Vintage Butterick 3573

My favorite place to shop for patterns now is Half Price Books. The selection at my store changes all the time, and they are usually older patterns, so it's always fun to browse through them even if there's nothing that I want to buy. That's where I found Butterick 3573, also sold as P150, which has a copyright date of 2002. That may or may not actually qualify for a "vintage" description. Anyway, I picked it up because it's a single layer jacket, finished with binding, that could be used for quilted fabrics.

I was intending to sew up another Half Price find, and pulled a stash fabric that had a table cloth-y look that I thought would make a nice heavy shirt. When pre-washed, the fabric had changed from table cloth-y to more of a textured bedspread-y look. Not a shirt fabric, but a great fabric for testing this jacket pattern. In the scrap pile I had enough cotton jersey to bind the edges. The buttons are just for show. While I could wear it buttoned, I did not take the trouble to add reinforcement to the buttonholes, so I won't be using them.

What a sweet little jacket! I didn't go crazy with fitting adjustments because I did want to see how the pattern actually fit. I pivoted out from the underarm on the side seams to add a little extra with to the hip and shortened the sleeve. That's it. I like the length, I like the amount of ease.

The pattern has some nice features. There are shoulder and elbow darts that would be easy to just ease in if using a loosely woven or spongey fabric. In addition, there is some extra length to the front pieces that is eased at the bust area, providing a little shape there. It's not enough for a full-busted figure, but it's nice to see that shaping in such a simple jacket. There are dots on the sleeve caps that direct the ease to the very top of the cap. How long has it been since I've seen dots to mark the easing? Seems like a long time. The shoulder is not extended and that bit of ease gives a small touch of definition.

I'm really happy with the easy fit and have plans to use this pattern as a block to make a more standard jacket. I'll add a dart, facings, and a collar.

Ready now for spring and summer with my little jacket. Also ready because of that huge winter storm that has pretty much shut us down for now. The white stuff in the photo is all sleet, not snow. We are fortunate that we haven't lost power with this storm. It's cold, everything is closed, and it's a good time to make soup and do some much-needed tidying around the house.

Style Arc Sloane

 

I thought I needed a blazer, but maybe I didn't. Sloane didn't work out exactly the way I thought it would. It does give me a couple of options, though.

From the pattern illustration, I was anticipating a relaxed, boxy, casual blazer. Mine ended up looking a lot dressier, and while it is boxy, the fit seems really slim.

The fit was almost a pleasant surprise. The shoulder width is pretty close to mine, much neater than expected. I picked the correct size for my bust, but there is not much ease there. That's unusual for an unfitted jacket.

Altertions I made to the pattern: shortened sleeves by 1-5/8 inches. They are long! Added 5/8 inch to each side seam at the hip for a total of an extra 3-1/4 in circumference. There are pattern pieces for welt and patch pockets. They blend in, but there are patch pockets on my version.

Comments on the pattern: There is shaping in the back seam, which is nice. The sleeves hang well, with a nice curve that follows the arm. There's a back vent. I might have totally misread the directions, but it seems like the way Style Arc has it finished, the interfacing shows. I made a little facing for the underlay so that it would be covered, and opted to miter where the vent joins the hem.

showing the curve of the sleeve

Sloane is unlined, and the front and back facings are the type I like on an unlined jacket, extending all the way to the armscye. This gives more structure to the chest and shoulder, and a sharper look overall. The pattern has shoulder pads as optional. I wanted to include them, but the ones I had on hand were too thick and didn't work. I may try a thinner pad if I can find where to get a few pair without having to order a dozen.

I took the time to do a hong kong finish on the seam allowances so here are the insides to show them.

The main reason that the blazer doesn't look the way I thought it would is due to my fabric choice. It's a cotton with the merest touch of stretch. It looks way dressier than I thought it would, reminding me of some silk dupioni jackets I wore to the symphony back in the day. So I'm not sure of how I'll wear it. 

I could leave it as is and have it for art openings. I'm a mixed media painter, and when I'm in a show I never seem to have the right thing to wear for openings. You want to have something that sets you apart and lets the crowd know you are the artist, but I'm not comfortable in flamboyant clothing. If I wore all black with this blazer, that would be a look I'd like. Downside of this choice is that it would only be worn a few times a year.

Alternately, I could do some topstitching on this to make it look more casual. It would probably get more wear that way.

Right now I'm inclined to keep it for dress-up.

