Tuesday, July 24, 2007

My Vintage Sewing

First, Carolyn posted some several-years old still-in-her-closet garments she'd made, then Marji, while thinking about participating in the Pattern Review Vintage Sewing Contest, reminisced about sewing in her teen years...and challenged her readers to also post about their years-ago sewing. Summerset kicked it up a notch by modeling the drop-dead gorgeous dress she made and wore for her high school prom...and still looked drop-dead gorgeous in it. Sigh. Jealousy is a sin...jealousy is a sin... (just kidding. I think.)




Well, I can't even get into these two garments any more, but I thought I'd show them to you anyway. The red dress was made for my first high school dance...back in December of 1973. I still marvel at how well I matched the plaids, given my sewing skill level at the time. I think I wore it at least once after I got married, and somewhere there's a photo of my oldest daughter (now 21) wearing it for a school function when she was in middle school. Pattern company and number? Surely you jest...

The skirt was made from a Jessica McClintock/Gunne Sax pattern in 1982, after marriage but before kids. Blue denim w/lace overlays and ribbon trim. I think the last time I wore it was sometime after Baby 1; I'm not sure I ever skinnied down quite enough after Baby 2. (It has a 25" waist). DD pulled it out last fall, looking for some costumy something for a church event, and marveled that I'd ever worn it. "Good grief, Mom, you were a Twiggy!" Well, maybe. That was a long time ago...

Lisa at The Hem Line has recently posted TWO patterns that I remember making back in my teens: I made View 3, w/o lacing from a pink/puple swirly poly print, and I think I also vaguely remember doing those loops for lacing on another dress, but I can't remember anything else about it. That would've been my Freshman year also. In the spring of my Senior year, the traveling multi-church youth choir I was in used a floor-length version of this one, made out of several colorways of a floral poly print, as our group outfits. In the puffy poly, it wasn't terribly flattering on anyone...sorta like a bunch of bridesmaid's dresses (I guess that WAS the beginning of my choir clothes saga...).

I wonder whatever happened to those patterns....

Oh, I do have one garment that I made more than 10 years ago that I still wear; but that'll be for another post. ;)

1 comment:

  1. The plaid dress is great! I do remember those Gunne Sax patterns from when I was a child. My mother sewed a lot, and as a result, we'd spend time in fabric stores, looking at patterns and buying fabric, etc. I remember looking at those dresses/separates vividly, they were the most elaborate things in the pattern books. My mother eventually made one for me for Easter one year; white with white lace and purple ribbon trim. It was the last Easter dress she made me.

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