1968!

I love the 1960's dress I made last week and judging from the comments, lots of people liked the look. It even brought back memories for some (Maria, I loved your comment!) and not just online.
My blog post inspired my mother to dig through her old photo-albums and un-earth this gem:

This is my mother back in 1970, wearing a dress made by her mother. The dress is pretty similar in shape to the one I just made but quite a bit shorter. This actually supports my theory that hemlines crept up over the course of the 1960's. A theory which was already supported by my copies of Marion magazines from the 1960's and 1970's.
Isn't this picture just lovely? It might be interesting to know that the little white dress in this idyllic summer picture was actually made of wool...

Considering how much I loved that simple dress, I don't think it's surprising I decided to make another one. 
Now, I picked this pattern:

The one on the left. Despite the terminator-esk look of the model, the dress is rather nice. A bit shorter and more form-fitting than my 1966 dress but basically another 1960's shift dress. 

I considered using black or blue/purple linen from my stash but I couldn't find any trim to go with it. But I have a big stash... This black fabric with red flower silhouettes is not something I bought myself. My sister bought it when we went to the fabric market together over two years ago. Because she is now the mother of very active 2-year-old, she doesn't sew for herself anymore (she never did a lot of sewing to begin with) and a few months ago, she gave this fabric, and some printed lycra to me. 
I wasn't sure what to do with this fabric. It's something I kind of like but in the styles of dresses I usually wear, it would be a bit too much. But for a little 1960's shift...

I think it worked. The only odd thing is that the dress a little bit Chinese to me... I think it's just because it is red and black and high neckline and sleek shape make it vaguely resemble a cheongsam (Shanghai dress). 

That neckline, by the way is something I had to change. Believe it or not but I actually had to cut it 1.5 cm lower at the front. Something which I didn't find out until after I had completely finished the all-in-one facing. 
That facing was an alteration in itself: The original pattern called for separate neck and armhole facings but I think the all-in-one variety behaves much better when you wear the dress. 

I am quite pleased with how this dress turned out as so I don't think this will be my last attempt at 1960's style... 

1966!

The year was 1966 and eh... Well, what we tend to think of as the quintessential 1960's look was definitely gaining ground. It wasn't just for the hip young things in swinging cities anymore. A middle-of-the-road Dutch sewing magazine like Marion was publishing patterns for fairly short, fairly loose-fitting dresses too. For the smaller sizes, that is. It is interesting that the designs for the larger end of the sizing chart are still more along the lines of semi-fitted sheath dresses. 

Because I wear one of Marion's smaller ladies' sizes, I could find a nice dress pattern in the December issue of that year.

I wasn't in love with this dress (the one of the left) when I first lined up the potential candidates for a Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge 1960's project. However, it didn't take a lot of closer inspection to realize that the insipid styling was hiding a rather nice design. Those colour-blocked criss-cross panels!
Of course, the dress in the picture might be quite impressive in real life: For all we know it was made in clashing orange and green... It just seems to be one of the very few cases in which Marion's stylists or sample makers forgot they were preparing for a photoshoot in black-and-white.

Of course, my colour choice was going to be different. And I wanted to make a dress I could wear right now. So, cotton or linen was called for. 
Compared to the dress in the picture, I fear I may have pushed this style to the other extreme: Between the black and the black-red-yellow print, there is a whiff of the fires of Mount Doom about it ;)
Or it might just be what Twiggy would have worn if she were really into Death Metal ;)
Does that make it a terrible anachronism? Maybe, but I'm not too bothered about that. I like vintage style and vintage patterns but ultimately, I want to be able to wear the things I've made and feel comfortable in them. (oh, and I know those shoes are terribly 1970's in style) 

The fabrics I picked are the textured linen I also used for last year's jumpsuit and this great African wax print which I've only ever used for a skirt before (which must have been pre-blog because I can't find a post about it but it is still here on Burdastyle). I love it but with my complexion, it's not something I can wear all-over (which is how these wax prints are normally worn). 
In this case, I could use the print to re-inforce the effect of those diagonal panels.

I'm quite happy with how this dress turned out. I didn't even make a muslin and the fit is spot-on. The bust shaping in those panel seams is in the right place, the waist length (which I did check against my sloper) is good and it doesn't have a crazy amount of ease or a lack of it. 
I only made three changes: I made the sleeve short instead of three quarter length to make the dress more appropriate for this time of year, I hemmed it a bit shorter because I preferred the look of that and I cut the sides of the back pieces a centimeter wider at hip level. Before cutting, I measured the pattern pieces and realized there might not be much ease at the hips so I compromised in that way. Normally, you would distribute such added width across front and back but I had already cut the front contrast pieces which reach down to hip level. Interestingly, the side seams look perfectly straight now.