If I ever make this again, I think I would size up and add darts, and make it in a fabric with less crispness. But now that I've made it, I wonder if a blazer really works for the casual life I lead.

Updating a TNT shirt pattern

it will probably never see an iron again

One of my most used patterns has been the shirt that appeared in the 5/2012 issue of Ottobre Woman, style #7 called "Gardener".  I made it back in 2012 and with a few modifications it was my TNT shirt for years. Even though I can still wear the shirts from years gone by, it was time to do a little refinement for my current body so that it can be my TNT again. In my TNT file there is a Knip Mode pattern that's a good basic for a very oversized shirt, and a Burda that is a little oversized. This one is even a little less oversized; call it merely relaxed. A chill fit.

I started from the beginning with a fresh tracing of my size based on the full bust measurement. Then began the customization to include the features I like to have in my shirts. Last, I did a wearable test to be sure that all my slicing and dicing worked.

schematic from the magazine

Here's the starting point.

And here's the preliminary pattern work that needed testing. This work was a lot easier to do on a pattern without seam allowances - one of the reasons I like the magazine patterns.

1. Chopped off the top of the back to create a yoke and rotated the shoulder dart into the yoke seam.
2. Replaced the separate front band a cut on one, adding extra width for cut on interfacing. Handling long skinny pieces of interfacing is a pain, and most of the time I don't want to do it.
3. Lowered the dart
4. Small rounded back adjustment
5. Forward shoulder adjustment, including pivoting the sleeve head for the forward pitch of the shoulders
6. I need extra width at the hips. Part of this was provided by adding to the side seams. The remainder comes from a box pleat added at center back.
7. A minor change - the pocket in the pattern is too dainty for me, so I drafted one a bit larger.
8. Another minor change - shortened the length. I am fairly tall, but Ottobre designs are often long on me.

To prove out all the alterations, I made up my tester without a lot of the details. Just the collar band, no actual collar. No cuffs or sleeve placket. The fabric is a heavy weight linen from deep stash that I'd begun to wonder if I would ever use. 

I'm pretty pleased with the results. The sleeves hang nicely and I don't need any FBA or any more room at the sides. My test is very wearable and lets me know that a bit more forward shoulder adjustment and just a little narrow shoulder alteration would get this pattern all nice and finessed to where I like it. 

A shirt TNT is a great start to the new year. I really enjoy making and wearing them!

Itch to Stitch Bainbridge

We are having a La Niña winter, which means warmer than usual where I am. In fact, I’m writing this post out on the sunny patio in a cotton blouse and jeans. But I made this fleece pullover anyway in case it does get colder, or we take a trip this spring. 

Bainbridge is a cute pullover because it combines fleece or a stable knit with a woven placket and bias bindings, so you can trim it up with any of your pretty woven prints. I used part of a dress that I never wore for my woven bits. It happened to be a fantastic coordinating color for my light weight fleece. The embossed design fleece had the brand name Rainbeau, and it is ultra soft as well as being warm. 

This design has bust darts, so the fit is a little more refined that most RTW of this style. The lower front is a separate pattern piece, which makes the placket easy to sew. Pockets are also easy to sew.

The pattern also calls for snaps, and I had just enough of my old Snap Source supply left to do up the front. Snap Source is no longer in business, so their snap setter tools are now in the trash. I wish that didn’t happen so often. 

Alterations: the bust dart needed to be lowered, and I needed extra room at the hip. In the instructions they cover how to blend sizes, but the procedure seemed really convoluted to me. I just slashed and spread the pattern lower front and back to gain the extra room. The thing to remember is that then the pocket needs to be redrawn so that the bottom edge matches the bottom edge of the lower front. They both end up being bound together with bias tape. 

Would I make this again? I don’t know. For some reason, after cutting this out, I wasn’t excited about working on the project. This is not the fault of the pattern; I think I just don’t like working with fleece. But I have a rule I’ve stuck with for a couple of decades now: I don’t get to start another garment, not even cut it out, until I finish what I’m working on. This has kept me free of UFO guilt, which is so easy to lapse into. Beginning something is fun and exciting. Finishing is tedious and hard. 

Anyway, I know I’ll be glad to have this top the next time we go to Big Bend in the winter. It’s super soft and snuggly. 

