Wearables Sewing Project: Vintage and Retro [ Round 154 ]

Happy new year, everyone!! May it be a creative one all around

Life was pretty topsy-turvy for me last year, so I'm gunning to get my feet under me this year. I started a new job in the midst of holiday chaos and am just now looking at a future with niceties such as two consistent days off... except I'll be on night shift.

So while I sort that out, as seems to be my go-to recently, my DearSDs are getting more clothes. Sewing for them is like the hobby version of comfort food for me I think. Plenty of adorable possibilities, and not a ton of fabric to wrangle!

What I'm thinking of for this round is inspired by the "turtleneck, tights, jumper" combo I remember wearing all the time as a young kid. (IIRC I'm old enough to be considered vintage, haha!) I don't have the hardware for a proper denim jumper, so I'm going for a more standard A-line dress designed to be a layering piece over the turtleneck and tights. I'd dug into my quilting fabrics to find some nice vintage-looking floral fabrics and found one that felt a bit coarser than my other fabrics, so I pulled it out to use. I did also find some tiny primary color tulips on white, yellow, and red, which felt very appropriate for the clothes of my memories, but the yellow and red backgrounds were a bit eye-searing

I also pulled out a Shein t-shirt I got at a clothing swap to be my white knit. It's practically brand-new, but it's way too thin for me to want to wear myself and it's not gonna do much in a thrift store other than delay getting thrown out.

All that aside, here's Megu hanging out with the fabric and the Doll's Dressmaker book I'm pulling patterns from:



So excited to see what everyone's working on!

 

Yay! Beatrice needs new clothes. The basis of her story is that she is actually from the 1920's. I am looking forward to making her something young and playful, but still reflecting some of the trends for that time period as Beatrice is a teen girl, and wearing something Speak-Easy/Flapper style would be out of the question. But something close to that is fine.

Her patterns both for her hat and dress will be taken from the Pattern Library for Little Suzette's and their Bleuette's. Bleuette is a ⅙ scale doll, for my ⅓ doll I enlarged the patter to 200% for a ¼ doll the pattern will need to be enlarged to 150%. The patterns range from the 1900's to the 1950's. Bleuette is an old style BJD that was designed for little girls to learn how to sew. She is the same size as our modern ⅙ BJD's.

You can find the all free patterns here: <Bleuette Pattern Library Home>

For Beatrice's dress and hat I found this tied up fabric felt about perfect for her. I have a few scraps left over from the boys pants last month as well with exotic designs. Due to the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb Egyptian and African prints were all the rage in the 1920's and I hope to add a bit of that flair to Beatrice's outfit as well.

I am making both the hat and dress for her that is in the picture.

Project - January by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

I haven't participated in one of these threads for a long while, because I don't tend to complete everything I start, and it's embarrassing. So, I hope you don't mind if I start very small, because my industry is some days, quite modest, lol.

I was able to find coats for three of my kids this year, and an outdoor hiking vest for my SD Monochrome Jere. He is a bit of a serious nerd, and has been wanting me to make him an extra long and colorful Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf. And then we had a bit of a tiff, because I had to remind him, I only chose to make for him first because the theme is Monochrome! *wink*

So, we came to a compromise after sorting through leftover yarn balls and found these colors: gray, olive green and light brown. If all goes well, I'll make him a matching hat, too. I may add some black yarn, too if I can scrounge some up.
If I can't make the scale look right I might need to switch to embroidery floss.

Jere with scarf colors by Coulombe, on Flickr

 

Yet again, I suspect I will cheer from the sidelines and not have the spoons to join in.

Teddy

 

Hm...I wonder if this will be the month Trym finally gets her doublet???

 

Lovely combinations of fabric and trim

Teddy

 

Oops! So this is vintage and retro, not monochrome! Thank goodness a Dr. Who scarf still suits the theme!
So here is the scarf about 1/4 way through. I am using up lots of left over embroidery floss on this project.
Thank goodness I have a bunch because it would have required a pretty pennys worth of skeins otherwise!


