Capes and Mini-Skirts in 1967, or The I-Lost-My-Pants Look: Simplicity 7262

Capes are a perennial style dating back centuries and reappearing in different forms every few decades. This one from 1967 fascinates me because it straddles the period when official dress rules got tossed aside. (Unofficial dress rules persist, but that is a topic for another post).

The idea of a harmonizing outfit puts this on one side of the dress rules. Here, we have a cape and skirt that match in fabric, and even the plaids match up and down and across. Yes, the skirt pattern came with the cape pattern. This would be informal wear done up in a woolen meant to be worn in the countryside, before suburbia blurred country and city lines. Notice the practical, laced Oxford shoes ready for a ramble in the grass. The skirt is above the knee, the length that most women wore in the 1960s.

The other two capes are presumably also worn with a mini-skirt but it is so short that it doesn’t show beneath the longer version of the cape. Which is such an odd look as it makes look like the women lost some clothing somewhere. The red cape outfit somehow looks more finished than than the camel one to my eye. Is it the boots, the brass buttons, and the epaulettes which give it a military bearing? I am not sure. But many people at the time would have been taken aback by both long cape looks. First, because of how much more bare skin was shown when women wore mini-skirts. Second, because the mid-thigh or high-thigh hemline in a skirt had been restricted to girl toddlers for decades, so there was something weirdly infantile about the mini-skirted look.  

Last month we had our Simplicity Sewing Pattern 1699 road-tested for us by fabulous dressmaker Karen Rigg from WillowWears.com. We had sent her a couple of patterns free of charge to stitch up for us and this week I have her final review for us. This week's review is of the beautiful sewing pattern Simplicity 2442.

This collage below shows you some photos of the dress before it was finished and it also shows the pattern variations available in the pattern pack.

                                    Karen chose the Karen Z designed pattern as she thought it was a stylish dress pattern that she fancied having a go at making. She was going to treat her daughter to a new evening dress from this pattern so she allowed her to pick which style of dress she would like custom made for her. :o) Her daughter picked one of the most fashionable variations from this pattern pack, the halter neck dress with puffball skirt.  It is a very youthful design that is perfectly suited to a girl of her daughter's age.

It was decided that the dress would be made from a sumptuous dusky mauve coloured crepe backed satin material and there was the addition of some fancy embellishment to the bodice in the form of some fancy trim. Karen has commented in her review that she "...had realised early on there was no messing with this satin, no unpicking a million times as I normally do (slight exaggeration)...". She then went on to say "...The satin is divine but I have to admit that I can’t wait to move on to a fabric that can be well-handled without growing a fringe."

I myself have tried sewing with satin when I made some wedding bunting and I know exactly what Karen means about it fraying. It is a hard fabric to sew and to be honest I would only sew with it for a special occasion dress such as this. The hard work most definitely does pay off though ...as we can see from Karen's creation that looks like an absolute gem of a dress. Her daughter is hoping to wear her beautiful new dress very soon when she goes out for the evening onboard a family cruise which they are all going on to celebrate her dad's birthday.

                                    If the dress still fits her next year this might be worn as her prom dress but as Karen has already said ....she "will probably have made another one by then!"  To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she has made another fancy frock in time for next year's prom, with all the amazing sewing patterns available at the moment it would be a shame not to make lots more pretty dresses. Afterall....a girl can NEVER have too many dresses in their wardrobe! :o)

You can read the full review of the pattern over on the WillowWears blog. Here is the link you need - http://willowwears.com/2013/07/16/something-rather-special-4/

You can also see a review of it by Karen on the Pattern Review website. Here is the link - http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/88865 Make sure to check out her other reviews while you are there!

The Simplicity sewing pattern 2442 costs £8.15 and it has patterns for a ladies dress in three lengths with bodice variations and a bolero. It is available in sizes 6-14 and 14-22. The dress made by Karen was a size 6 on the bodice and a size 8 on the skirt but then both pieces were further altered during fitting. Karen found that the bodice section came up quite large but the skirt section came up quite small.  If you decide to purchase and make this dress,you may want to bear this in mind when cutting our your pattern pieces. She says that she found the instructions very easy to understand and follow which is great to hear. I love it when patterns make it simple for you to get your head round how to construct your handmade creation.

If you are on twitter or facebook please pop over and follow Karen. she always posts updates of her latest makes and she is a lovely lady to chat to about sewing. She knows so much and is always stitching something new. I promise you will love to see the projects she makes. She only just finished this dress at the end of the week and over the weekend she made the most of the sunshine and sat in the garden cutting out the pattern pieces for her next project - Simplicity K1913.  Go Karen! Keep up the sewing!

Hi everybody. Hasn't it been a lovely weekend. I made the most of the weather by going out for walks and then having a barbecue. What did you all do over the weekend? I'd love to hear. Please come and tell me over on on twitter or facebook.

Talking of social media, since I started managing the social media accounts for Sewing-Online in January 2012 I have loved making lots of new sewing friends. One of the people who I have enjoyed chatting about sewing projects with is Karen Rigg from Willowwears.com. She makes fantastic handmade garments and I love reading her latest blog posts to see what she has been sewing.