2025 Stats

It’s end of year navel gazing time. Let’s see what there is to be learned on this "Optimistic New Plans eve". First, the tally of the projects by wardrobe category:

Burda shirt dress with a sort of fitted waist

Dresses

1.     Shirt dress with fitted waist – Burda

2.     Shirt dress with gathered skirt – Burda

3.     Hope – Style Arc

Seychelles - loved this pattern

Tops

1.     Simple top – Burda

2.     Second simple top – Burda

3.     Third simple top – Burda

4.     Boat neck Tee – Burda

5.     Seychelles - Itch to Stitch

6.     Vikos  - Itch to Stitch  Made this twice. One was a rayon linen blend that fell apart after two washings. I don’t think I’m buying any more of that kind of blend. It drapes beautifully but doesn’t wear well and looks sloppy because it grows.

7.     Knit tank – New Look 6449

8.     About Town – Pattern Emporium.  Made twice

About Town - another pattern sure to be made again

Ottobre jacket

Jackets/Coats

1.     Swim cover up/bathrobe using Burda jacket pattern

2.     Jeans Jacket – Burda

3.     Bomber Jacket fail – Burda

4.     Short Trench – Ottobre

5.     Smitten – Pattern Emporium

Pants – I did make pants, although I don’t blog them because it is so hard to get a decent photo. Maybe when there’s a nice sunny day I’ll do a huge pants photo shoot and review the patterns all at once.

1.     Pleated trousers – Burda

2.     Kew barrel leg pants – Style Arc

3.     Easy Ageless Cool elastic waist cargo pants – Cutting Line Designs

Total = 21 pieces! 

Patterns:

Burda easily was my most-used pattern company, with 10 items. 

Itch To Stitch and Pattern Emporium tie for second place with 3 each. 

Style Arc - 2

1 each from Ottobre, Cutting Line Designs and New Look. 

The biggest surprise is that I made so few Style Arc – I would have guessed more! Pattern Emporium and Itch to Stitch were both new pattern companies for me this year, but I’m pleased with both of them and will be watching their styles.

I did buy patterns from Simplicity, Butterick, and McCalls, mostly to have paper copies of classic patterns on hand when it seemed like they might be going away. I didn’t make any this year. I also bought a couple of new Style Arc patterns that I haven’t made yet, but plan to.

Failed Project:

My biggest fail of the year was the Burda bomber jacket. I’m still convinced that there was a rare error in that pattern. I accept the occasional failure as something that just happens, but this one still bothers me because the fabric was so, so nice. I ordered more, so I still have some, but am not sure how to salvage the material in the jacket. A bag seems like the most obvious solution, but I’m not much of a bag maker. I’m not throwing it out, that’s for sure.

Fabric:

Speaking of fabric…I did buy a lot this last year. In 2024 I got a little unexpected cash and earmarked it for fabric purchases.The money is all used up now; I just made my last fabric order. This year I shopped mostly with Califabrics, with a few purchases from Fashion Fabrics Club. I would have ordered more from overseas, but the tariffs made the cost too unpredictable.

I fairly successfully limited my purchases to fabrics and colors that I actually wear, resisting the lure of pretty colors and prints that are lovely but don't work in my wardrobe. This is not the path for everyone, to be sure, but it’s left me happy with a stash of quality denims, other cottons, and linens in the colors black, white, natural, and a range of blues. There are some stripes and some fun woven-in textures that liven things up enough for me. I can feel good about my stash because it's going to be so useful. There are still some older pieces in colors and prints if I decide I want to use them.

Next Year:

Really, who knows? I would like to refine the fit of a few basics, mostly tops. I have pants patterns that fit. I've saved the vintage patterns from the 50s and 60s when I've found them in large sizes, and would like to make up at least one of them. Other than that, I'll try to think in terms of outfits rather than one-off items. That's ambitious enough!

 

 

 

 

Pattern Emporium Smitten

Here's Smitten, a simplified jeans-type jacket from Pattern Emporium. I liked their About Town popover top so well, I wanted to try another of their popular patterns. This one wasn't quite the success for me that About Town was, but I will wear it and learned a few things for future Pattern Emporium projects.

This was a "semi-precious" fabric, a cotton/linen from Japan, at least that's what the vendor said. I paid a lot for it and then regretted the purchase because afterwards I just couldn't see myself in it. After washing, it was scratchy. It has been in stash for a long time and I finally decided to just go ahead and use it for a tester because it gave me the guilts. Now that it's made up, I can see me wearing it over a simple dress in a narrow blue and white stripe in the summer when I'm feeling spunky.

