guest posts – Page 11

my guest today is stacy from hart & sew. i “met” her when we guest posted for sparkle power together and i’ve been a loyal follower ever since. stacy is a true lover of vintage style, in her home, in how she dresses herself, and in how she dresses her two adorable girlies (here and here). she has an etsy shop selling the cutest vintage kids’ clothes (O’s easter shirt came from there!), and has fun creative ideas like turning your child’s drawing into a stuffie, which i had to try as soon as i possibly could (resulting in this)!

today stacy shares a tutorial to add sweet vintage-inspired detail to an existing pattern. take it away, stacy!

Hello! Today I am going to show you how to alter a dress pattern to add a sweet vintage-inspired scalloped yoke. First, of course, you will need to choose a pattern – I chose a simple vintage sleeveless jumper for mine, in a size 4T.

Find the dress front pattern piece. We are going to use it to make our yoke pattern pieces. Using paper you can trace with (I used freezer paper), trace the outline of the top shoulder to about 2″ past the sleeve opening, then draw a straight line across the bottom. Trace all of the seam allowances and add other important information such as the center fold as well.

Cut out your new yoke pattern piece and it should look similar to this:

Next, we are going to make a yoke facing pattern piece. Lay your tracing paper on top of the yoke pattern piece you just made, and trace around the bottom going 4″ up the sides. Draw a straight line across the top. Remember to transfer over any important information on this piece as well.

Now you should have yoke and yoke facing pattern pieces that look similar to this:

Now, we will add the scallops to the yoke facing piece. Starting on the side with the center fold, measure 1 1/2″ up from the bottom and draw a large dot. Then measure 3″ over and add another dot, and again a dot 3″ over one more time (these measurements may be adjusted depending on how many/what size you want your scallops to be).

Next, draw the scallops connecting them at the top with the dots and making sure to leave yourself a seam allowance at the bottom (in other words, do not go all the way down to the bottom edge of the pattern). Now the yoke facing piece is complete.

The last pattern piece we need to make is the bottom part of the dress front piece, or the skirt. To do this place the yoke facing piece on top of the original dress front pattern piece. Using the tracing paper trace around the top of the yoke facing piece, then trace around the rest of the pattern down to the hemline without making any additional changes. Essentially, you just want to chop off the top.

Congratulations, you now have three separate pattern pieces where you originally had one! A yoke piece, a yoke facing piece, and a (decapitated) dress front piece.

Cut out your fabric pieces now. On the yoke facing piece you may want to add thread markers on the large dots as I did in red thread, but this is optional. Open it up, and using your choice of fabric marker draw the scallops on the WRONG side of the fabric all the way across.

Then pin the yoke facing piece to the yoke piece RIGHT sides together.

Sew along the scallop markings.

Trim the seam and clip curves.

Then turn the yoke facing right-side out. A little trick to get smooth curves is to poke a crochet hook or something similar in the scallops and push out along the edges. Iron flat.

Next, open up the yoke piece and pin the yoke facing to the dress front piece RIGHT sides together.

Sew along the top edge.

And, you’re done! Okay, maybe not entirely done, but your new dress front piece with a darling scalloped yoke is done. Continue to sew your dress per your patterns instructions.

And, here is my finished dress! I embellished mine with fabric buttons on the scallops as well as two pleated pockets.

And, I think she likes it!

BONUS!!! Use these same instructions to make a jagged yoke dress!

Using the same measurements (1.5″ up, 3″ over), simply draw a jagged line on the yoke facing piece instead of scallops:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, thank you for having me Kristin!

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argh, SO cute! thanks, stacy! when i saw this tutorial i immediately thought a good “new pattern” to try it on might be the tea party sundress (available as digital pattern).

today, jess has a pretty awesome blogger with a lovely adult project! find out who it is right here!

before i blogged, i posted photos of my projects on flickr. one name i noticed popping up over and over in the groups i visited, consistently sewing classically lovely projects, was “saganaga,” aka rachel of nest full of eggs. i adore her creations, from this tutu to this abbey jacket to this dress with crochet trim and so much in between.

rachel’s style is peaceful, beautifully simple, always classic, and i’m so happy to have her kick off vintage may today with a sweet little holly hobbie outfit! she took these photos on the actual prairie! so cool.

Thanks so much Kristin for inviting me, I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to the Vintage May series.

Playing dress-up is one of my 4 year old daughter’s favorite things to do and the Vintage May series inspired me to sew her a Holly Hobbie outfit. Do you know who Holly Hobbie is? If not, she is a patchwork pinafore-wearing little girl in a giant bonnet, a nostalgic sweetheart who was symbolic of simpler times.

sitting on the prairie

She wears a late 1800s period dress like Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie (you know, the TV show which ran from 1974-1982) which takes place in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, which is just a few hours drive away from where I live.

sewing on the prairie

I was out shopping at vintage shops in my area and saw this child’s Holly Hobbie sewing pattern, it was so super sweet, I immediately grabbed it right away (of course!)… it was size 4 ~ perfect for my 4 year old daughter! I was thrilled because vintage sewing patterns come in only one size. The pattern is Simplicity 5996 from 1973. That’s a photo of it by my vintage 1970 Singer Touch & Sew sewing machine with the original instructions manual.

my 1970 Singer w_instructions manual

I sewed my daughter the long dress, bonnet and long pinafore using fabrics that are available today. It was fun looking and shopping for cute calico cotton floral prints. I tired to stay true to the classic Holly Hobbie by sticking with the same colors/types of fabrics.

today's fabrics w_1973 pattern

I am sure you have already seen this blue floral fabric floating around sewing blogs or maybe you’ve already sewn something with it ~ it’s from the DS Quilts collection from JoAnn’s. It’s blue with little red and white flowers ~ absolutely perfect for the bonnet. The patchwork fabric is already pre-sewn that way (saved me a ton of time!), that’s available at JoAnn’s as well, you should expect to pay about double the price for that type of fabric, but it so worth it. And the white floral fabric I got at a warehouse fabric store.

lining_velcro on pinafore _ Holly Hobbie book

Just for fun, for the lining of the pinafore, I used a white cotton with light blue polka dots (from my stash). I wanted to follow the 1973 pattern as close as I could, but I did make one modern change and that was instead of adding 3 buttons to the back of the pinafore I added 3 strips of velcro because it’s being used for dress-up and velcro makes it easier to take off & put on.

By the way, the Holly Hobbie book in the photo is in French, it came from Grand-Maman & Grand-Papa (my daughter’s grandparents) who live in France.

My daughter enjoyed discovering flowers, running, hand sewing, etc. on a Minnesota prairie in her new Holly Hobbie outfit.

Happy Vintage May!

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thanks so much, rachel! what a great dress-up outfit, and your little gal is so sweet. please head on over to craftiness is not optional to check out a beautiful vintage-inspired dress by jess’ first vintage may guest, lindsay of the cottage home!