Jere with quarter scarf by Coulombe, on Flickr

 

Nice - It's good to see people are still harking back to Tom Baker's doctor (the Doctor of my childhood

Teddy

 

I'm in for this round! I'm starting with an outfit for Ryoko, my Dream Valley Izzy. Not sure how Retro the outfit will be, but she wanted a brightly colored outfit. I'm making a long skirt and top for her. Hopefully I'll also have time (and motivation) to make something for Morrigan, my Dream Valley Rosa, but I haven't pre-washed the fabric yet.
Ryoko and pink fabric

 

@Teddy I have a box full of all the early Doctor Who's recorded on Beta when they were originally shown on my local public broadcasting station.
As I understand it, a few of the early episodes have 'gone missing.' I may have some treasure stored in that box?? But who has a Beta machine anymore?

@PoeticSoul I love that blue print! I would wear that myself any day!

@dm_sof Don't tease us, hehe! I would love to see this doublet!

@Leo Pheonix Your Ryoko is fabulous! Looking forward to your outfit- such pretty fabrics!

So hey, do you Doctor fans think this is long enough, or should I loop it around the neck one more time?
Next step in the process warm soak in some water with a pinch of added vinegar, as the reds make me nervous and I would be devastated if it bleeds.
After it is dried from blocking, I will add the fringe to the ends. I did find a tutorial for a crochet fedora...but I must check to see if I have enough brown floss.

Sorry my pics are turning out so dark... it's been a struggle as every app has displayed differently?!


Jere checking length by Coulombe, on Flickr


Tom Baker BBC Official by Coulombe, on Flickr

 

Looks long enopugh to me.


Teddy

 

@Valdemagra I keep getting distracted making plushies, haha! But I do finally have a working sewing machine again; I'll take a look at my patterning book and see if I can get a doublet mocked up in her scale sometime before the end of the week.
(I was going to scale the PamSDminiCostuming doublet pattern, but I got my hands on a copy of The Medieval Taylor's Assistant and have been greatly enjoying drafting patterns from scratch with its help!)

 

The author of that book has made a large collection of historical costumes of various eras for her (off-topic) dolls. Last time I visited Sarah, she had them on display in her sewing room wearing some of the costumes.
Teddy

 

I did it!! This actually took my awhile. I couldn't breeze through it like I do my more basic clothing. I worked on it a little bit every day and finally I completed it last night. The pattern looked simple enough, but by the time I made all the ruffles and pieced a a lot of material together, then added all the trimmings and made the hat, it took much longer then I expected it to take.

I am happy with how Beatrice's dress turned out, but I never want to make this again.

KODAK Digital Still Camera by Rabbid Bunnies, on Flickr

 

I think it came out very well.

And I'm so glad you posted about it here because it's exactly the dress I need to make for one of my off-topic dolls, ( Reference for doll dress I need to make ) but didn't have a pattern for, so I followed the link you shared, sized it for my doll and printed it out to make a test dress beofre sourcing the right materials to make the proper on (which is further than I've got with this project in several years.

So, thank you for that bit of inspiration.

Teddy

 

@Teddy Thank you! Those Bleuette patterns are very useful. I keep the website saved for when I want to do a more old fashioned look for my dolls. I am glad that you found it helpful. I took the pattern in just a wee bit for Beatrice's slim figure.

I think what took me so long on the dress is that all the ruffles and the middle of the hat is patchwork. I had to sew a lot of rectangles together before I could even begin to work on the dress.

 

Yep, that would do it.

Teddy

 

@PoeticSoul Oh wow! I love these overalls! The faces on the bibs are serene. They have so much detail as well. I like those head pieces you made. Are those headbands? Those ruffles must have taken forever! The outfits look awesome!

 

Useful for getting them done and they all look good so that's a bonus.

Teddy

 

@RabbidBunnies @PoeticSoul Ooof yeah, as cute as ruffles are, even doing them on the machine where they're so much faster drives me up the wall. The stacks of ruffles on both of your outfits look delightful, though, so at least it turned out well in the end, hah! The fabrics you've both got are so colorful, too, really catches the eye, but it all coheres and there's spots to rest the eye a bit. Feels very maximalist without falling into "just busy," if that makes sense.

@Valdemagra That scarf looks wonderfully in-scale, and it goes so nicely with his outfit! Fingers crossed that the vinegar bath to set the reds goes well.

