My contest entry....

I read on Peter's blog that Pattern Review is hosting a vintage pattern sewing contest. So....I decided to forego all sanity and enter.

I know, I know, everyone else in the world is enthralled with forties and fifties styles. But not me.

I'm a sixties mod kinda girl.

So this is my contest entry - a dress made of stretch silk/cotton out of this vintage Vogue couturier pattern by Federico Forquet. I think it dates to the winter of 67/68.


There is some weirdness I'm going to have to modernize after reading the directions. It calls for lining the dress (yay! I believe all serious garments should be lined), but instead of making two shells and joining them at the neckline, they want me to basically sew each piece as a sandwich, lining on top of fabric. Then join another "sandwich" at the seams. I don't like it.

I talked to my mom about this technique since she was sewing in the sixties and I wasn't even a speck on the horizon yet (didn't make my grand entrance til seventy-two). She said that was a common technique, lining garments in an underlining sort of manner. But since the fabric I'm working with has some stretch to it, we both think it would be wiser to make a lining shell and put it all together at the neckline and armholes as I would a modern pattern.

So, it'll have a few modifications but otherwise the original pattern will be used to a T.


Now, I just need to get crackin cause the contest ends in two weeks! Yikes. I've not spent a lot of time on Pattern Review, although I'm trying to refer to it as I contemplate using commercial patterns. I'm hoping it'll help me avoid disappointment!

I have two copies of this pattern so if it turns out ok - meaning, non-hideous - I'll prolly give one away in a grand giveaway to celebrate completion.