More 1956

The little casual suit from Beyer's Junge Mode from 1956 is finished! It stayed on my sewing table in an almost completed state for a week because I was hoping to find some nice buttons for it. Something contrasting, like in the picture. Maybe silver-coloured but light enough in weight so they wouldn't pull too much on my fairly thin fabric... I didn't find any and went with black plastic instead. 

In the magazine, this picture is part of a spread about summer fun in and near the water, so I really felt that it belonged outdoors. Of course, it should actually be worn on the sunny-yet-windswept shores of a lake, while you are getting a small sailboat ready for a day on the water (I'm not a boat person, but I have seen scenes like this). Instead, I took pictures on my tiny balcony where the light is never quite what I'd like. 

Anyway, I made toiles for both trousers and jacket. I ended up taking the trousers in by an amount which is basically one dress size (which gives me a useful idea about Beyer's sizing for bottoms). On the jacket, I only took in the sides at the bottom by 1.5 cm, creating a slightly tapered shape which I prefer over all-out boxy. The jacket is supposed to be loose so although I guess I would also fit me if I had sized it down, I'm fine with the straight-from-the-pattern fit. And I like the drop-shoulder look and fit more than I thought I would. 

There is one alteration I had to make though: The jacket didn't have pockets. That, in my opinion, is, quite simply, ridiculous. I added two simple patch pockets.

I made the suit in my go-to summer fabric: a cotton-linen blend in very dark blue with thin stripes in a lighter colour (I have used this stuff for several things in the past. I liked it so much I bought the rest of the bolt last year. More than 12 m of it...). In the magazine, they used a contrasting, white fabric for the collar a facing. It looks nice but I thought the jacket would be more versatile and easier to mix with my normal clothes if I made it all from the same fabric. 

I am pleased with the end result. The cropped trousers have a nice fit. It's a very retro look but not out of my comfort zone. The jacket is so wide that it will be easy to wear over all kinds of tops and I think it should look good with a lot of my trousers and maybe also with pencil skirts. 

Of course, this is also yet another item for my Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge. Although I made two garments here, they share a pattern number so I think I should count this suit as one (not that it really matters because I didn't set myself a specific number of things to sew this year).