I said on my 25th birthday that in the next year I wanted to take up sewing again, using vintage patterns because I love looking like I fell out of a fashion history text. To help keep the dream alive, I am now (or soon will be) proud owner of the means to produce all these dresses…
There’s a lot I’ve forgotten about sewing, mind you, so I’ll be attempting the easiest one (top right) first. I can’t even remember how to do a tailor’s tack at the moment. I’m sure I’ll pick it all up gain after a few frantic phonecalls to my mother, though. She’s such a good seamstress she made her own wedding dress, and when I was 17 she helped me sew my leaver’s meal outfit, which included a corset with 15 plastic bones stitched into it. Never again.
The problem with sewing is it’s such a lost artform that, like knitting and crochet, it’s now incredibly expensive. The pattern is £5 – £13 to begin with, and then there’s the fabric. I can tell I’m going to miss the close proximity to cheap fabric stalls (I’ve yet to find anywhere in London that’s as good as Birmingham market, even Walthamstow which used to be on my doorstep). Ebay is ok but by the time you add shipping, you may as well just go to Berwick Street where they mark everything up ridiculously.
Good thing my mother has four boxes of unused stuff, and I’m heading home this weekend!
Liberty London Girl January 14, 2009 at 4:23 pm
How wonderful! But I’m with you on the cost of sewing now. I made so many of my clothes in my teens in the sewing room at school, and even then it wasn’t cheap. But now…Still, it is immensely rewarding. Altho the last time I used it was when I costume designed a movie. And the only way to go for alterations. I just wish I had a sewing machine here in NY. Mine is in London under the stairs with all my domestic chattels waiting for the day when I am either rich enough to ship everything to NYC or maintain a home on each side of the Atlantic! LLGxx
nuttycow January 16, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Those are so cool. I wish I had a) the patience b) the skill and c) the ability to make my own clothes…
I’d be happy. (although I’d have to be a hell of a lot thinner than I am now!)
Leah April 8, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Ooh, they look like lovely patterns! I’m with you on the cost of sewing. Incredibly expensive. I got a whole load of patterns from my grandma a few months ago and the prices were so much cheaper, I was in partial shock for a while! I guess I am lucky to have the bullring markets only a 20 minute train journey away though!
Hope you have fun sewing them up though. At least you’ll get to wear something pretty at the end!