I took a lot of time laying out the pattern pieces so that as many of the color splotches as possible ended up visible in the finished garment.  I also wanted to avoid yellow near my face, and took care to cut the yokes, center fronts, and center back from areas that had red splotches only.

Although it has plenty of body, the fabric was transparent enough that it would show the color of whatever was worn underneath. I underlined with a soft cotton batiste that took care of both the scratchiness and the see-through problem. It still didn't seem like a good idea to make the patch pockets or even just the pocket flaps because of the see-through issue, so they were left off.

Pattern changes - front pieces are included for a regular version and a full-busted version. I used the regular fronts, and chose the longer length (There is an ultra-cropped cutting line and the ones I've seen at that length are so cute - they're just not for me.) Added an extra 3/4 inch in length. I'm 5'8, but PE's cutting lines for their tall options are too long. I'm better off just adding a bit extra to the regular length.

The main lesson I learned is when sewing PE patterns, I should use the full bust option even though their instructions indicate that I don't need it. Yes, this jacket is wearable, but it is noticeably shorter in the front than the back, and the bottom band sticks out in the front, too. Allowing for the bust would take care of that - and that's something to note about the pattern. All those vertical seams are just for style; there's no shape built into them. I haven't compared the pattern pieces but I suspect that the full bust does have some shape added using those seams.

I didn't have enough red buttons in my button stash, so I used slightly smaller blue ones on the cuff. The pattern has square corners on the cuffs that I angled off. Square corners always seem to poke out and end up getting dragged in my soup...or whatever...

Just for fun, I used the color registration marks from the fabric selvedge as a little tab detail. I put one on the right front where a pocket would go, and another one at center back.

One other thing to mention - that top buttonhole gave me a lot of trouble. I had to rip it out twice, because no matter which way I fed my fabric into the machine, there was a thick seam that jammed the action of the buttonhole foot. I ironed it, hammered it, everything. If the yoke had been just a little deeper, there would have been enough room for the foot to avoid that thick seam. In the end, I had to do a zig-zag four-step buttonhole. Now that I think of it, the problem also could have been solved by using smaller buttons. 🤷 I like my bigger buttons.

I'm calling this my Crayola Jacket, and it will be fun to wear. It will be put away until springtime, and now I know what I needed to know about Smitten. 

Ottobre Woman Trench from 5/2007

Ottobre Woman was a favorite pattern source and I miss them. Maybe they'll come back some day. Here is a version of their short trench coat that was number 20 in the 5/2007 issue.

I've made this before, ten years ago in fact! The idea was to replicate the trench coat Miss Fisher wears in the TV mystery series. It was one of my most fun sewing projects ever, doing the detective work of uncovering the original's details in closeups, sleuthing out an appropriate pattern, sourcing the right fabric and all. Unfortunately, although I love the look of a duster, I hardly ever wore my trench and eventually repurposed the fabric for something else. The original write-up can be read on this blog's old location here: Miss Fisher Coat.

This coat came about because I ordered the cotton/linen canvas to copy a bomber jacket seen in a store window. When the fabric came, it was very nice but heavier than anticipated and would have made a bulky bomber. It seemed like a longer coat would be the answer, and the Ottobre pattern the way I had simplified it would work. I had eliminated all the straps and made the pattern single breasted. 

A little flat-pattern measuring insured that my old tracing would still fit. The coat is underlined with bemberg, the same stuff that used to be sold under the name Ambiance. I used the old line/underline technique learned from Shannon Gifford back in the day, so the inside is all clean finished. I have used that technique so much! It makes lining seem like less of a chore. Seams all edge stitched and topstitched so they look like flat fells.

The edges of the facings and hem were bound using a rayon tape. Doing a narrow fold on the edges would have been too bulky, not to mention difficult with heavy ravelly canvas. Horn buttons came from Wawak.

Unlike my previous version of this pattern, I anticipate wearing this one a lot. It is surprisingly warm and will fit over a sweater, just right for most of the cooler days. Where I live, it sometimes gets really cold, but most of the time this coat will be the perfect weight.

Looking at these photos I can see that the bottom button is pulling. That doesn't seem so obvious in real life but I bet a longer shank on that button will give it a bit more play and solve the problem. Easy fix.

Another jacket is nearly finished and will probably be completed in 2025. I do love jackets!