Simplicity 2758 - Waistband Details

 This is the only fussy part of constructing this skirt, the waistband detail. I basted in the waistband facing.

 It took a lot of trial and error to get the top stitching right. I think a good deal of error remained.

Some black horned buttons finished off the waistband detail.

Simplicity 2758 - Preparing the Details

 Here's all the pattern pieces cut out and I'm ready to mark them. You can see that I've redrafted the skirt pieces. I have to grade up for a wider waist and I also accounted for a higher hip. The waistband has extra length, but the other detail pieces for the inverted pleat and the belt loops remain the same.

 I took the time to work out the top stitching detail for the skirt. I was right in doing so, as the tension between the heavy top thread and the normal bobbin need to be carefully balanced. I'll admit that there was much muttering under my breath and lot of scraps in the wastecan before I got it to look correct.

The belt loops were fussy little bits. The curve was tight and needed to be clipped and trimmed evenly. They are slightly off from one another, but I am not a factory robot either. The top stitching had to be done very slowly. I had to stop and turn for every stitch on the inner curve!

Simplicity 2758 - Planning and Drafting

The next project is a denim skirt. I've chosen a Simplicity pattern, number 2758. It's from their "Threads - Step by Step" range. These patterns tend to be well drafted and this one has a blouse with C and D cup options. That's right up my street! I could use a nice blouse for next fall, but for now, back to the skirt.

The skirt is very simple. It's an A-line silhouette with a large inverted pleat at the center front seam. There is some waist line detail on this skirt. It has some optional belt loops which are really cute. I've decided to include those in my project since the skirt is smooth with no fullness at the waist seam. I've chosen a light weight cotton denim for this project. The first job is adjusting the pattern for my waist line without adding extra to the hip. After that, it should be a straight forward project.

Vogue 7375 - 1952 In Today's Wardrobe

After a couple of washings and wearings, my first 1952 Vogue 7375 skirt has settled down to be part of my modern wardrobe. The gathers at the waist have softened and flattened and I'm more pleased with the effect. I nearly always wear it with a simple tee shirt and a cotton cardigan sweater. Fundamentally, I'm still uncomfortable with the waist of this skirt as I couldn't make this garment again out of a crisper or heavier fabric. I'm going to think very carefully about how a full skirt can be made to fit my body type better than the dirndl silhouette.

Next project is a denim skirt. It's a more of work horse in my wardrobe than a pair of jeans and I need to replace it often. I've chosen a simple A-line skirt pattern and the denim came from my last fabric haul.

Vogue 7375 - 1952 Final Evaluation

Oh dear, life's major and minor events have taken me away from my sewing room and this blog for far too long. I have finished my first project from VoNBBS. This is my take on Vogue 7375 - The Full Gathered Skirt.

 Here's the finished skirt on my dressmaking form. I'm happy with the finish of the garment. There are no major mistakes, even after I had to adjust the waistline measurement and loose my couture buttonhole. The plaid matches very well. You can see the black stripe at the waist is about half waistband and half gathered skirt. The hem line is straight and ends with about 3/4 of a black stripe.

I am concerned with the gathered waist and my thickening middle. I've said this before on the blog,  I have three major fitting problems. They are a larger than average bust line, a thick waist and a short waist length. Only one I can do anything about physically, the thick waist is a constant battle that is proving more and more difficult as the years go on. The other flaws are just my body type. Normally, I wouldn't choose this type of pattern because it draws too much attention to my mid-section. Contruction grade: A-

And I was correct! Not the best look for me, but it's not a complete failure. (Yes, worse sewing disasters have been made in the recent past.) The light soft gingham saves the look by not be too puffy at the waist. I would wear this with an untucked blouse or sweater rather than the belt. Style and Wear Ability: C-

Here it is again with a black twinset sweater. I apologize for the photo. The quality is simply awful. It has a huge flash shadow which adds so much more width to the whole effect. The skirt style is much better with a sweater or over blouse, however the black twin set and pearls is a far too literal interpretation of the 1950's and the effect becomes costume. Style and Wear Ability: up one-half to a C.

I'm going to have to think seriously about the styles in VoNBBS and pick and choose very carefully.

Vogue 7375 - 1952 Construction

The skirt is very straight forward to put together. All the seams are straight stitching. It will be the finishing details that make the garment. The back seam, which has the zipper closure at the top, I have pressed open and have finished the edges with a Hong Kong finish. This first photo is the bias strip applied to one side of the seam. 

 Here, I roll the bias around the edge of the seam allowance and finger press it open. I pin the bias in place and  I will stitch in the ditch to secure the bias to the back side of the seam allowance. Since it's bias cut no further finishing is needed and the gingham will not ravel.

 Next I basted the zipper in place, before machine stitching the zipper. I prefer to take this extra step. It allows me to make small adjustments and if I don't like the zipper placement. The hand basting is a flash to remove, not so when it is machine stitched. I also find that the pins just don't hold things securely enough.

 Hand basting helps me to achieve good results most of the time, especially when dealing with matching plaids. The other two skirt seams were done with quarter inch french seams. I don't have photos because I became so engrossed in my work that I forgot to take the pictures.

 I did make a bound button hole for this garment, butttttt.....I had to remove it because shortly after this garment was completed I went on a diet and succeeded. Two inches disappeared from my waistline and the fastest way to remove them from my skirt was to open the back waistband seam and adjust an inch on each side. Looking back on this, the bound button hole is a nice teaching point for VoNBBS, but I think the machine stitched buttonhole will hold up better particularly because waistbands can be a source of stretch and strain for many woman. (Note: Including me....especially including me.)Two lines of gathering stitches and many pins secured the waistband to the skirt body for basting.

