Easy Summer Dress Patterns

As I get into the swing of sewing summer dresses I wanted to show some of the patterns I may be using. These patterns are not exclusive to what I may use, since I have over several hundred patterns, but more along the lines of the simple style I am going for with the fabric I had shown earlier, see again below, or original post.

This McCall's 5997 pattern is from1992 and I love the princess line, flared skirt and knee-length, which would flatter my body. Since some of the fabric is a border print, I may play around with bringing the border down one side or mixing the smaller print with the larger. Should be fun.

Left: McCall's 9791 from 1969 is a front or back wrap dress and would also be fun to mix the large and small prints. I like how view A ties, but would also want it knee-length.

Right: Vogue 7684 no date, but 70s/80s is a very comfy tent or trapeze dress, that neckline slit looks low, I may do a few button and lower the round collar a bit.


 

 Left:  New Look, Simplicity 6244 from 2003. Another easy and simple summer dress. I like the little tie at the bust. This dress can have a multitude of design possibilities with the fabric. I think it would look better in the silk type fabrics than the cotton I have, but I do like the style.

Right: Simplicity 5561 from 1973. Another princess line in a halter top style, this pattern is to small for me, but they always made patterns larger and allowed for 2" ease sometimes. If I made it I would need to adjust the size a bit. I think it is a really cute dress and great for summer.

 The cheetah chiffon print fabric below I thought would look good in the black version of this McCall's 9368 blouse pattern from1984. I like the boat neckline and dolman sleeves. I would rather have elastic on the cuff with perhaps a bit of a small ruffle. I don't wear animal prints, but I do like them, so why not give it a try. Since the fabric is sheer I would wear it over a black tank top.

 

So, here are my next few sewing project. So what do you think, any suggestions, or favorites?

And, while I'm at it I want to show off a couple of earrings I made this week.

I found these Czech glass beads at my local bead shop, some folks came in and were having a trunk show. The beads remind me of fire in a bottle. The cabochons are a dark garnet, the drops are ruby glass cullets.  I sort have got into a goth mood and added the red drops. I started out Victorian and moved into Dark Shadows.

Simple black beads. I picked up the onyx cabochon for the red fire Czech beads, but used the garnets instead, so since I had lots of black beads, these seemed to work really well, I love black jewelry.

 Thanks for taking a peek and hoping to post some finished dresses and other fun projects soon.

 

A Few of the Interests That Happened This Past Week

I'll start with the dress that seemed to take me forever to finish. Not because it took that long to make, but because I kept setting it aside and working on other projects. So, I focused an little here and a little there and changed the dress design just a bit. On the original draping of the fabric on the dress form I had a piece of fabric swinging across the front of the gathered bodice, that didn't work on the finished dress because of how the color of the fabric ended up. Below you can see the mustard color should fall just below the rust color...

Fabric on Dress From

On the finished dress the front panel would have fallen just above the rust on the waistband and there would have been to much of that color, so I just left it off.

So, this dress is technically finished and is ready to be worn out for a fun night.

Another fun project(s) I am going to be working on is turning this stack of fabric into summer dresses. The fabric was $1.00 a yard 100% cotton and yes needs ironing, I may start working with knits soon.

Most of these pieces are 3 yards, you never know how much you will need until you find the right design.

The cheetah print laying across the top of these fabric pieces is chiffon and I am thinking a slouchy blouse.

Also, went to an estate sale and picked up some goodies for my shops....

I love kitsch

So what I found, a 50s crochet apron, embroidered pillowcase, Laura Ashley scarf, 80s duck tie, 70s white plastic wall sconce (I got 10 of these in various shapes) and gold wall plaques too, aluminum ice bucket, Anchor Hocking juice pitcher, a pink nut chopper, 8 yards of white cotton fringe, plastic egg plate, 80s gold tone black enameled necklace, silk Vanette Creation peacock scarf, and these last two are not vintage, but very nice, a grey wool pleated skirt from Scotland and a black satin gown from Brittany Creations (David's Bridal)

The black satin gown

Oh, and I finished one necklace from the shell beads....

 

 

This one is not quite done, I wanted to add more depth somehow

Can't wait to see what interesting happenings are coming this week. Would love to hear what fun adventures you had this past week.

Beautiful Necklace and Earring Win

I just had to share with all of you this beautiful necklace and pair of earrings I won from Fools and Jewels blog. Cynthia Thomson is designer and creator at Divapixie, at Artfire and her DivaPixie shop at Etsy. I can't describe how beautiful this necklace is in person and how lovely it is wearing, Cynthia did such a wonderful and skillful job of wiring these beautiful beads for this creation. Be sure to check out her shops and give her some love. And, read her blog about her as the featured designer in Beads Trend magazine, what an honor and well desired.

Copper wire wrapped necklace red and pink quartz 

 

Carnelian and red quartz drop earrings in copper

 

Thank you Cynthia!

Share what you have won from your favorite bloggers....

A bit of Spring color

A little bit of 1960s green and yellow and super cool sunglasses.

Beads I pick up at Craft Warehouse on sale for $1.50 a strand. Dyed mother of pearl beads and one gemstone strand. I have ideas for two designs for necklaces.

