Fab fifties

It seems that fifties fashion is back - AWESOME! Maybe my most favourite fashion period. This month's Burda magazine has a feature on 50s inspired clothes, and I already have quite a few vintage patterns waiting to be made up... in fact Jackie was based on a 1950s stle pattern. I love the fitted bodice and wide skirt style - so flattering (as long as the skirt is the right length of course!), though I'm not sure I'd go FULL 50s and wear the full petticoat / crinoline, it looks gorgeous. Again, born fifty years too late (I reckon nicest to be in your early twenties in the fifties to make the most of the gorgeous clothes!). On that note, we have just started watching the first series of MadMen, the series from the US about advertising in 1950s Manhattan. It's AWESOME. Not least the clothes. Office politics in those days... wowzers. Anyway, work wardrobe then was great. Pencil skirts, silky blouses, tight tops, 3/4 jackets. So flattering. Which brings me onto my next project I think - the skirt and blouse from August's burda issue, and maybe a second frilly blouse. They both look fairly easy, and the blouses both have sleeves (eeek!) but as they're not set in they probably don't count for my Virgin Sleeve Challenge...

Wondering whether I need to bother making a toile of the top or whether it is easy enough for me to just crack on... hopefully the latter, although I don't have any chiffon-y type fabric (though I do have some spotty satin stuff which might pretty cool for the one without the frill). Wonder if chiffon-y fabric will be hard to sew with... and cut out... maybe I will try and get to Goldhawk Road on Saturday morning.

Roll on the weekend - maybe I might actually get some sewing done, wedmin appears to have taken over (churches booked: 0, venues booked: 0, guest lists finalised: 0, minutes spent awake in the dead of night worrying about foregoing lack of progress: too sleep deprived to remember).

Spotty Marie skirt

I made this from the free pattern on Burdastyle and hemmed it to a more flattering length. It was actually a bit tricky to get the hem right as the original pattern has facings for the hem which is a sort of tulip shape. I cut and hemmed it shorter so it didn't have the balloon / tulip shape. I also lined it with the help of Connie Long's book 'Easy Guide to Sewing Linings' - basically the quick-lining technique. Lining really makes it a lot nicer to wear, and the whole skirt feels a lot more substantial. I did managed to prick my finger on a pin and bleed on the lining a bit which was slightly annoying. I am now deliberating whether to use this skirt shape for Jackie. The shape will probably be a bit fuller made from silk, but that might be quite nice... Hmmm. I will also need to move the zipper to the back, as the Jackie bodice opens at the back but that will probably make it neater to finish.