#sewinginstructions

This advice comes from a 1924 volume, yet it is just as sound today as it was then. I know members of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals who make the wardrobes of corporate women. Once the customer has worked out a certain cut of pants or jacket as their favorite, they will have more than one made for different seasons, etc. And many women do the same with ready-to-wear: they find one garment that fits perfectly and buy it in multiples or more than one color. As a dressmaker, I have made the same favorite patterns, tweaked to my satisfaction, over and over again.

The Dressmaker and Tailor Shop is one of the Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences correspondence course booklets on a complete course on sewing, all of which were first written by Mary Brooks Picken. She was the first woman to write a dictionary, The Language of Fashion, which is still in print and very useful for vintage terms, and co-founder of the Costume Institute which is now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Big Blooms Organza Overdress: Inspired by Simplicity 8252

While hunting through my fabrics to make a dress for a wedding, I realized that I had a print and a silk organza that would work perfectly together as a dress and an overdress. Sheer overdresses, along with sheer skirts tied on almost as aprons, show up in the 1950s for evening wear. They allowed for a covered up during an era when the pinched waist of the hourglass and the long skirt were the fashion.

This over-dress was cut differently than the skirt of my dress, Butterick 6582, so I decided to cut my dress’s skirt pattern and simply adding 2 inches total at the side seams, and inch and a half at center front, and an inch in length at the hemline. While I tried to use this Simplicity pattern for the bodice, I realized I wanted flared, set-in sleeves, so I ended up drafting a pattern from a combination of bodices.

In working with silk organza, you definitely want a chalk powder marker, something so light that you can accidentally brush it away. I used the Chakoner which I picked up at the American Sewing Guild marketplace one year, but you can find it online at many places. Do NOT use a chalk pencil as the mark can be too solid and you will spend much time trying to brush it out. You can mark both pieces at the same time, although you may need to add chalking to the bottom piece.

Silk organza is sewn with a dry iron and dry cleaned in order to keep its crispiness. I actually washed this before I realized that was a mistake, but it remained relatively crispy all the same.  Because it is transparent, it has mass but seems to float.

BurdaStyle June 2023

This issue starts with a sundress on the cover, Dress 103, which is perfect for border prints as it is made of gathered rectangles of fabric. You can opt out of the ruffle on the strap if that is not your style. Dress 110 is another sun dress which they show in yellow with a flounce around top edge and a short feature offers some tips on sewing flounces.

One of the full, illustrated sewing lessons features knit T-Shirt 121 which has a knotted, draped front as you see in dark red, but it doesn’t appear to be a successful design: wrinkles appear in all the photos along the shoulders/neckline; a reminder that draping is tricky especially when it involves a tight fit. Far more successful as a top is the new little sleeveless Blouse Top 123 which has a keyhole neckline front and back and which you see here in a woven of white with black stripes. Also successful is the simple Dress 106 which they show here as a tunic. It needs a fabric with lots of drape to create the graceful look with the large, flowing sleeves. I think it also needs that obi belt in order to cover up the gathered elastic which gives the dress its shape. Elastic gathers always remind me of children’s wear; the obi belt brings the dress some sophistication. 

The last image shows the interesting Jacket 112 with a shaped pieced front which closes with an inside and outside tie. They show it as evening wear over a fancy dress which fits with its dramatic shaping.

There are more dresses as you can see from the sketches, three skirts, and some DIY projects. A pair of wide-legged pants which I would advise to cut to a cropped length as otherwise your shoes may catch the hemlines, especially on stairs. There are also plenty of simple tops; if you want a fast project, opt for a simple cut and let an an interesting print fabric do the work for you.

BurdaStyle, May 2023

It is summer already in sewing patterns and sun dresses abound, but so do sleeved dresses for parties or every day. You see here strapped Dress 102 in a playful print while Dress 124 in stripes has sleeves, front banding, and a shirttail hemline. Both come in a range of sizes, including plus sizes, as do all of the women’s clothing. Dress 101, a variation on 102, is offered as a sewing lesson as well.

For more sophisticated looks which would work for more formal occasions, see Dress 123, in the black and green print, which takes the bodice of 124 and adds cuffed sleeves and a flared and ruffled skirt, and adds contrast piping as well. Dress 123 has a full sewing lesson included in this issue. For a barer look, try Dress 121 (which can also be a top) It offers a draped “corsage bodice” and uses boning and elastic to achieve it. You will be surprised how simple the garment pieces look; the complexity lies in the manipulation and sewing of a fabric with some body. If that seems a challenged, remember that even the simple, fitted shirt dress, see Dress 109, can become more formal when done in white lace, a reminder that sometimes the fabric can do most of the work for us.

There is also some work wear including Blazer 104 with a novel yoke and collar which they show with a matching Skirt 114B, both made in a smaller, grey plaid.  Blouse 113 shown in a blue and white stripe, has a peplum and smocking at the cuffs. And the latter is a feature you could borrow for other garments as well.

As you can see there are more dresses, more tops, some children’s fashions which could easily be made into party wear with the right fabrics, two fitted vests, and both wide and skinny legged pants. All of the patterns are printed on the master pattern sheets and need to be copied off of them. There are written instructions for all the patterns, then some sketches to explain various more complex techniques, such as inserting a zipper. So a lot of patterns, and instructions, but you do need to copy the pattern pieces.