VSFLO • Seersucker Florals

(VSFLO = Vintage Sewing For Little Ones)

About a month ago, I decided to make a dress for each of two of my nieces. I was worried about having the right size pattern, but thankfully they were both around a size 6, the which size I have quite a few patterns for! I milled around from fabric to fabric, trying to decide what to use for each of them. I finally decided on these two seersucker prints, both of which were purchased about 15 and 20 years ago. The blue print was destined to be a dress for me when I was a little girl, but it never came to fruition, sadly. A few years back, I made part of the fabric into a pillowcase, and the rest into (very sorry-looking) curtains.

As it turned out, those sorry-looking curtains ended up making one very cute little dress! I just had two valance-sized panels and a little scrap of fabric left, but managed to squeeze the dress into it, including a 2-1/2" hem!

The pink dress, for my older niece, was made from this 1950s Marian Martin pattern. I have always loved it, and was so excited to finally sew it up! I didn't like how lace looked on the neckline with this fabric, so I decided to bind it instead. It was a huge pain trying to bind those front scallops, but thankfully they turned out anyway. 

Simple white buttons were the perfect touch on the front, accented by pink thread. Little princesses need pink anywhere they can get it, right?! ;)

Puffed sleeves on little girls' dresses are a must, even though they can be a little persnickety to sew. There's just nothing cuter! :)

I love the construction of this dress: the front "waistband" area and skirt are cut in one, as is the back bodice and center back skirt. Then there are side skirt pieces that are stitched on after assembling the other pieces. It was very easy to sew (other than the neck binding....*ahem*), and the result is darling. 

Plenty of lapped seams, as always on vintage patterns. :)

And no little dress is complete without a big, fluffy bow in the back! :)

My younger niece's dress is from this 1945 McCall pattern, also a size 6. I did not have enough fabric to cut a separate belt, as the pattern called for, so I just cut ties and sewed them into the side seams. It seemed so much more practical, anyway, than making a separate belt that would be easily lost. 

The fabric needed some accents, so I opted for some solid green cotton for the collar and sleeve bands. The ruffles on the collar and sleeves are so fun! But then, everyone knows I LOVE ruffles. ;)

The best part about these dresses is the fact that they are made of seersucker, and therefore do not have to be ironed, ever! What could be better for a little girl's dress? The only downside to that was the difficulty of not being able to press virtually anything as I made it. I did iron a few things, like the neck binding of the pink dress, and the ties of both dresses. 

Yay for invisible hems!!! :D

It was such a fun project to make these dresses, and the girls looked absolutely adorable in them. Perfect colors and styles for each ones' looks and personalities. Now I'm inspired to start making more little people's clothing! It's so much fun to do, and the results are always adorable.

Thanks for visiting! :) See you next week.

In the Apron Stash • Feathered Friends

A month or two ago, I found an adorable vintage girl's apron at an antique store. Never before in my life have I actually bought an apron! The old line of "Oh, I can make one of those!" usually prevails. This apron, however, was an exception. Its adorableness was just too irresistible.

So, a few days ago when I got the itch to sew up something for the shop, I decided to sew a little apron patterned after my vintage one!

The original apron. The style is so cute!!

Look. At. That. FABRIC. If only I had about 500 million yards of it. Yes, I would make 100 million dresses out of the same exact fabric. And like it!

Actually though, I'd even settle for just one yard of it. ;)

The apron itself is in perfect condition; no stains whatsoever, no tears, no rips. The only part of it that is worn is the seam binding, which I can easily replace.

The fabric I used is slightly less vintage-y, but still absolutely adorable. I bound the apron with some yellow/mustard polka dot fabric I had in the stash. I had never thought of putting them together, but they match perfectly!

The apron ties at the back neck and around the waist.

I love the look of narrow seam binding, however finger-scorching it is to make it! It looks so much more vintage than the wider widths, at least for a little apron.

I can't wait to make more of these little aprons! They're absolutely adorable, and quite fun to make.

Check out the listing for this apron in my shop here.

VSFLO • Little Red Baby Dress

I am enjoying sewing these little garments so much, I have to admit! This little dress was no exception. It's always hard to decide which baby project to make next, but I finally decided on making this baby dress from the scraps of my christmas gown.

I did not have very much fabric left, so it was quite the squeeze to fit it all in. And by squeeze I mean piecing. Piecing the skirt, and even the ties! You can barely see the seams in the picture above, but there are quite a few;

All I had left was about a 12" strip of fabric maybe a yard long, plus what I had cut off from hemming, and a few other odds and ends. It was such fun to "make do" with what I had and get the little dress made in spite of it!

The design of this dress is just adorable; the little puffed sleeves, the teeny little collar. Such cuteness!!

(I know....that selvedge is awfully distracting. It won't be visible once the dress is hemmed, but until I am ready to use the dress, I'm just leaving the bottom edge serged and unhemmed.)

I am so happy with how easy the dress came together!

These adorable little heart buttons were in the stash, and they seemed to be the perfect accent.

The front bodice has little decorative points that overlay the skirt pleats.

As with many vintage patterns, the bodice edge is turned under and topstitched onto the skirt.

The sleeves have bands which are turned up to form an adorable little cuff.

(Maybe I overuse that word. But really, it is adorable.)

As you may have guessed, I'm rather pleased with this little frock, and can't wait to make some more renditions of it! :)

VSFLO • 1940s Princess Frock

Last week, we went to a couple of antique stores in a nearby town, and in the upstairs (which I didn't even know existed), there was a little cache of vintage sewing patterns! We found 7 kids' patterns, and 5 ladies' patterns. One of the patterns even features some designs for a little boy!

