Battle of the Stitches (Round 3): A Stitch Back in Time

Do you remember 1975?

Think Rubiks’s cubes, mood rings, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It was the year Margaret Thatcher was elected to lead Britain’s Conservative Party. We didn’t wear seat belts in the car, microwave ovens were all the rage, Dymo label makers were popular and we were excited to know which shape window we were going to look through in Play School.

Today we are going ‘a stitch back in time’, to when tops were tight, collars were big, trousers were high and bottoms were flared. Come along and groovy on down.

It’s Battle of the Stitches: Round 3 and we are going vintage. Needle and Ted vs Made by Toya vs Fliegfederfrei vs Made by Sara. It’s a battle like no other, as in there is no fighting because we all actually really like each other, and anyway I’d win because I have a black belt in Sudoku.

This battle is just for fun because it turns out we all love vintage sewing patterns, we all love sewing, we all love Raymond and we all kind of like blogging, so why not all do it simultaneously.

There was no blood shed at Battle of the Stitches Round 1 or Round 2 either, just good, clean, creative, sewing fun. That’s what Battle of the Stitches is all about.

My vintage sewing pattern is from the 1975, yes the seventies is sadly now considered vintage.

I think I subconsciously wanted to recreate this look that I had saved on my Pinterest board yonks ago, but with a 70’s vibe.

In the 70’s jumpsuits were hugely popular and denim was very fashionable.

So lets put our denim jumpsuit on and boogie on down to the roller disco.

I have mentioned before how much satisfaction I get from sewing denim. The Jagger jeans in the first Battle of the Stitches and my Small Fry Dungarees began my love affair with this hard wearing cotton twill fabric.

It took quite a while to make the jumpsuit, there were no complicated parts, but the topstitching and extra details took time. I made a few adjustments to get it just how I wanted it and so that it didn’t look totally out of place in 21st century.

Modifications to the pattern

The pattern had an ordinary hemmed sleeve, but I thought it would look better with a cuff, an opening and a cute red button hole. The other sleeve has a yellow buttonhole, that’s how I roll.

There were gathers at the front and back below the yoke, but the denim was too thick for gathers so I did pleats instead.

I sized up because I wanted Scout to get maximum wear out of it. Darcy’s Jagger Jeans are already too short and I regret not making them even longer. I’ve learnt from that now.

I narrowed down the flare from the hip to the ankle, the wide legs were far too wide for my 21st century taste.

At the turn up I used a satin stitch on my Bernina to neaten and add a pop of colour to the visible edges. I couldn’t get it to work on my overlocker, but I think that would have been the better way to do it.

But my favourite modification to the pattern was the addition of two back pockets. The rainbow embroidery being a nod to the 70’s.

The top stitching and the extra little details take time, but it’s well worth it to ensure that no one asks “Did you make that?”.I hope you enjoyed coming back to the seventies with me. But your time travelling isn’t complete until you visit Toya and Nina in the 60’s, then come spinning back to meet Sara in the 70’s. And don’t leave until you go throoooooough the round window.