Tag: collab

The Vintage Vogue V9280 Sewing Series!
I’m happy to announce my new video series, collaborating with McCall’s Pattern Company!

My continuing collaboration with McCall’s features the newest release, Vintage Vogue V9280, originally released in 1948.

From the Vogue Patterns website:

Close fitting dress has front princess seams, inverted pleat at center back and detachable collar and sleeve facing.

Breaking it down, the piece is all the glamour and fashion of the late 1940s, including shoulder pads, side closure, bell sleeves, and full retro detailing all along the interior.

Coat dresses are absolutely fabulous!

Living between the shape and structure of a coat– and the ease and comfort of a dress, coat dresses are quintessentially vintage inspired. Kate Middleton rocks them on a regular basis and finding vintage patterns for these sorts of designs is relatively easy.

I’ve gone ahead and collected more inspiration images over on Pinterest, if you’re looking for more examples of this sort of design.

The main thing to consider with this sort of garment is that the fabric makes all the difference.

This Vintage Vogue V9280 video series will break down the sewing process!

Similarly to my McCall’s M7625 Video Series, this series will include three videos:
1. Fitting video, breaking down potential fitting concerns
2. Technique video, deep diving into one specific technique that applies to this pattern
3. Sewing video, going step by step through the sewing process
For reference, these are my measurements:
- Bust: 41in/104cm
- Waist: 33.5in/85cm
- Hips: 42.5in/108cm
- Torso Length: 15in/38cm
- Height: 5’2?/157cm
Please note: Not all pattern adjustments I make will be applicable to all people. However, I will be using mine throughout the process to give people an idea of potential hurdles and potential adjustments to attempt. Even if you don’t match my measurements, the video will definitely help get you in the mindset for pattern adjustments.

To view more from this series, please click the image below!

Thank you, McCall’s Pattern Company, for making this video series possible!

All the Places, All the Stuff!

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October 22, 2017
Sewing Vintage Linings, Butterick B5824 [Collab + Video]

A coat is only as good as its lining.

Crazy, I know, but lining a winter coat (especially a twirly one!) can make all the difference when its cold outside and you’re working with heavy fabrics that might lend themselves to fraying. A little boucle, a little tweed, lots of wool- all of it can fray like crazy and a lining that can make the inside as beautiful as the outside can make a world of difference.

Of course, depending on the type of coat that you make and your local climate, the lining can vary in composition. Charmeuse, silk, cotton- so many different fabrics exist with properties that will support your lifestyle.

For my Butterick B5824, I went with a polyester- wait whaaaat? But yes! Living in San Francisco can be chilly, but not terribly cold, so with a cotton underlining in my coat, I knew a simple polyester fabric would suffice, as long as it was silky enough to not cling to me as I walked.

This Twirly Coat was in Collaboration with the beautiful Christina from Gussets and Godets! Her coat is gorgeous.

The red jacket is such a stunning piece and it suits her 100%! Definitely head on over to her post about this to see more photos from her photoshoot, because not gunna lie, she’s rocking it!

The red makes this VAVAVOOM- and of course the leopard print faux fur lapel gives it that little extra Vintage Girl twist. In regards to sewing linings, she bagged her lining, which is a different technique than I cover in my YouTube video. Bagging a lining can be a bit of a mind game, but she makes it look easy and it helps things stitch up so much faster, too!

Christina and I went back and forth over what jacket to make for the past couple months for this collab and I’m so glad we went with this one! Granted, lots of hold ups (on my end!) in terms of when we would post our jackets, but in the end, it all came together. During the jacket research part of this project, we also were super shocked at the lack of jacket patterns out there that were super vintage inspired. In the end, we just had to go with Gertie’s design.

This is my third collaboration for the blog so far and it’s always super fascinating to see how our garments could be from the same pattern, but turn out so differently!

I took a deep dive into sewing vintage linings for the first time with Butterick B5821.

It wasn’t as tricky as anticipated, and I’m so happy that I was able to create a video to show others how to do it as well!

Using my own vintage coats, as well as a 1940s reference book, I taught myself one of the many old school ways of getting this done and I’ll be using that technique moving forward as I work on my 2017 goal of making more coats.

I’m so proud to continue to learn new skills, like how to sew more authentically vintage.

This is such a huge component to my sewing and to my experience as a seamstress. There are thousands of ways to get a technique done- so even after 15 years of sewing, I am still near the tip of the iceberg of everything I can learn and improve upon.

Recently I got a YouTube comment about how and why I spend so much time doing the tedious things, versus finding the happiness in just sewing and to be honest, it’s the tedious things that bring me joy in what I sew. All of them build up on each other and simply cranking out a project for the sake of cranking it out isn’t very me. I savor the process of doing it by hand and being authentic in my approach.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links :)

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February 10, 2017
How to Sew a Pinup Holiday Dress, Video Tutorial
Every girl into 50s fashion should sew a pinup holiday dress.

In sultry emerald green, sequin black, or shimmery white, sewing a pinup holiday dress is a good excuse to pull out the Fancy Fabric.

For the version featured in my YouTube tutorial, I used silk.

