Vintage Pattern, Modern Style: Marlo's Dress

One pattern, two ways:

This is a great pattern, if a little complex. There are lots of pattern pieces and weird facings. It's from 1976, and one of a few Marlo Thomas patterns I've come across. Check out her illustrated toothy grin:

This was one of the first things I made post-Katrina. One box of patterns survived on a high shelf, a few more boxes were back home with my parents. I loved the Chinese lantern print, and added a red topstitch to emphasize the pattern pieces. It's a "silky print," meaning it's not actual silk, of course, but it's a slippery slinky fabric that can be tricky to deal with. It also unravels easily if the raw edges aren't finished or enclosed in a lining, so it's best to use these fabrics only if you have a serger.

When I made the Chinese lantern dress, I bought the fabric before I decided on the pattern. Later on, I wished I had used a contrasting fabric to emphasize the interesting design, as they did on View D on the pattern illustration. So I used this print with an art-deco kinda vibe, and paired it with plain black.

Lately I've been using random contrasting fabric for linings. Quilting cottons are often really pretty but are too stiff for apparel, so they make great facings. I'm the only one that sees it, but it looks so nice on the hanger.

Vintage Pattern, Modern Style

My vintage pattern collection is pretty vast, thanks to my aunts and my late, great Maw Maw. An annual charity flea market allowed shoppers to fill a large bag with patterns for just a few bucks, and Maw Maw filled a bag for me. I discovered that vintage patterns are really fun and easy to work with, and ever since that first pattern purchase in the early 1990's, my family knows to be on the lookout at estate sales, antique malls, and yard sales!

My favorite patterns are from the late 1960's--lots of cute little shift dresses and a-line minis, often with coordinating jackets. Most of these are fairly timeless and mesh very well with today's style. Some vintage garments--the wide lapels of 1970's collars, the girdle-squeezed-tiny-waist dresses of the 1950's, the linebacker shoulders of the 1980's--don't translate very well to modern fashion. Still, all patterns can be modified! Older patterns usually contain only one size so they're much easier to work with than the multi-size patterns of today (of course, this requires a bit more treasure-hunting). The tissue paper also seems to be slightly thicker and sturdier and therefore, easier to work with.

My latest project used an easy peasant style blouse pattern from 1976. You can see from the illustration that there's a good bit of that old 70's ugliness going on, but this style is pretty tame compared to most 70's patterns.

I decided on View 2 (though I really like the View 3 style as well). Against my better judgement I used the sleeve pattern even though I could tell it was a bit wonky--some of these old patterns are. The result was an unflattering sleeve with all the fullness underneath rather than at the cap (pretty much as illustrated in View 2 above, but worse). First, I tried cutting the sleeves about 3" shorter. Still ugly. Then I decided I'd just double them under and sew the hem to the armscye seam. Voila, puffy cap sleeves! Much better.

The main fabric is a stretchy, almost opaque mesh. Opaque enough to not line, anyway. The inset is brocade and the sleeves are transparent mesh. Impossible to sew on if you don't have a serger, FYI. And because my time is precious, I did a rolled hem on my serger, which looks totally fine for a casual top. In my humble opinion anyway.

It's a little loud but dark denim works well to tone it down a notch!