pattern junkie

Have You Seen This Sun Hat?

2011-07-13T14:21:18-07:00

It's summer, and my thoughts have turned to sun hats.

Actually, let me clarify that. What I really mean is that I've become obsessed with searching out one very specific hat pattern. One that's been marked in my etsy favorites for quite a while:

I don't think I need to explain the siren-like call of the hat. I mean, what's not to love? The baggy top! The oversize pleated brim! It's REVERSIBLE! Clearly I need to make one or twelve RIGHT NOW in the brightest colors imaginable. I live on one of the streets doomed to be clogged due to this weekend's "Carmageddon" in Los Angeles, so if I'm going to be trapped in my house for the weekend I might as well hunker down and make obnoxious sun hats while drinking mojitos.

But...the item listed as "Lady's Vogue Reversible Sun Hat PDF Pattern" is on Etsy no more. The seller no longer exists, so the ghost of the item can't even be viewed. Only this scrap of information remains. I scoured the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki and have yet to uncover it, although after stumbling across Vogue 6805 I feared to explore summer hat territory further:

Is it a bandana? A veil? A veindana? Are those fake flowers on view 3 -- and could it be a wedding version? I'm very, very confused.

While I ponder the conundrum of Vogue 6805, please report any sightings of the Vogue Reversible Lady's Sun Hat to PatternJunkie HQ. Do not approach the hat or make eye contact with it, as it may be armed and dangerous!

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Baby Got Back, Part II

2011-07-11T07:00:07-07:00

Usually back views are relegated to the background, but they're the main attraction in Vogue 348:

Not that there's anything wrong with the front -- I'd say it's pretty sharp. Still, I'd find a reason to walk backwards into rooms if I were wearing this. Having to look over your shouler while talking would cramp your neck, sure, but I think it'd be worth it.

Unfortunate Fashion Friday: The Day Pass Edition

2011-06-24T09:55:43-07:00

Butterick 4489, on its own, isn't bad enough to qualify as Unfortunate Fashion. The "pocketed pull-on outfit" is boring, sure, but it's the institutional blue and the ice cream cone that push it into UFF territory for me:

With that smile, that pose and that outfit, she has the look of someone who has finally earned enough Good Points for a Trip Outside. Maybe she was committed for making Crazy Caps?

I don't know about you, but my mind immediately went to the scene in Girl, Interrupted when Whoopi Goldberg took Winona Ryder, Angelia Jolie and all the other beautful mentally-ill girls out of the hospital for ice cream. It didn't necessarily end well, but anyone who's ever seen a movie could've told you that. (Of course, by "didn't end well," I mean it ended in a "unfortunate yet endearing way which let us feel like we were laughing with mentally ill people instead of laughing at them, even though the movie was doing just that.")

Here's the scene -- in Spanish, because it's always better to watch WASPish characters with telenovela voices:

So Noted

2011-06-23T07:56:31-07:00

I always love patterns with notations on them. Jottings about hem lengths, fabrics, adjustments...all are peeks into the lives of the seamstresses who used these little pieces of history.

And then there are the notes scrawled in frustration and madness...those moments all too familiar to anyone who sews. McCall's 6079 from 1961 has both:

"Dark print," "Summer or winter," "Make in suiting or washable tweed." Such great planning, don't you think?

We all know what they say about God and plans.

Check out the note to the left of the brown skirt:

"do not make this in brn, short sleeves, looks like an overgrown brownie!"

I'm assuming she meant a Girl Scout-type brownie, but it's just as amusing to imagine someone laboring over the washable tweed just to put on the finished dress, gaze in the mirror and think, "Shit. I look like a giant pastry."

Like the pattern? You can get it in a B32 -- complete with the notes -- over at DellaJane!

EEEEEKKK!

2011-06-21T04:30:00-07:00

Simplicity 6696, 1984

You can have the thread. All of it! Even the good Gutermann silk! And the metallics...here, take the rayon, too, I really don't need it. You want the plain black cotton? Sure! Take it!

Just please, please, PLEASE be gone in the morning.

