On Upcoming Sewing Plans and Ideas

With warmer weather headed our way, lately I have been very happily perusing vintage summer wear patterns and, to my great delight, earlier this month happened upon a wonderfully inexpensive 1956 McCall’s 3732 blouse set pattern. As you can see from the photograph there are three different versions, all of which I am eager to make: back buttoning with a tab in front, front buttoning with pointed collar, and front buttoning with a peter pan collar.

As you can also see, I have some fabrics picked out for my marvelous pattern. The red heart print was originally planned for another blouse pattern, but I think it is much better suited for this one. I also wanted to use the yellow fabric for another blouse (photo to come soon) only to find that there wasn’t quite enough. As for the pinkish-purple fabric…it’s a reproduction mid-century modern print from the Victoria and Albert Museum! This was a surprise to me as I rarely look at the names on the selvage when I’m in the store and what a pleasant one it was at that for me to have chosen it with a 50’s blouse in mind! Unfortunately, as to what exactly in the museum the print was based on there is no indication either on the fabric or anywhere I’ve looked online, although I intend to keep searching since I would certainly love to know.

At the same time I bought the 50’s reproduction fabric I also bought these three.

The green floral print I actually already had some of, but not quite enough to make a complete clothing item from, so hopefully now I have at least the amount necessary for a simple skirt or maybe a even a jumper. Then there’s the red, white, and blue flower print that I think I might use for a 60’s sleeveless blouse if I can get through the process of grading down a pattern size. The cherry print, on the other hand, I cannot make up my mind about. Having only bought three yards of it and it being rather thin, I am a bit limited as to what I can do with it and because of that I do want to make sure I pick something I’ll absolutely love. First I thought I might make it into one of the blouses from the above pattern. Then I decided that it might look cute if I used it for something with slightly puffed sleeves (Combine the blouse pattern with my McCall's shirtwaist dress pattern sleeve, perhaps?). A playsuit also crossed my mind, once again, though, the fabric is a bit thin and probably would be better suited for just a top.  So many options! It just seems to be one of those prints with a lot of possibilities that I would happily use for about half the vintage patterns I own!

Anyway, in the coming months you will certainly be seeing some blouses popping up in my sewing posts and, if I can ever decide on what I want to make, a cherry print something-or-other.♥