May 11, 2010

Come Over for a Coffee Klatch Wrap

McCalls 1948 is finally finished. 
What a darling little ditty it is. I call it my "come over for a coffee klatch wrap". 

It was factory folded and in pristine condition when I received it. It came in a lot of other patterns and I knew right away I had to make it for this summer. As I stated in an earlier post, we have a couple of old gents who do the lawns for us. I work at night and have a bad habit of staying in my bathrobe well into the afternoon. These two fellow (who are old farmers and get up at 5:00 each morning don't know what to think of me). I hope to don this each morning during the summer and set about sewing, cooking or gardening. I might just have to make another shorter one with veggies on it for gardening.

This is a pattern with copyright date of 1955 and I was amazed that after 55 years the transfer for the embroidered pocket was like the day they printed it. I even think it would transfer again onto another piece. It was a breeze.
The pattern asked to hand turn each piece under and then sew it onto the pocket. I tried with the donuts and it was such an awful mess I finished the rest of it with a machine over stitch.
I did hand embroider the coffee cup handle and the swirl of steam coming off the coffee. I had this wonderful cotton striped fabric in my stash. As I looked at it, it seemed a little too lightweight and see through for me, as I intend to pop into this right out of bed, so I lined the whole thing with a white cotton fabric I picked up at the thrift shop for $2.00. I have reams of it still so will do more lining with it on other projects. What a deal that was.

The whole thing is bordered with seam binding which is what I spent the only money on. The buttons are from a vintage stash I have.
Do I dare tell you I was prepping for a colonoscopy yesterday and this was the perfect project to take my mind off the fact that I could not eat a grain of food all day and night. Even seeing those donuts and coffee did not break me down.

So this morning while waiting to head to the hospital I donned this crinoline a friend gifted to me this weekend. It is a beauty and meant for a long evening dress from the 50's. Now I am in search of the perfect pattern to wear with it. Any pattern ideas would be much appreciated.

Hubby was out tending to our many animals (I needed to remain close to the bathroom) and I threw this apron over the crinoline just for effect and hubby took some photos after I promised him I was not wearing this get up for the colonoscopy. Although I'm sure I would have been a patient they never forgot if I did.
I loved how the crinoline is so big it hung up on the stairs.


Here is a closeup of the vintage brass buttons. Gotta love the swirl...I do.
 I don't like how the strips don't match up though.
Closeup of the embroidered pocket.
Back view of the dress being modeled by "Hazel" my new body double. Although I have to say she came out a bit bigger in the waist than I am. I bought an IV pole yesterday and will have to un-stuff her to put it in...and try to change  her proportions to better match. More on Hazel in a couple of days.
This is a photo of the crinoline, who is still standing up in the hall after an hour or more.



12 comments:

  1. Here's me wishing you the best of luck and the best outcome for your procedure (I'm assuming it's later this morning?) I've had three of those thus far, as a Crohn's/UC patient. So, seriously best of luck to you.

    And I love how your Coffee Klatch dress turned out. It's very cute, and I love stripey materials, so bonus points from me for that.

    -d

    Donna S Jones

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  2. Very very cute. I love the coffee's little steam swirl. How great is it that you could still use the transfer!

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  3. Absolutely adorable! You're amazing!

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  4. Saw you on Sew Retro. Normally sripes not matching aggravates me. But I think it acutally works to the good in this outift - it helps draw the eye to the pocket and, more importantly, to the emboridery which was, I'm assuming, the most challenging part of the piece. I love it!

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  5. Too cute! Great job. :)

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  6. Awesome results! I love the addition of applique/embroidery and how it wraps in back and buttons in front. And yes, very cool buttons! :)

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  7. OH!

    I saw this on Sew Retro, and this is EXACTLY what I have been looking for! How did you find it? (Or in other words, is there somewhere I can order that same pattern from, and does it have a name I can actually search for?)

    Or, do you know of any other patterns that have the same look that I would be able to find? (I think you're probably much more familiar with what's out there than I am.) I'm not interested in the coffee applique, but I do want the rest of it to look just like that!

    Please do let me know.

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  8. Emily,
    I am new to sewing and not that familiar with patterns. This pattern was purchased as part of a "lot" of 30 or more patterns. I knew I had to make it the minute I pulled it out of the package. If I were you I would search on e-bay or etsy and use the words 1940's wrap dress and then substitute it with 1950's and see what comes up. Good luck!

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  9. Emily, I did a search on ebay (1950's sewing pattern wrap dress) and there is a really cute one there:
    http://cgi.ebay.com/vintage-50s-Pinup-Rockabilly-WRAP-DRESS-Sewing-Pattern-/370381998863?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563c7ccb0f

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  10. I love this! I tried making it and just about cried trying to deal with the bias binding. Maybe I'll have to re-visit it.

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  11. I have the children's version of this pattern and made it or my youngest last year: http://frualeydis.livejournal.com/852646.html
    My transfers also worked marvellously.

    When I found out that there was an adult version I wanted to make one for me too. Ordering patterns from the US is a bit of a hazzle though and then finding the right size (I'm an 18) seemed like lots of work, so instead I drafted my own pattern, which probably fits me better anyway since patterns are made for a B cup and I have an F-cup and also a long torso. I made it from a retro patterned printed cotton from IKEA and left out the donuts: http://frualeydis.livejournal.com/855074.html

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  12. Eva, both yours and your daughters wraps are delightful. I did not know they had this in a childrens pattern. I love the fabric for both. I wore mine yesterday...it is a little too big for me but it works.

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I appreciate each and every one of your comments. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me.

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