For the hem. I used a satin ribbon hem tape and some careful hand stitches. My hem was slightly over three inches deep. I cut the skirt so that the hem line would fall on a black horizontal stripe and I rolled about a quarter of the stripe to the back in the hem. If I hemmed either on the exactly the line between the horizontal stripes or on a white stripe I felt any small lack of accuracy would be noticed. The black stripe seemed to minimize these errors.

Vogue 7375 -1952 Pre-Construction Details.

 The original directions in VoNBBS say nothing of interfacing. The cotton gingham is very light weight and a bit limp. I feel some sort of support is needed in the waistband. I'm using cotton organza which is sewn in the old fashions way. I find I get less stretching and shifting by hand basting the interfacing to the fashion fabric.

 Here I've marked off the overlap at the center back for the waistband and pressed the facing edge up a 1/2 inch.

Here you can see I've marked the center front of the waist with some long basting. This will help me distribute the gathering evenly.

 Finally, I used a small piece of iron-on interfacing along the seam edge where the zipper will be sewn. The gives the zipper some support on the very light cotton. After each piece is prepared for construction, I pin them in place on my dress form right-side out. This keeps left and right and inside and outside in the correct order. I also don't loose things as I go about construction.

Vogue 7375 - Cutting and Testing

Careful cutting and planning took a bit of thinking.  It was all fairly straight forward with a 1 inch square plaid and 1/2 inch seams. 

 Using a few of the scraps, I tried out some seam finishes. The verdict was french  seams on the two "side" seams and a Hong Kong finish for the back seam which needs to open and flat for the zipper.

Three Rectangles

 

Looking at the illustrations in VoNBBS gave me a good idea of the shape and dimensions of the original Vogue 7375 pattern. I decided to make the front panel 11 inches wide with a center front fold giving me a 22 inch wide cut. The length is finished skirt length plus 1/2 inch for the upper seam and 3 inches for the hem depth.

The two back panels are 33 inches wide. These three pieces will be sewn together to make the skirt body. The zipper will be applied to the center back seam. (I'm quite sure Betty Freidan and Maya Angelou would have a few choice words for me at seeing they had been reduced to pattern weights for the afternoon and perhaps my nightstand reading is bit too personnel for a sewing blog.)

 
Finally, I measured a waistband I liked for the width and used my waist measurement and added 1 inch for ease, 1 inch for end seams and 2 inches for overlap. Viola! Three rectangles.

Vogue 7375 - 1952: The Full Gathered Skirt

I took some notes about materials needed from VoNBBS and noticed there was no mention of interfacing material or seam bindings. There was some mention of hem tapes. It was then I decided to ignore the "how to sew" portion of the directions and take advantage of some of the materials we have today and some of the sewing know-how I've picked up over the years.

The drawings in the book gave me a good idea of the shapes of the pattern pieces and I used my own measurements along with the standard widths of today's yard goods to make up a basic cutting plan.

I gathered up most of the things I need to have on hand from my stash. The white fabric at the top of the photo is some cotton organza that I'll use to interface the waistband. I'll also use a small scrap of iron-on interfacing around the zipper opening. I think I bought the zipper because I felt white would be a better match. I also noted the plaid on the gingham was 1 inch square. This will figure into the plaid matching that  must happen and it suggests an 1/2 inch seam rather than the home sewing pattern standard of 5/8 inch. So now I'm ready to draft my first paper....three rectangles.

Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing - The Full Gathered Skirt - Vogue 7375 - 1952 - Initial Thoughts and Reservations

So here's one of the projects in VoNBBS which I thought was worthy of copying. It's not the first project, but rather the third. VoNBBS is definitely a book originally conceived to teach the fundamentals of dressmaking. I'm sure that in 1952, this book and its patterns where readily available at the shops, but in 2014 in Belgium....not so much.

I've decided to ignore the "here's how to sew" part of the book and keep the design aesthetics of the 1950's, because I already know a good deal about sewing and I've always been attracted to the tailored quality of clothing from the 1930's through the 1950's.

I've also decided to add  two other elements. The first is born out of my unwillingness to devote time, energy, and money to hunting down the old patterns, but instead I want to draft my own patterns based on the photos of the projects in VoNBBS or photos of the patterns envelopes that are found on line. I certainly could use this new skill. The second element that I wish to practice with this book is far more difficult for me. It is choosing or changing the projects to reflect my lifestyle, my personal taste, and my own body shape. I have to be brutally honest with myself and not just make what I would imagine myself being able to wear, but what I actually can wear. I'd love to make myself a ball gown or a silk afternoon tea dress, but I'd look perfectly silly at the green grocer in either one of these confections.

With these two goals in mind, now is the time for confessions. It is said that your tailor may know more about you than your doctor or your spouse and since I am my own tailor, it's time to be honest. I'm over fifty...rather stout....short waisted.....large busted....average height....and I hate to buy clothes in the shops because of all this, I am driven to sew.

I chose this starting project because I love the large black and white check. The colors fit right into my current wardrobe. I already have several blouses and tops I can where with this skirt. I was able to find the exact fabric to make the skirt. And finally, the pattern pieces are rectangles....yep, three rectangles. How much trouble can that be?

So much for the positive. I have some deep reservations about this project, they fall under body shape and proportion. Just look at that photo, that poor woman hasn't eaten since 1949. That must be a 22 inch waist. I can tell you mine is not that svelte and I'm concerned about the "horizontal-ness" of the entire skirt, starting with the narrow rectangular waistband and its' continued emphasis with the horizontal stripe in the very nature of the plaid. To end positively, I could use a simple cotton skirt in my summer wardrobe. Something with a print would be welcomed and the dirndl shape is a quick and easy sew.

Sew...I forged ahead!