                               Karen studied needlework at school but she then didn't do any more sewing until she was in her late twenties. She then proceeded to take a break from dressmaking for 10 whole years! Thankfully she started sewing again in January 2012 and even better for us, is that she chose to blog about her sewing adventures on her blog 'Willowwears'.

I have been following Karen's sewing progress since the beginning of her blog in April 2012 and I am delighted that she recently chose to take her sewing even more seriously and decided to invest in a new dressmaking dummy from our website.  Karen opted for the Ladies Deluxe Dressmaking Dummy and she called her mannequin 'Dolly'. She has tweeted me to say she is finding the dummy really useful for her sewing which is great news for us to hear.

                                                  After Karen bought her dressmaker's dummy from us we decided that she would be perfect to become one of our Sewing-Online sewing pattern reviewers so we sent her a couple of sewing patterns of her choice, free of charge, for her to test out and to then let us know how she got on with them by blogging about them.

Karen opted for Simplicity 1699 and Simplicity 2442. I loved waiting to hear which patterns she would choose.....it was exciting to think I could watch the progress of a couple of our patterns being stitched up.

Simplicity 1699 is part of the new Simplicity Spring 2013 collection. It is a 'Sew Stylish' pattern for a 'Misses and miss petite fit and flare dress or peplum top which has princess-seamed bodice, short raglan sleeves, waistline seam and back zipper. Collarless jacket with 3/4 sleeves and braid trim. Straight leg pants with side zipper.'

                                                 Karen has only had the patterns from us for a month but has already stitched up a peplum top, linen trousers and the jacket from Simplicity 1699 and she has really done us proud! The garments she has made are stunning! I love her choice of sewing patterns and it is wonderful to see photos of the garments she has made using sewing patterns from our online sewing shop.

Karen has been tweeting about the handmade clothes as she is sewing them and it is lovely to see how the clothes are first cut out, pinned together, constructed and then finished, etc. She is very kind and shares lots of pics along her sewing journey so we can always see how she is getting on with tackling each sewing pattern she attempts.'Tackling' is probably the wrong word, 'breezing along' with each pattern would probably be a better word. Karen has a knack of making sewing look easy and much more than that she makes it look FUN! :o)

Here are a few photos of the finished garments she made from Simplicity 1699:-

                                       Now you can see what I mean....simply stunning!  Karen is a very talented dressmaker and one we are very pleased agreed to review for us here at Sewing-Online.com.

If you would like to read what she says about the pattern please pop over and visit her lovely sewing blog 'Willowwears.com'. Karen has written two blog posts about Simplicity 1699. The first post is all about the peplum top and the linen trousers and the second one is dedicated to the collarless jacket.  Here are the blog post links you'll be needing:-

Revival Of The Peplum

All Boxed Off

Just to give you a little taster of what she says about the peplum top...."I was practically doing cartwheels when I put the (raglan) sleeves in they were so easy, I almost unpicked them just so I could put them in a second time!" Also Karen says that Simplicity 1699 is "A lovely little summer top that can, in my opinion be dressed up or down depending on the occasion".

Karen does also mention that the top sizing does seem to come up quite small so you may want to consider going up a size when you make it. We sell Simplicity 1699 in 2 different size pattern packs - Sizes 8-16 and sizes 16 -24.

When Karen talks about the trousers she says "..., these particular ones are extremely easy to make." and "The construction was, in its entirety, as follows: inside leg seams, crotch, side seams and zip (I inserted a concealed zip instead of a side one) and some twill tape on the waist.".

Karen does say she found the trousers to come up a bit on the large size so she then had some adjustments to make to get the perfect fit.

I am not really much of a dressmaker myself, although I would love to have a go one day. I make clothes for my daughter but not yet for me. What Karen shows you through her dressmaking blog posts, is that it is perfectly achievable to make garments that are tailored to your body shape and that it is isn't as difficult as you imagine. Karen is, like I said before, very talented at what she does and it is lovely that she shows us that with a length of fabric, some patience and a bit of time we too can sew ourselves a new summer wardrobe. A gorgeous handmade, one-of-a-kind wardrobe!

I would like to say a massive thanks to Karen for road-testing our sewing patterns for us. She is about to start sewing her second Sewing-Online sewing pattern, Simplicity 2442 which is a Karen Z design evening dress in 3 lengths with bodice variations and matching bolero. Once Karen has completed the garment I will write a new blog post telling you all about how she got on with it. I can't wait to follow her progress on her Willowwears twitter and facebook pages. If you are on those sites, join in and follow her progress too. It's SEW exciting!

                      I hope you all have a fantastic week. Can you believe we are in June already! Where has the time gone? I'm pleased we are now starting to see the sunny weather, it really does cheer us all up and gives us a chance to start planning our handmade summer clothes. I will be doing next week's blog post about sewing patterns for bikinis and swimming costumes. I thought it best to give you all a chance to order your patterns now and get those cossies made before the summer holidays.