I wanted shimmer and fabric with body, so silk dupioni was an amazing choice. It holds its shape super well and rustles in a very luxurious way when I walk. For me, this immediately became a dry-clean only dress, so super special care taken from beginning to end on construction. In this particular fabric, the warp and weft are two different colors, so when I move in the sun, it changes colors.

The pattern I selected for my pinup holiday dress was Butterick B5603, from the 1950s.

Click to buy the pattern!

I decided to go with View B for this dress, with the V-neck (and V-back) and tie top shoulders. There was just something about how elegant the design is that really drew me to it. Also, the nipped in princess lines at the waist are attractive and give a natural slenderness that would look demure and very cute during holiday celebrations.

If you’re considering this pattern, please read my sewing tips down below!

Step One: Pay special attention to “Special Occasion” fabrics.

Before starting to sew, determine the look and feel of the fabric you want to use. If you have a fabric swatch book (click here to learn more about fabric swatches!), look over the options that you may want to work with.

Questions to ask yourself:
- Does it have the right texture and drape for the pinup holiday dress you want to make?
- Have you had the opportunity to work with the fabric before?
- Will this fabric be dry-clean only, or can you hand or machine wash it?
Going through the steps to investigate your fabric will help determine how much time, effort, and even how much difficulty you might have in stitching up your pinup holiday dress!

It’ll also determine the internal foundation that will need to be worked into the sewing process, to make sure that your dress holds its shape and stands the test of time with nights out dancing!

Step Two: Read the Underlining and Silk Organza cheat sheet

After you’ve selected your fabric, spend a few minutes reading the cheat sheet I created for this project. The FREE Underlining and Silk Organza cheat sheet outlines directions for reinforcing and strengthening your garment from the inside out.

These vintage techniques are essential to sewing a pinup holiday dress. The cheat sheet goes into:
- How to underline fabric. This is useful when working on special occasion fabrics that might be slippery or difficult to work with. Underlining will make them more stable so you can sew them a lot more quickly.
- Reinforcing your seams with silk organza. Reinforcing them will reduce stretching on the bias, which can cause the neckline (such as the V-neck of this Butterick B5603 dress) to warp and become distorted.
Both techniques are useful even past sewing a special occasion dress- they work over all sewing types and are techniques you’ll want to know if you want your garments to last over time.

To download the cheat sheet, just fill out the form below!

FREE Checklist PDF!

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Step Three: Don’t Rush It.

Simple, but easy to over look when things are crazy in your corner of the world. Having a festive pinup dress to wear at the end of the year is fantastic, but speed sewing should not be a practice when you’re working on materials that may be more finicky than the standard quilting cotton.
- Cut fabric one day, start sewing the next. Spending one day cutting out your fabric will ensure that you don’t rush into snipping into the Nice Fabric and accidentally cut things incorrectly. Special occasion fabric can occasionally be costly, and giving cutting time its own time and space will make a difference.
- When you start sewing, take frequent breaks. Every hour get up to stretch, drink a glass of water and maybe go outside for some fresh air.
- Don’t work on your pinup holiday dress for more than four to five hours in a day. Similar to the Take Frequent Breaks note, working on the dress in small chunks of time guarantees that when you see it, you’ll be in a good headspace and able to tackle it with fresh eyes every time. This is especially important if you’re working with fabric that can be new to you and/or expensive.
This pinup holiday dress is ready for Christmas or Valentine’s Day.

This dress was sewn in conjunction with Britex Fabrics, who kindly donated a gorgeous silk dupioni that shimmers gold in the light. Please note that the color fabric I have is SOLD OUT! But there are still plenty of dupioni options available on the Britex website.

A post shared by Bianca / Retro Sewing Vlogger (@vintageontap) on Dec 19, 2016 at 11:19am PST

Vintage sewing techniques in this pinup dress include extreme (!!) use of silk organza throughout to prevent warping at the neckline, waist seam, and zipper insertion point. Also, rayon seam binding was used quite a bit. To add extra stability to the entire piece, though, I used silk charmeuse as underlining.

Be sure to watch the sewing walkthrough video to see how I made this pinup holiday dress from start to finish!

My B5603 holiday dress was also sewn as part of a collab with…

Allie J!

Doesn’t her dress look amazing?

We decided to tackle the same pattern and give it our own twist. Allie chose version A of Butterick B5603 and I chose version B. Both versions feature a handpicked zipper, and a gored, flared skirt. The instructions for both dresses are nearly the same… except for the approach of the bodice which can give this pattern a totally different feeling!

Allie goes into her thoughts and experiences sewing version A of this pattern over at her blog; please go check it out!

I love the textured fabric Allie used for her dress, which gives her garment a super luxe feeling. It’s absolutely her style- very timeless and very classy (reminds me of something First Lady Michelle Obama might wear!) I also like the addition of the second pleated detail on the waist line, which breaks up the long line on the skirt. Allie also runs a mailing list where you can keep up with her different projects and get a behind the scenes look into her life. Click here to subscribe to keep up with Allie!

Disclaimer: This post was made possible by Britex Fabrics :) Also, this post contains affiliate links.

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December 19, 2016