I tried a Marion pattern before and I had many more issues with that one. Of course, it was an earlier pattern in a very different style so its pattern makers may have had very different ideas about ease. I was also a bit smaller at the chest back then, which made me pick a smaller size. This dress is in size 38, Marion's smallest "proper" ladies' size throughout the 1950's and 60's. That first dress was a size 36 which was a kind of in-between or teenager size: Same waist measurement as 38, smaller chest and hips and, as it turned out, a shorter waist length. Clearly, my proportions and height are much better suited for the larger size. 

I may not really be a hip young thing anymore but it doesn't take much to imagine rocking out in this dress ;)   

Another plan...

Tomorrow, I should be able to finish by 1930's dress. It has been pretty much finished all week but the hemline-to-be had some rather weird length differences as a result of bias hang. So, I left it to hang a bit longer and because it's a full length skirt, I really need help to pin the hemline. So, E can help me on Saturday.

In the mean time, I'm thinking about a next Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge project. On the warm summer days, of which we've had a few so far, I don't really like to wear my dresses and separates with a closely fitted waistline. Too warm. Weather like that suddenly make the short, simple loosely fitted looks of the 1960's seem desirable.

I had a look at my vintage patterns. I hvae some 1960's Frohne books but those are from the early years of the decade and include more 1950's-light shapes than the mod looks I was looking for now. The same is true for the two German Gunther magazines but I still have a small stack of post-1950's Dutch Marions.

Not a huge amount of them, but they do pretty much span the decade.

After some examination, I realized that the "typical 1960's" looks I was after doesn't really come in until 1965 (at least, not in mainstream fashion in the Netherlands). So, the following pictures are all from between 1965 and 1970.

Marion was one of those magazines which included only a few of the designs in each magazine on the pattern sheet (you could get the rest through their mail order service). They must have stopped doing that at some point because my mother subscribed to that magazine around 1990 and it was sort of like Burdastyle magazine and came with patterns for all designs. They didn't until the mid-1970's though. 

And, unfortunately, 1960's Marion had a tendency not to include the most on-trend items...

Anyway, I would prefer a dress which I could make now and wear straight away but of course, I have to work with what I have:

The dress on the left would be an option but the pattern is too large for me, the one on the left would be just a little bit on the small side but it doesn't really appeal to me.

 The middle one is in my size but not very inspiring...

and these options are just too winter-y.

The pattern is for the one on the left. These are prime examples for the craze for topstitching which seems to have returned several times over the decade (and the one after it).

Ehm... Here the pattern in my size is for the blouson top with a choice of culottes or a skirt. I suppose it is very 1960's and not close fitting but I can't see myself wearing that. I like the dress but don't see the point of grading down what is in fact just a basic shift. Grading it down by four sizes...

And then there are trousers... Such a cool suit.

These dresses all look a bit frumpy but I kind of like the diagonal seams and colour blocking at the left.

And more trousers. These are sort of like knickerbockers... What do you think: Could I pull off that look?

In winter, I would love the dress in the middle (but not with the decorations at the sleeve and body seam at exactly the same level)

And then, there are these party dresses. I like the one on the left (which comes with a pattern in more or less my size) despite the scary make-up and facial expression of the model. 

All these are real options but back in the day, you could get some real gems. I thought it would be nice to include a few examples, from the ridiculous to the sublime.

A beach suit with a built-in cape!

I don't even know what to call the outfits on the left page, the coat has to have a colour blocking design to get that giant checkerboard look and I guess the tame suit on the far right is just lost.

 

It's a shift dress party! And there is one very pretentious guest: An Yves Saint-Laurent Mondriaan dress knock-off.

The suit on the right. Yes, it would be a lot less exciting in a plain fabric. But they made it in that block check.

I have to be honest, this last one is not a Marion design. The illustrations belong to an ad for Vlieseline fusible interfacing. Apparently, giant cut-outs at the waistline are the height of fashion and if you have the figure for it, you too can achieve this hot new look if you just buy their product...

So, I know it is a bit of a departure for me but I am really considering a "typical 1960's" dress. I don't think I'll go for the waistline cut-outs though...

I am still finishing other sewing projects but I think I have a favorite already. Do you?