Princess Seams Refresher

by Anne from AnnesVintagePatterns

Ava loves everything Princess. My great-niece has seen all the Princess movies, loves books with Princess stories, and she has a wardrobe of Princess attire to rival Kate’s.  Oh, and did I mention she is 5 years old?  When she is older and begins learning to sew (plan afoot to encourage and help with this activity),  I’ll bet she won’t have a clue what it means when she sees a pattern describing princess seams.

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Princess seams are long, shaped seams sewn into clothing to add contouring or to tailor the fit to closely follow a woman's figure.  The princess seam style of dress needs no waistline, since it does its shaping without darts, by joining edges of different curvature.  The resulting princess seams typically goes from the shoulder (or under the arm) and curves gently over the bust point and down to the lower hem.  When princess seams are used on the front of a garment, they run over the line of the bust to create an even, smooth look.  This creates a slimming look, often seen in dresses with an A-line silhouette.  Many form fitting garments, such as formal gowns, are made with this type of seaming.  On slender women, princess seams can be used to highlight the figure and provide the illusion of curves. Princess seams emphasize a thin waist for women with hourglass figures.  Princess seams can be adjusted for fluffier women like me to fit an ample bosom and hips.

Here are some PatternPatter team members’ patterns featuring princess seams.

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Do you enjoy sewing with princess seams?

Infinite Possibility: The Multi Wrap Fashion Trend

By Robin of Pretty Pattern Shop

While fast and fabulous fashion flirted with the wrap dress in the 1950s and 1960s, the 1970s took wrap and go fashion to a whole new level! McCall’s released the Infinite Dress sewing pattern in 1976.

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 It consists of only one pattern piece, used to make a dress that can be tied on in an infinite number of ways. This dress spawned the multi-wrap craze that resulted in a variety of fashions designed to be creatively wrapped around the body to achieve different results. Butterick introduced the 7 Way Wonder Dress, and Simplicity the Multi Wrap Dress.

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Simplicity and Butterick both also released multi wrap jumpsuits. Simplicity’s Wonder Wrap:

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Butterick Change About Jumpsuit

Change About Sundress

And just for fun, Vogue’s multi wrap beachy summer ensemble:

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The Simplicity and Butterick dresses had slightly more construction to them and couldn’t quite claim infinite possibility. But the Simplicity wrap dress style endured and resurfaced in 2000 with the similarly constructed Debra Moises Wrap Dress:

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The multi wrap nowadays is part of the convertible clothing trend and remains as popular as when it was first introduced, with fashions like the convertible wedding and bridesmaid dresses taking center stage. 

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Easy, stylish and full of possibility, that’s the way we like it!

Which Bride Were You?

By Adele Bee Ann Patterns

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Found at Pattys Past Times

Which bride were you? Were you the sophisticated bride of the 1940s, the demur bride of the 1950s, the coming of age bride of the 1960s, the barefoot hippie bride of the 1970s, or the new wave bride of the 1980s? Perhaps you were the modern bride of the 1990s and 2000s?

From Atomic Redhead

 Did you keep it simple or go all out? Did you spend hours primping or walk down the isle with beach hair? No matter what you did or how you did it...every bride is beautiful...even the bride of Frankenstein had her attributes...because as we know, brides always look beautiful, their beauty lies not in their attire, but in the warm glow of love that radiates from their faces. Enjoy these bridal fashions from times gone by...

From Adele Bee Anne Patterns

From Miss Betty's Attic

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