It was only 43″ wide to begin with and after washing it shrunk down to under 40″ and so I didn’t have enough fabric. Boo hoo! The funny thing about the pattern is that it’s a Size 18, which is what I use but is sadly from the old sizing system so it still needed to be graded up.

I was looking for a cotton with a little more body than just a quilting cotton and I didn’t want to shell out the money for something really nice until I knew if my grading was successful. I ended up finding red cotton pique in the “Designer Fabric” section of Joann for just $5/yd. Score!

The dress is constructed by first sewing the front and back plackets which are self lined. The dress pieces are then pinned along the stitching lines and top stitched together. Sleeves were added in the usual manner.

For pattern modifications besides grading up a size. I did do an FBA on this dress. I didn’t like how dart looked so I moved the excess into the front gathers. This dress is insanely long,unhemmed it hit me at midcalf and I’m 5’7, so I didn’t worry about the uneven length created by the FBA. I also had to deepened the front neckline as it was nearly choking me. Ladies in the 60’s must have had very skinny necks!

I also ended up edge stitching down the placket. The instructions don’t call for this, but it looked unfinished to me with the edges flopping around. So I did it and I like the way it looks much better. I also omitted the back zipper, leaving the yoke section open and adding a top hook. I’ve come to realize I can pull many of my dresses over my head and zippers are unnecessary.

My favorite part of this dress must be the buttons. I went to the Button & Ribbon Emporium here in Portland to search for the perfect buttons. I pulled out tons red buttons before I came across these beauties. They are slightly translucent/iridescent and I love the swirly design on them. At nearly $3 each I spent almost as much on buttons as I did on my fabric but they were worth it!

I will eventually take some photos of me wearing this dress, but I haven’t had any time. This dress is also my first project for the 2015 Vintage Pledge.

A Renfrew-ish Maternity Coco

posted by lorene

on 01.29.2015

I went back to New Jersey for the holidays. While I was at Natalie’s house she handed me some sparkly black jersey and said make me a shirt. Apparently I am the official family sewer of knits.

I was actually wearing a Coco top at the time, so I had her try it on to see what sort of size I should start with and adjustments needed so it would need to fit her and her growing tummy.

Once I got back to Portland, I had to figure out what to make. I had already hacked my altered Coco pattern to make a Renfrew-like cowl neck top with a ponte for myself, which would definitely work with the drapey jersey. But first I need to fix that neckline. The first version had too wide of a neckline for the cowl, so I retraced the pattern and set about altering it again. This time i made the neckline narrower and deeper – more like a Renfrew.

Once that was done it was a matter of measuring the neck opening and cutting a rectangle to fit. I recall that the Renfrew cowl is 2 pieces, but I cut a single rectangle and folded it half. So the only cowl seams are on the center back and along the neckline.

You may wonder why not just use the Renfrew pattern? The answer is that I really love the fit of my altered Coco. Its very flattering – fitting nicely across the bust while skimming over my middle. Renfrew just didn’t fit me that well and I haven’t gotten around to modifying it yet, so it’s easier to just add a cowl then refit the whole pattern.

I love how this turned out. I added some length and width to the pattern to make it work as a maternity top. I think the the cowl neck looks great and balances out the sparkly fabric. This is also the most professional looking garment I’ve ever made!

2015 Vintage Pattern Pledge

posted by lorene

on 01.28.2015

I actually have a pretty sweet vintage pattern stash that came from a friend of my parents. In the past I was loath to use them because they are single sized and the wrong size, but after taking a couple of Palmer/Pletsch classes I am way more comfortable with adjusting paper patterns! So I’m taking the Vintage Pattern Pledge this year!

During 2015, I, Lorene , will sew up at least three of my vintage or reproduction sewing patterns.