And, a silk Kimono I picked up at our local Goodwill for $3.99. I originally bought it for my daughter who loves butterflies, but I told her we may just have to share it, I love the color and the feel of the silk.

Well, that was my day yesterday and today. Although yesterday I found a place in town that did reflexology for $26 and decided to try them out. Wow, it was a 45 min massage starting with the face, neck shoulders and arms, very deep and invigorating. The family hails from Beijing, China and the atmosphere was very different than at a spa. I'll be back next week and taking my husband so he can enjoy it too.

Fashion, Sewing and a Beautiful Picture

Here is the finished cotton dress with quite a few changes to the original pattern. I was thinking of modeling it myself, but Millie does such a great job, and she wasn't doing anything else at the moment. Some day I will pose for photos in clothing I make and even outfits thrown together for a day, and I do throw together some pretty funky outfits. But, I want someone with me, like my daughters, while I'm at it, so it can be an adventure in fun, and, my daughter are pretty good at throwing a 'look' together.

The dress is from a 1949 Sue Burnett mail order pattern. The fabric is 100% cotton at $2.00 a yard from Walmart. I didn't like the way the original dress fit when finishes, so these are the changes I made;

* took off the sleeves and used them for a hankie-like detail at the shoulder. I have narrow shoulders, so this detail drew that area in a bit.
* I lowered the neckline about an inch and took the center seam in, also about an inch, I also have a small upper chest. And added two vintage buttons.
* I placed the ties toward center front to give a bit more definition to the waist.

So all in all, I think this dress with make a nice summer gardening dress for 'urber' cool wearing in the heat of the day and maybe to wear to the lake.

This Millie girls has such a cute figure ; ) Her namesake is from here Millie the Model

My next sewing projects are just for fun because neither one will fit me nor could I wear them. I would have definitely wore both of the following outfits some years ago and loved them. I guess it is like a middle age crisis and the red sports car thing.

The dress above is draped on the dress form. It is three yards of polyester chiffon (remember I usually work in inexpensive fabrics  at $1.50 a yard, although I do love silks and satins). I would have loved to make this dress floor length, but I bought the last three yards, not enough to hit the floor. So, for this dress I am going to have to draft or drape the pattern from scratch, it should be fun. I did post this on Facebook.

This next outfit I had planned to make two year ago and put on line as one of my custom made numbers but never got around to it or to create my custom design shop, including jewelry and home decor. I can't seem to come up with a catchy all-inclusive name for the shop. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

The border print set for this vintage fabric with the pants and tunic. I must of had this pattern when I was living in Southern California

McCall's 9676 from 1969 Summer of Love

I really like the dress in this pattern also, hmmm, super cool.

Which reminds me of the colorful 60s flower power dresses for a wedding treasury Jolene of Jo Retro made on Etsy.

And, now the beautiful picture I scored today, enjoy!

Finished dress and next new sewing project

I finished the dress, it was a very simple pattern to make and did not take long at all to sew. I love the way it turned out and will be adding it to my wardrobe, with some minor changes. For one I made it to short, don't know how that happened, but I guess I miss measured, duh! So, I will be making some side slits and wearing it as a tunic over creamy white leggings, pants or shorts.

It looks fab on  Millie, but she is 5' 7" and a size 2, I pinned the dress on her to give it more definition, but I must say it does look good on me too, I'm just a tad larger than Millie ; )

She's got legs....

And, she is a runway model...

The important thing for me when making this dress was getting the pattern on the fabric placed where I liked it. See the uncut fabric and pattern I used here.

My next project will be this cotton dress. So the challenge here will be to see if I can make it with just 2 yards of fabric. The pattern is actually a full length nightgown. I picked up this fabric at Walmart for $2.00 a yard 100% cotton and was just thinking of making a blouse. So, if I can't turn it into a dress, it will be a blouse.

This is a mail order pattern from Sue Burnett 8458, mailed from San Francisco May 13th 1949, the fabric 100% cotton, dreamy.

Are you working on summer or winter fashions? I know my readers are from all over the world and the climates very from place to place, but summer is my favorite time of year for fashion. The Fall is my favorite for eating the bounty harvest. What is yours?

Now the girls have taken up modeling or is it just play?

While my daughters were visiting they decided it would be fun to play dress up. So with a closet and several dress racks full of vintage clothes and a few wigs this is what they came up with.

Here is Crystal in a 1960s white chiffon go-go dress with silver beading on the yoke, by Miss Elliette California. She went with the long blonde wig. Her 6 year old daughter posed her and also did some styling for us, she is very good at it, for being a beginning stylist.

Ahh yes, Penelope, wearing a 1960s culotte outfit in a bright bold neon print, Alice of California. She is donning a short black curly wig with a pair of silver cateye glasses and head scarf (yes, I know two different eras, but, it is all good)

You go girl! Red lips and all.

l

Crystal in a 1970s psychedelic palazzo jump suit, custom made. She wanted to go blonde and curly, hmm...

This is my favorite outfit a 1940s rayon palazzo jump suit with a very wide hot pink sash, custom made. I may just have to keep this outfit for myself. This is also one of my favorite wigs, which I don't wear, I only use them on my mannikin, Millie.

And our stylist!

So, there you have it, some pretty cool vintage and a whole lot of fun!
 Who do you work with when you go about styling your outfits?