Much handsewing later (I'm apparently too lazy to set the machine up for sewing knits from its current quilt piecing setup, but not too lazy to handsew doll clothes instead) I've got the jumper, shirt, and tights complete. They look cute enough as a complete outfit, maybe could use a necklace or something, but under the jumper, the shirt's a bit short to be worn with just pants and, um, don't ask what the tights look like off of Megu. I'm just thanking the sewing gods that tights are so forgivingly stretchy, and that I found the pair I'd been cutting up for doll clothes. And considering I was doing a lot of "no measurements, just vibes," it turned out all right! The pockets, despite being a scrap cut in half, fit her hands perfectly, the shirt isn't wildly short or uneven at the hem, and the tights... well, they fit.

Here's how it turned out:
(backup link)

I'm not sure if I'll be doing much other sewing this month, as much as I want to; I'm getting over a cold and I still have ten days of working six days a week, then I move to a night shift. However, even if I neglect to comment I'm cheering everyone on! Woohoo!!

 

@JaxxCapta The little jumper dress is adorable!
AND - Pockets!!! I love the pockets with Megu's little hands shoved inside of them.
I hope that your cold gets better soon!

 

{is impressed} Well done!

Teddy

 

@JaxxCapta Love those pockets!
@PoeticSoul You have even made the overalls pop even more with those pretty backgrounds! Nice work!

Just checking in with my project... So in my attempt to crochet a Herbert Johnson Poet Fedora that has been much stuffed in a pocket,
the hat I came up with looked more like a Boater Hat and Diana claimed it as her own with some pretty feathers from my daughters birds.
My second attempt looks more like a Bowler Hat, so Charles claimed it to help keep his wig stable, lol.
Now I'm out of brown floss and need to do some shopping. Still haven't finished the scarf fringe, but maybe tonight! *wink*


Brown Boater Hat on Dollshe Diana by Coulombe, on Flickr


Green Hat by Coulombe, on Flickr

 

I love the crochet hats! Very well done, both of them. Love seeing all the creativity here,

I really am trying to add to this thread before the month ends. I have in mind what I'd like to do to join in and I have the fabric lined up. It is a style I have already made in the past so I shouldn't have to fuss too much with the pattern...so I just need to get on with it

 

@RabbidBunnies I love the dress! @PoeticSoul I love how bright and fun all three overall sets are!
I finished Ryoko's outfit, so now I'm going to attempt a dress for Morrigan. The pattern is unlike anything I've made before and the book its in unfortunately provides very little in terms of instructions. But I've figured out a few other dresses from this book, so hopefully I can manage this one.

Ryoko in pink

Morrigan and materials

 

@Leo Pheonix I love the way that you blended different patterns of materials to make the dress! The colours work well together!
Ryoko looks adorable. I am looking forward to seeing Morrigan all dressed up!

 

I love how the feathers set off the hat so nicely.

Oh, well done! That's pretty.

Fingers crossed.

Teddy

 

Hello Everyone! Finished up a hat for Jere to go with his scarf. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but the process did help refresh my crochet skills which I haven't used in a long while. Surprisingly the red floss on the scarf did not run in the vinegar water soak before blocking, but the burgundy did quite a bit! Luckily I only used 2 rows of the color! I had to add a red accent to the hat in order to stretch the amount of brown floss as I had as the 6 skeins I bought were not enough. I would recommend 9 skeins if you want a larger brim with no colored accent. I just grabbed a quick pic of Jere's new duds from my doll cabinet. Diana is wearing an old headband around her neck in the pic that I want to make a belt with for this outfit... if I don't get inspired to do something else... that's my process... pile inspiration (fabric, props) around their feet in the cabinet over time, and then maybe get around to actually completing the idea, or clean out the cabinet and start again, lol - who needs mood boards? *wink* Looking forward to the next theme- see you there!

Jere plays Dr. Who
by Coulombe, on Flickr
(Not sure why my flickr link isn't working in this thread, but just click the link to see the photo.)

 

Very late update- I finished the dress for Morrigan on Wednesday and never shared it! Here she is wearing it-
Morrigan in Retro style

 

Very pretty.

Teddy