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Working with a vintage unprinted pattern, if you’re lazy.
1962 Spadea/Chanel unprinted pattern If you sew from vintage patterns, you may have been nonplussed to open that package and see absolutely nothing printed on the pieces, like in the photo above....
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American Hustle and Wrap Dress Patterns
Have you seen the movie American Hustle? Oh honey, in the 70s, I was there. The knit dresses cut down to there. The men with hair everywhere. The whole feeling of “Vietnam’s over, the feminist...
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Finding a “Fitting Shell” to fit those !$%#! vintage patterns
In the past couple of years, I’ve become the proud owner of some pretty fab vintage designer patterns that I’m dying to make up. Here are a few examples: A 1930’s Schiaparelli bias-cut dress pattern...
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Charles James, meet Claire McCardell
Okay, I’ve had my fling with Charles James, paid homage to Madame Vionnet and gotten in a catfight with Coco Chanel. Now it’s time to give Claire McCardell her due. This red shrug is one of her...
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An Epic Road Trip and Meeting Susan Khalje!
Okay, despite the title, there was only one thing truly epic about my road trip to Maryland, and that was meeting haute couture sewing expert and master teacher Susan Khalje! When I contacted Susan,...
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Hollywood Costume Exhibit and what I’m making for it…
Here’s a piece of good news…later this month, my husband and I are invited to a soiree celebrating the opening of the “Hollywood Costume” exhibit, featuring a number of classic movie costumes that I am...
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Claire McCardell and Martha Graham
After I got back from L.A., I meant to spend some time testing methods for constructing this Claire McCardell dress, from an early 50s pattern by Spadea: I intended to sew it up back in August for my...
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A Claire McCardell Bolero UFO has landed, just in time for International UFO...
Do you ever have that experience where you’re rooting through your stash, and you find some fabric pinned to a pattern piece that’s already cut out? And then you think, “what the heck is this?” In...
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Never Too Old for a Toga Party (or–Cotton Jersey, never again!)
Can a middle-aged woman pull off a toga? (Figuratively of course, though I went to my share of toga parties in college…) For Pattern Review’s Historical Fashion contest, I was raring to go with a...
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Pattern by Chanel
Here’s what inspired me to give another tedious, labor intensive Chanel Jacket a go: 1962 Chanel pattern released by Spadea (photo (c) Julie Eilber, 2013) It’s a 1962 Chanel jacket pattern released by...
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