Vintage sewing...

Well, I've been at it again - sewing! My problem was a small one - what do you wear by way of "nice" (or even "business") clothes in warm or hot weather? The easiest of course is to pull on a nice, not too short/cut-out summer dress, at best in cotton. But if a dress is not in question? I have a heap of nice black capri pants, but the top options to go with them were always about the same, like this super 50s cotton blouse, or my trusty Vietnamese silk top:

So I decided to make something myself. Vintage patterns for tops and blouses abound, after all. In fact, read somewhere that they're the easiest to find of any kind vintage pattern! So I've been buying them, sifting through them, keeping some, putting others in my shop. And in the end, the best-looking patterns turned up in bigger lots that I acquired when not looking for blouses especially. Typical.

And now, here's what I made. First, from Butterick pattern 7024:

This is a very typical 1950s look, very chic and elegant, and actually quite quickly made from realtively few pattern pieces! I used a bright turquoise cotton that has just a small amount of elastic fibers, and some secondhand buttons from my stash that have little rhinestones on them. The fit of the pattern is good, just that the sleeves were a little wide for my taste, so I made them a bit tighter, like it looks in the drawing on the pattern sleeve. Also, it is a little tricky to make, because you have those seams going around corners. There are probably sewers out there who do this better than me - which is why it's now on sale in my shop (no worries - I always copy my patterns, I never use the original pieces!).

And now, next up is this super-versatile 60s Vogue pattern, 6706, which is a definite keeper! It's a a classic blouse, but with so many sleeve and collar options including a cute pussy bow, that this is staying in my pattern stash!

   
For this I used a polyester fabric that I've had in my stash for a couple of years already. I saw this by chance at Komolka in Vienna (a truly not-to-be-missed super fabric store!), it was on clearance and I just loved the big house façade print. Initially, I had thought I would just make a scarf from it, but then I decided differently. And this pattern seemed to be perfect, as there are not a lot of seams cutting through the motif. I chose the sleeveless, collarless version, to be worn over pants, with small side slits. I cut it with an eye on pattern matching, which meant though that's what's left of it isn't really usable anymore, but that was worth it I think. The buttons I used are vintage ones, also from my stash (I originally showed them in this post). I had exactly three of the green ones and two of the navy ones, so it seemed to make sense to use them here! This pattern too fitted just nicely, was easy to make and over all a joy to work with. I really love these American patterns that have the 5/8" seam allowance included - marking that extra before you get to cut it out, like Burda does, just takes so much extra time!

And that's not all of it... this amazing fabric also came in a differnt colorway - and I bought some of that as well! I haven't decided yet though what I'll make from this.

And now? Well, I'm onto the next one, made from a 40s pattern and a repurposed XXL 80s silk top! I hope it'll work as I planned it - keeping my fingers crossed...

 As usual, I have made it all on my trusty, also very vintage, Husqvarna 2000 machine:

This super machine is from the early 60s, and just runs like a little clockwork. She makes very little noise, has all the necessary stitches, plus an ingenious system for lots of fancy stitches and also a bevy of useful ones (overlock, elastic etc.) - and she makes beautiful buttonholes too with an almost fool-proof mechanism. And if there's anything that still creeps me out a little, it's sewing buttonholes! As in "you get only one chance"...

If you're looking for some great vintage blouse patterns now, have a look here at my shop, I have some great offerings!

Burda and Vogue Paris Original patterns

I just got a heap of mid- to late-60s Burda sewing magazines. I originally found and bought them at a short-lived thrift shop back home - 10 years ago or so. These really started me and my mom on the road to vintage sewing patterns. Anyway, my mom kept and used them, and I've used them too. Now that she's bought other sewing magazines, she decided to let these go again, so I took them back. They have lots patterns for lovely mini dresses and little jackets I like.
Upon looking through them, I have found interesting advertisements in two of them:

 June 1966, no 1612 by Balmain

 

August 1966, no 1607 by Grès

According to these, Vogue Paris Original designer patterns were at this time in Germany available exclusively from dealers who sold Burda patterns. So it looks like Burda an Vogue had a special deal there. It's also mentioned that these dealers would have had a special "Burda-Chic de Paris"-catalog showing these patterns. They would obviously not have had an interest in their selling "normal" Vogue patterns too, as these would have competed with their own. I haven't seen this advertisement in any of the other Burda issues I own, like October 1965 or March 1967, so I'm wondering if this maybe was a fairly short-lived deal. The June issue mentions though that two more patterns were advertised in the May 1966 issue. Maybe they were also too expensive. According to the price list at the back of these magazines, normal Burda patterns that you could order or buy at the counter separately (for example, a different size than what was included in the magazine) cost from 1.50 to 3.50 DM (German Marks) and the magazine itself cost 2.30 DM. The Vogue Paris Original patterns however cost a whopping 11 DM - even for a little summer dress like the one shown in the June issue!
Burda never did "designer" patterns on a big scale like Vogue as far as I know, at least not in those they sold separately. I remember a time ca. in the late 90s when each magazine featured a pattern by a designer. There's an image of a bell-bottom pantsuit designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé in my head that I liked greatly at a time. And my 1993 issue of Burda International features some designer patterns. But Burda International was different from regular Burda and appeared less frequently.

Vintage coincidences happen...

So I happen to have this vintage 1982 German Vogue issue. I am not the greatest fan of 80s fashion, but it had both good and bad, and this magazine actually had mostly good things in it. I was recently looking through this again. Due to my ever growing collection of vintage sewing and fashion magazines, I have been asking myself which ones I really want to keep. As with all collecting, tastes evolve, at the beginning, one takes on everything, until one finds "better" or more appealing things, and the the sorting out of what one really likes starts!
But this is definitely a keeper for a few reasons. There are few "career woman" fashion stories, there's some Chanel, boots (my mania!) and other things. The cover girl is actually designer Jil Sander!

At the end, there's a big story on ski and après ski fashion etc, as this was the October 1982 issue, and of course you had to prepare for this early enough! Well, one thing caught my eye... this distinctive Krizia sweater, which had a matching reversible cape with the same knit design on one side and as lined in silk on the other, caught my eye. The little plissée skirt and the boots (by Andrea Pfister) were by Krizia as well. It caught my eye because...

... this rather unusual sweater is available in the shop of one of my fellow VFG members, CarlaAndCarla:

Now, isn't this just am amazing coincidence? It's just such a fun design which is quite versatile. I actually like both ideas of styling it - either with the little skater-style skirt and the high boots, or rocking it with a black leather skirt!