It was a good day!

This particular pattern is a mail-order, with the original envelope included (one cent postage, of course!). The design is a "princess frock" featuring a gathered waist, optional ruffles at the neckline and a sash in the back. The pictures just don't do this little dress justice. It is cuter than...well, anything when you see it in person.

I used the leftover fabric from my green shirtdress, lengthening the dress by about 6". I also omitted the ruffles at the neckline, because it seemed to be quite cute enough without them!

I had always wanted to put these little pearl buttons on this fabric, but there were not enough for my dress. There was the perfect number of them for this little dress, though, so they got to be paired with it after all!

The directions say to face the neckline with bias, but since I had some scraps left, I decided to go ahead and use ordinary facings instead.

It was so fun to put a teeny-tiny zipper in a teeny-tiny dress! The pattern gave the option of either a placket opening with snaps or a zipper. Very easy choice. Any time I can skip sewing on snaps, the happier I am!

It always seems funny to me to read the instructions in a vintage pattern. This particular one had three steps. Make the dress, Make the sleeves, and Finishing, with a few vague instructions under each category. It is so different from today's patterns, which spell out every little detail! When everyone knew how to sew, as women did in that era, I suppose there was no need for very tedious instructions. And to think, I used to complain about the instructions in modern patterns! 

Since I am keeping this dress for my own (Lord willing!) future use, I'm just going to serge the bottom edge and leave it un-hemmed. It seems like a better idea than hemming it to a possibly incorrect length, and having to redo it later on.

I am so glad we found the patterns, because it has really motivated me to start sewing kiddo clothes! I already have the next little outfit planned! :)

• VSFLO • 1950s Gingham Baby Dress •

(That's vintage sewing for little ones...just in case you'd forgotten)

Back about 4 months ago, I shamefully admit, a friend at church's daughter had a birthday. Someone procrastinated - namely me, and didn't get her little dress done until now. I think, however it was worth the wait! I absolutely love how it came out!

Of the humongous number of vintage kids' patterns that we have, (three), none of them are for a 1-year old. Problem. But around here, creativity is sometimes present, which caused me to start drawing up a pattern! I never dreamed that it would come out this good - it's actually dress-shaped and everything! ;)

I didn't want to make a tiny little dress into too big of a deal, so I decided to make it a one-piece (no seam at the waist) dress. It definitely needed some sort of accent, so I dug out some checked pink fabric that I had in the stash. It really sets it off perfectly and gives it the color that it needed. (And it's all gingham. I LOVE gingham.)

Once I had the bodice drawn up, I knew I was going to have to tackle some sort of sleeves. Oh. boy. I just really love the idea of making up sleeves! Or not! I decided to steal a sleeve from the size 6 dress pattern that we have and try to make it baby-sized. Amazingly enough, it actually worked.

The only thing I would change on the next dress would be the size of the armhole. I got a little carried away with the size of it, but it still shouldn't be too much of a problem. 

I gathered the waist area of the front on each side and topstitched on a faux waistband which continues into ties.

Originally I was going to put a little collar on the dress, but when I made the collar, I ingeniously forgot to allow seam allowances for the neckline. The result? A collar that would have been too small for a ladybug. It ended up being all for the best, however, because the bias neck binding is cuter than any little collar could have been.

And for the first time in my life, I made more than a 5/8" hem! Since the dress is for a little one, I wanted it to be able to be made longer as she grows. I literally had never made a hem that wide before, so it was a completely new experience. It turned out much better than expected! 

I can't wait to make more little clothes for little people! It's so much fun! If and when I ever get enough things sewn for myself (I think that sounds selfish, but....), I am going to start sewing little clothes for my own future use. The box of leftover fabric from my sewing projects is starting to bulge! :)

Vintage Sewing for Little Ones · 1940s Floral Dress

While I was sick, I didn't even feel like sewing, but when I started to be on the mend, I decided to try a miniature-sized project. I intended to make a different pattern at first, but I soon found out that I didn't have enough fabric to make it. This adorable little dress didn't take much fabric, and when you're working with scraps, that's just what you need.

The pattern is Anne Adams 3807, which I haven't been able to find online anywhere. It is not dated, but I'm guessing it's from the 1940s.

I didn't realize it at first, but this is actually a wrap dress! The back buttons to the front, and the front ties around the back. I just love the design - it is incredibly adorable!!

The construction was really unusual (I thought so anyway) in that the front is all one piece, which you then slit on the sides, gather, and sew back together. It's actually a really nifty design!

I happened to have some cute little purple buttons in the stash. I wanted to bring out the purple color that is in the middle of each flower. A gray button just wasn't up to the mark.

I ended up varying my version of this dress a little bit from the pattern. For one thing, I lengthened it an inch, and then narrow-hemmed it, rather than doing a 3 inch hem like the pattern says. I like dresses to be longer than they were back then, which you can see from the pattern picture were above the knee. Ideally, I will make little dresses like this with a 3 inch hem in the future so that they can be let down as the child grows. This time though, I didn't have ample fabric to do so.

Another slight variation is, I made the neck binding continue into ties, rather than sewing on a separate bow. It seemed more logical somehow (and I didn't read the pattern until I finished sewing that step).

All in all, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I can't wait to sew more vintage dresses and stash them away for future use. It's so fun!!

Meanwhile, I'm working on a dress and long-sleeved jacket from Vogue 8767. It should be a really nice fall wardrobe staple, and the dress, being short-sleeved, will be nice year-round!

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P.S. I'm going to try (emphasis on try) to start posting regularly on Monday and Friday, rather than spottily blogging like I have been doing. We'll see how it goes!