Narrowing down choices for the 30s Sew-Along

I’ve been lured into a 30s sew-along by Norma from She Sews You Know . She’s promised me a “very slow 1930s sewalong … No rules no pressure – just 1930s and encouragement”. It sounds about my speed. I absolutely love vintage clothes and the cut of a 30s dress is one of my favorites. They are hard to find though, and expensive when you do find them, so why not make my own? I’ve narrowed down my options to four choices of reproduction patterns:

This pattern from 1930 has a beautiful cut. I like the middle, long sleeved option with no cape.

This rare pattern put out by Butterick in 1933 is a design for a dress and jacket “as worn by Miss Hepburn in an R.K.O. Radio Picture”. It’s an amazing jacket – although I don’t know how many occasions I would have to wear it. I like that I could make this outfit in a light weight wool.

This 1936 dress is a more practical choice, but not quite as exciting as the cuts of the earlier 30s. I really do like this sleeve though.

Finally, this 1931 dress was one of my first choices. I like the first long sleeved option. I’m just not sure how hard the curved yoke would be…

Which one to choose? Any preferences, comments or suggestions on my choices? Although I sew a lot, I am a novice to vintage sewing so I’d appreciate any advice.

Jackie

The Oldest Nuhn girl.

 

 

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My Exciting Vintage Store Find: 1920s sewing patterns

 

 

Vintage Clothing has always been a love of mine. I have been wearing vintage clothing ever since I was a teenager – and it was hard to come by in the small town I lived in. In my 20s and 30s I had an online vintage clothing business and now my closet is filled with genuine vintage and vintage inspired clothing. (my teenage dream!)

In the summer I found an amazing new vintage clothing store filled with the beautiful 40s and 50s dresses and suits that I love to wear. So exciting!

On my most recent trip into the store I saw these vintage 20s patterns and I had to have them. They are in quite good condition for their age and I think they are all unused. The McCall pattern has a date of 1921 on it, the Butterick is 1923 and the Ladies Home Journal pattern is undated.

 

McCall 3182 1921

Butterick 6901 1923

Ladies Home Journal 1920s dress 4315

 

My first thought when I bought them was to make the dresses for myself. What a thrill that would be! However, after bringing them home, the thought of using and (potentially) destroying them seems out of the question. (I do my best to be graceful, but I have a terrible clumsy streak.) I am also pretty sure that these patterns would be a couple of sizes too big for me. These patterns piqued my interest in vintage sewing though, so I started doing a little searching and found that reproduction patterns are available for a fairy reasonable price at sites like Past Patterns.

So, my vintage patterns will likely remain unused, but they have sparked an interest in me to make a genuine 1920s dress. I’m eager to choose a pattern and find some fabric to get this project started. Vintage sewing seems to be an interest in a lot of the bloggers I follow as well. After noticing the Vintage Pledge badge on a few blogs I checked out A Stitching Odyssey. They invite you to join them in their third year of pledging to make at least one garment from a vintage or reproduction pattern. So I guess I’m in. 🙂 Let the fun begin.

Have you ever sewn with a vintage pattern? How do you choose a fabric for a vintage project? What would you do with these patterns? (Oh, I have so many questions…)

Jackie

(the oldest Nuhn girl)

 

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