Do you need some inspiration for your Christmas party frock? How about sewing one of these gorgeous evening dresses from the 1960s?
Or maybe 1970s is more your thing?
There is even the possibility of machine knitting your evening dress:
All these patterns are available in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SewLindyLou
I am offering a 10% discount for the rest of the month. Please use the code NOVE10.
Happy sewing! And happy partying!
I love this time of year when Strictly Come Dancing arrives on our tv screen! I love the colour, the glitter and the glamour!
So imagine my delight when this pattern turned up in a bundle of vintage patterns I acquired recently. It is a 1960s pattern for a ballroom dress, with variations on neckline and sleeve. It has been partially cut, but is complete and in good condition.
The pattern is recommended by Bill and Bobby Irvine. Here’s their wikipedia entry. They were dancing in the 1960s, and won 13 world titles during that decade. Here they are dancing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfD72raCfKU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ESsqnYguo
I can’t find anything out about Theatreland Ltd. All I can find online is a company with the same name which provides theatre guides and websites which began in 2003.
Just fabulous!
It is for sale in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/487288861/vintage-ballroom-dress-pattern?ref=shop_home_active_9
With the price of patterns so high nowadays, it’s great to use a pattern more than once. I think people call it TNT, tried ‘n tested. I fell in love with this Kwick Sew pattern, K4026
My first attempt at making this dress was for Christmas last year. I bought this gorgeous printed jersey from More Sewing. The rich velvety look to the fabric suited a Christmas dress. It was a very straight forward make, the only alteration was to grade out at the waist. I love the skirt on this dress!
The next iteration of this pattern was a top. Another gorgeous jersey fabric from More Sewing, but this time much more drapy. Indeed, I had to alter the cowl neckline as it was so low! But I just love the colours in this fabric.
Finally, a dress I made this summer for a friend’s 60th birthday party. This is my least favourite of the 3, as it is a very bouncy fabric and it feels like the cowl neck sticks out! I am not sure about the sleeves either, maybe it would look better sleeveless? I made this one longer in length, and the skirt is very swishy!
Finally, talking about saving money, here’s a plantain top (Deer and Doe free pattern) I made with the leftovers from the Christmas dress. There is a seam down the back, and the sleeves are made from a lovely tweed look fabric. The only problem is that the sleeves are a little bit tight as this tweed is a woven fabric. If I do it like this again, (which I am sure I will!) I will either use a stretch fabric or cut them a bit bigger! I do love the elbow patch detail on this top!
Are you thinking of sewing a coat this autumn? Well, if you are, here’s some inspiration from my stock of vintage patterns:
Here’s a closer look at 3 patterns,1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
See them all on my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SewLindyLou
As soon as I saw this autumn fabric made up into culottes in the window of my local fabric shop, More Sewing, I knew I was going to have to make another Hollyburn skirt! I decided on a midi length, so lengthened the the skirt by 4 inches. It went together really easily again, straight out of the envelope. I love it, it’s so swishy! (Sorry about the photos, the light is so bad at the moment and as you can see I was using my phone)
No longer a lurker on people’s blogs, I have come out of the closet and am commenting left, right and centre! I am 2/3rds of the way through my 300 blog comments in 30 days. I’ve just written my 200th comment! Here are some of my thoughts so far:
Positive:
I have left lurkdom behind! In the past, I did not comment on many blogs that I visited. I hardly ever commented on sewing blogs, especially the more well known ones. I guess I didn’t feel confident to comment, not worthy of their greatness in the online sewing community, and anyway they already got loads of comments! Since I plucked up the courage to comment (and subscribe to their comments), some of them have commented on my comment, ie communicated with me! Not only that but lots of people I’ve left comments for have been back to visit me! It’s a two-way communication, and that makes me very happy. No more lurking for me!
I’ve found lots of new-to-me blogs that I will go back to have a longer look. I’ve mostly found them through blogs I know, for example, Julia’s Stamping Ground WOYWW. I took part in an online blogging course some years ago, and have followed a few of fellow participants through the years. Now I have connected with the others in that little community.
Through Sandie’s blog I have found 30 days of blogging challenge. I have signed up for the 30 daily emails. I can see that it is aimed at businesses, but am hopeful that I can use some of the ideas for my photo blog, as well as my Etsy business SewLindyLou. That will be November’s challenge!
I have realised what I like in a blog post. Not too long (some of the sewing blog posts are really long when they write about a particular pattern and how they made it up.) I really like crafting blogs. I’ve looked at some gardening blogs, but I don’t find them as compelling as paper crafting or sewing. I also like to get to know the blogger, so a few personal details and what they’ve been doing is great. I particularly love the memes like ‘Pairs’ on Helena’s blog and Me on a Monday on Sian’s blog. Watch out! I’ll be joining in next month!
There is some fabulous inspiration out there! I have noted some dressmaking patterns and fabrics that I would like. There are some great sites with sketches and inspiration for my scrapbooking. I have discovered some wonderful art journallers (through WOYWW) and really want to try it out for myself. I am thinking of including it in my goals for next year, and maybe do an online course.
Now for the negatives:
Boy, does this take up a lot of time on the computer!!! I have followed my usual blogs a lot of the time rather than always finding new blogs, as this has saved me time. When I visit a new blog, I like to take some time to look around and read a few blog posts. Sometimes I haven’t commented, for example, if the blogger hasn’t blogged for a while. 300 blogs in 30 days is 10 blogs per day, and there have been many days when I haven’t commented at all, especially at the weekend.
This means that I have been feeling behind all the time! Even now, it’s the 22nd and I have only made 209 comments. So even today I am 11 behind! And feeling behind is stressful!
Consequently I haven’t done many of my own blog entries! I did a post about my quilts on SewLindyLou because I was leaving comments on quilting blogs, and a post about Barney to keep my photo blog going. I’m hoping to rectify this and start to blog much more regularly from next month on, especially with my 30 days of blogging challenge.
I need to find a way for people to follow me! Somebody asked me how they could follow me, but I don’t know! I think I will have to look into Bloglovin’, in fact I think I did register on there a while ago. I am a little bit lazy when it comes to technology. Something to put on my to-do list, along with learning about the statistics available.
It just remains for me to say ‘thank you’ for all the return comments you have made on my blogs, and I hope that we can continue communicating. That’s what makes me happy!
