Vintage Butterick 5307 Dress

 I made this dress in March of 2012 right after my hysterectomy. I needed a comfy dress that would help camouflage my swelling. This pattern was larger than my other patterns (a size up) so it made the cut.

 I skipped the zip and instead added a button, my reach was not so good then. I also shortened it by 12 inches so it would be knee length on me.

 I added some lace trim to the bottom of dress.

I don't wear it often now, its real loose all over.

Sorry blogger keeps rotating my photos

I made option "C" in the middle.

This is was taken about two months after my surgery, I was still quite a bit swollen.

(Reason behind so much swelling: Hysterectomy was started trans-vaginally then was moved to laparoscopically, only to be ended with me having to be opened up. I have 4 punctures and one big incision.)

Dating Vintage Patterns

I have been  putting my vintage patterns in order by year and maker. I have found some that stumped me for awhile until I knew just what to look for or came up with some solution for them.

Here are two of the sites that I used in dating my patterns.

This one was the most help in dating unmarked envelopes and Mail order patterns.  

-Cemetarian-

About Dating Vintage Sewing Pattern

For anything the first site didn't cover this one helped some by being able to look at patterns that had already been dated.

-Vintage Fashion Library-

Sewing Pattern History / How to Date a Vintage Sewing Pattern

Thrift Store Redo - Summers End Frock

After Redo

1 thrift store dress needing some attention 

+

1/2 of a favorite pattern 

=

1 really awesome Summers End Frock

The pattern I used was Burda World of Fashion 6/2010 Dress 118 (bodice pieces only)

All of the new bodice came from the top portion/sleeves of the old dress. I cut the skirt off of the old dress 1" below old seam (could not get old sticky stay tape to come off old seam) and just reattached it to the new bodice.

I did not get to do the gathers I wanted because of the fabric runs when pulled so I did small pleats.

Before Redo

It was very frumpy before and real hot to wear, now it is very breezy and a great choice for the sun.

Vintage Find!

My dad gave me a whole bag of scrap fabric that used to belong to my grandmother and this dress was in the bag just waiting to be discovered. It has no tags, grandma made everything she wore. You can see hand stitching on the inside seams, the shoulder detail is actually homemade binding strips with crochet flowers on top and there is not lining what so ever. Although I don't think that this dress was one worn by grandma it is most likely her sisters. In her old pattern stash she had lots of patterns that had her sisters name on them that she had made her and this is both the size and the style that she wore.

Re purposed Shirt

This is the shirt that Daniel is going to wear to the DCA Christmas Program at school. This shirt was three times this big but was the exact colors that they asked for so it got re purposed. I should have taken before pictures but forgot to.  I have left the pockets were they were in the original because I think that it gives the shirt some personality, plus what little kid does not like to have enormous pockets on their shirts!  

Oh, this shirt is over 30 years old so it is classified as a vintage remake.

Vintage McCall's 6012

Front: The slit in the front really plunges, I think by sewing it up just a little on the inside will help with that.

Back: I have changed up the wrap around tie. I was not going to use all one color and risk looking like a bound blueberry. Instead I have used a vintage scarf to break up all of the blue. It is one that only wraps around once instead of twice and it ties in the back instead of front.

Close Up Front: Probably can not see it but I have used a really old frosted glass button on the yoke.

This is a pattern from 1978 McCall's Carefree Collection. The one I did is D the long yellow dress on the middle of the packet. I think that the sizing for this dress is all wrong, it is supposed to be a small and it is more like a medium. The fit is very roomy.

*This pattern is concidered to be  a vintage pattern since it is older than twenty years. It is almost the same age as me and I don't concider myself to be vintage. I called the scarf a vintage it is more than fifty years old, thats vintage to me.*