Last week we published our latest sewing newsletter which is all about 'Summer Storage Solutions 2013'. Click here to take a look. If you love polka dots, like I do, you will be happy to see the new red and white polka dot storage bag range. It's gorgeous! There is also a travel sewing machine bag on sale, retro sewing kits and much more besides. Please take a look.

Thanks for reading.

It is Bank Holiday Monday and the sun has been shining brightly all day. It is the wonderful weather we have been having this last week that has inspired today's blog post all about sewing patterns for dresses.  As it is about time we all started to plan our homesewn summer wardrobe I have picked my 5 favourite dress patterns from the Spring 2013 Simplicity Sewing Pattern Collection to introduce to you all.

                                   I am absolutely in love with Simplicity 1666 Lisette 'Sew Your Style'. It is a gorgeous sewing pattern for a Fit and Flare dress with princess seams and back zip. I can so see this dress being made in a bold floral print crisp cotton fabric. You could even make a carryall bag to match the dress as the pack includes patterns for a bag, an ultra fashionable peplum top and a pencil skirt with walking slit. The pattern is £8.15 and it is available in 2 sizes, 6-14 and 16-24.

                                   Simplicity 1686 Amazing Fit sewing pattern is for a mock wrap dress with different sleeve variations. There are two different dress lengths to choose from. The dress has princess seams, inset waist band, lapels and a back zip. The pattern pack includes separate pattern pieces for A, B, C, D cup sizes and slim, average and curvy fit. It is an American Sewing Guild pattern and it costs £8.15. You can buy pattern sizes 6-14 and 16-24.

                                   The Cynthia Rowley dress design for Simplicity 1654 is very pretty with the optional top stitch detailing on the bodice seams. It is a dress which can be stitched up with or without sleeves. It would look stunning sewn in a coral coloured linen fabric. The pattern is £8.15 and available in pattern sizes 4-12 and 12-20.

                                   If you are looking for a simple dress to sew then sewing pattern 'It's So Easy' Simplicity 1643 could be exactly what you are looking for. It has a pattern for a knee length pullover V-neck sleeveless dress with matching tie fabric belt. The pattern pack also includes a pattern for a hip length kimono jacket with cascade front. The pattern is £4.05 and it covers sizes XS-XL.

                                   I love Simplicity 'It's So Easy' 1644 as it is super fashionable and looks just like the dresses currently available on the high street because of the optional long length graduated hem. It is made for stretch knits only. The dress is a pullover halter neck style and it has a smooth front midriff and elasticized back. The pattern is only £4.05 and it covers sizes 6-16.

I hope you have been inspired to get stitching some summer dresses. You can buy all of the featured sewing patterns from our online sewing shop.

I hope you have all enjoyed your long weekend. I bet lots of you have been relaxing in the garden with a spot of hand sewing. Talking about stitching by hand reminds me I must do some more work on the hexagons for my daughter's English paper pieced quilt. It's been a few weeks since I last stitched any hexagons for it.

When I saw that we stocked Simplicity sewing patterns for Disney Princess and Disney Fairies costumes I just knew that I had to share the news with you all. My daughter is absolutely mad about Princesses and I know she would love a dress like this as a gift, be it for a Birthday or for Christmas.

If you know a little girl who loves Tinkerbell or Disney Fairies then you must take a look at Simplicity 1792 - Disney's Fairies Costumes - (Age 1-3 years or 4-8 years) or Simplicity 2872 - Disney's Fairies Costumes - (Age 3-8 years). One of those sewing patterns, some pretty fabric and a little bit of sewing time are all you need to make the perfect Christmas present to make that little girl's day.

I absolutely love the Disney film 'Tangled' and if you want to turn your little darling into a mini Rapunzel you will be needing Simplicity 2065 - Disney's Tangled / Rapunzel Princess Costume - (Age 3- 8 years).  There is a great tutorial for how to make a rapunzel wig over on the Skip To My Lou blog. You will need yellow yarn for the wig and we sell that here.

If you want to make a Disney Cinderella costume or a Disney Snow White costume then you will need to buy Simplicity 2817 - Disney Snow White and Disney Cinderella Costumes (Disney Princess costumes)-  (Age 3-6 years and 7-14 years) or Simplicity 2563 - Disney Snow White and Disney Cinderella Toddler Costume - (Age 1 - 4 years). These pattern packs contain patterns for both of the princesses so you could make one dress for Christmas and then make the other princess dress for a Birthday or maybe Easter.

If the little girl who you decide to make a princess dress for likes to play with dolls then take a look at Simplicity 5705 - Disney Princess Doll's Clothes -( For 18" Dolls). It would be a fantastic idea to make a matching dress for their doll as then they can be like twins. :o)

We also stock Simplicity 1922 - Disney Princess Pattern Collection - (1-4 years) and Simplicity 1925 - Disney Fairies Pattern Collection - (3-8 years) which are Disney Pattern Collections. What I like about these two patterns is that the clothes from these pattern packs could easily be worn as pretty party dresses or as dressing-up costumes as they are not overly costumey.

The only thing you will be needing after you have made these patterns is a magic wand (which you can make following this tutorial) and a big helping of Fairy Dust!

Have a magical weekend.