Vintage Pattern Project

I've always had an interest in vintage patterns. I would pick them up at thrift stores and antique stores whenever I found them. I had been toying around with the idea of sewing through my collection, and when my dear friend Karen gave me two boxes stuffed full of them I decided it was time. Thus the project was born.

So here's the plan.I am going to attempt to do one vintage pattern a week for the entire year. There are 52 weeks in 2019. That's a lot of sewing. My goal is to do a vintage dress, skirt, blouse, or coat for each one. I have an assortment of brands, but the majority are Butterick, Simplicity, or Mccalls. They are all originals, not reproductions (not that i don't love a good retro reprint too). I'll be using patterns dating from 1950s through the 1970s. My goal is to post about each one's brand, date, instructions, easy of making the pattern, as well as my opinion on the finished product. I'm not planning on doing any resizing or altering to them unless its necessary. Such as adding pockets, or adjusting linings. Two things i have strong opinions on. More on that later. There is also this www.instagram.com/vintagepatternproject where ill be posting progress pics along with the occasional vintage sewing and fashion accessories if you want to check that out

I sat down and carefully sorted them all out from oldest to newest. Next I went through and picked my favorites, and sorted them into the months I though they would be most appropriate. I'll admit I struggled with this step. At first I thought about just doing them in chronological order, but that seemed kinda boring. Plus, I had some really fun ones that I either wouldn't get to, or would just completely be in the wrong time of the year. Nothing like a strappy sundress in November, am I right. Also, I found I had way too many favorites, so I added a few extras to the stack just to be safe. Finally with my year worth of patterns picked out i was ready to get to work. I have the patterns, fabric, notions, and thread all ready for January. Here we go!!!

The patterns