Monday Morning Eye Candy: 60s Cool

2011-06-20T05:15:00-07:00

Ah. To be as hip, as cool, as "with it" as these women in their gowns from Vogue 7148:

They don't merely walk. They slink. While your hair is sliding out of place and sticking to your skin, theirs remains perfect. Their champagne glasses are always filled. Witty bon mots and sly double entendres drop from their lips with ease.

Yeah, I hate them too. But I do love their outfits.

Sensational Accessories!

2011-06-17T09:54:18-07:00

I know lately I've been reserving Fridays for Unfortunate Fashion, but I can't bear to put Betsey Johnson in that category. I love her over-the-top stuff, and have several of her 1970s patterns. Check out this early wonder that just showed up on the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki, Butterick 3850:

What Sensational Accessories! Can you resist a carpenter's apron with pockets for pencils, keys, lipstick, junk and tools? A tote bag with "hello" suspended from a woman's lips? I can't!

And yet...the hat. Betsey Johnson, my pop-punk princess rebel, you fail me here. The "Don't bother me...I'm pretending to study!" just screams Fabricated Teen Rebellion. (If you're pretending to study, shouldn't it say "Please Bother Me"?)

You're a hair's breadth away from getting an Unfortunate Fashion stamp, Betsey. Watch your step.

Kwik Sew 1179: Modern Dance and Road Kill

2011-06-15T12:56:39-07:00

There are a few baffling and downright disturbing things on the pattern envelope for Kwik Sew 1179:

The child in the rabbit towel appears to be engaged in some form of modern interpretative dance. What, you think a rabbit head towel would be too bizarre? Trust me: I was in a modern dance troupe in college, and anything can happen. For one piece, the choreographer instructed us to come to rehearsal with "kneepads, long underwear and a flashlight. The long underwear should be small enough to fit on your head." During one concert, we realized there was a nail sticking up out of the dance floor, so during the pause between pieces another dancer and I crawled onto the stage with a flashlight and a hammer to find it. (Why didn't we just turn on the lights and walk out there? I don't know. Dancers aren't known for logic.) We pounded it in and crawled offstage. The audience broke out in rapturous applause.
What's happened to the child between photo one and two of the cat sleeping bag? Has the sleeping bag digested the child? Or was a vanishing spell involved?
Speaking of which...I'm not a parent, but I imagine that it might be distressing to make your young 'un a sleeping bag that essentially made her look like she was sleeping in a piece of roadkill. A piece of roadkill wearing a vest.

Monday Morning Eye Candy: Baby Got Back

2011-06-13T09:54:36-07:00

Nothing has made me want to put a few extra yards of fabric on my tush as much as Vogue 484 here:

And with perfectly matched stripes, no less! It's simply scrumptious.

Gifts of the Vintage Pattern Wiki

2011-06-09T12:36:53-07:00

Hello, lovely and much-neglected blog readers!

It's been stressful times in Pattern Junkie land for the past couple of months. I was working away this morning, in need of something cheery, when I decided to take a break and head on over to the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki. I hadn't been there in ages. I clicked on the new photos page to see what wonders had been added.

Little did I know what gifts awaited.

First I spied McCall 7527:

I sighed. "Wow," I thought. "Wouldn't it be great to put on that dress and feel like skipping?"

I kept looking.

Oh, Vintage Wiki. You know just what I need. Because in the very next row, you presented me with the glory that is Vogue 6731:

YES! That's a bra just FLOATING in mid-air! Is there a strip-tease going on just outside the edges of the pattern envelope? Is a torrid orgy underway? Or is it a magic bra floating of its own accord, much like the cartoon mini-helper of Advance pattern fame? I don't know, but that floating bra just fills me with delight.

But that's not all the Vintage Pattern Wiki had to offer today. Oh, no. It gets better. Just take a look at Vogue 8898:

That's OK. Look again. Take a deep breath or two. I needed a moment when I saw it for the first time.

Stuffed animals. ON SLEDS AND SKIS! Whizzing down a mountain! (In case you're wondering, the brown lumps on the left are supposed to be hedgehogs.)

Who decided that the way to model stuffed hedgehogs, rabbits and possums was to put them in a toboggan race in a fake mountain diorama? (Whoever you are, thank you!) What were the alternate ideas? Animals betting on horse races? Pumping gas? Hot tubbing?

I think I feel like picking up my skirts and skipping.