Sewing for Victory Progress

It has been a good week. My progress on my Sewing for Victory 2.0 is right on schedule. If you have not joined hurry over Rochelle’s Lucky Lucille site and see what it is all about. Her site is very informative about the use of vintage patterns.

Working with a vintage 1940’s pattern is a lot different that what I have been use too. The pattern’s envelope information is limited to amount of fabric needed along with corresponding body measurements, there is no hint to what type of fabric they used or recommends, and the only notion listed is crinoline. I have never worked with crinoline, but I guess I will learn about it soon enough. The instruction sheet is one page. The front shows the typical layout on the fabric but still no information about fabric or notions. The back page has more pictures than instructional guidelines and the print is small. Each pattern piece does show if interfacing, or in some instances, crinoline is needed. Seam allowances are set at 1/2″ instead of the 5/8″ that I am typically used to.

Oddly enough the left seam opening of the skirt calls for snaps and hooks. While I have decided to try and be as vintage as possible I am going with an invisible zipper.

I have created my muslin and had a fitting. Stef wasn’t here long enough for a photo shoot and I knew she was in a time crunch today. There will not be too many alterations. The skirt’s waistband has to be brought in a little over inch. Since the skirt has six lengthwise pieces it will be a simple fix, just taking in the seams by using a scant 3/4″ seam instead of the pattern’s seam allowance of 1/2″. The length of the skirt is almost 10″ too short. I am not sure what the height of the average woman was in the 40’s but Stef is only 4’11 so I will definitely have to shorten it, first by raising the the hip line by a couple of inches because of the front pleat and then taking the rest off the bottom.

The bolero jacket also needs a small amount of sizing. I will be adding an additional 1″ to the back of the jacket, but do not think that the darts are not going to have to be repositioned if I add the inch to center back. I am also going to add an additional 3/4″ on each of the jacket front and that may be a little tricky. The shoulder detail is an important part of the jacket and it turns out that it is a little pocket plus I have to worry about the darts and how far they should come in.