Couldn't resist picking these up this week just because it was a trip down memory lane. It was only when i got home that I realised I had bought my teenage years in sewing patterns.
1970
I'm sure this is when dress lengths varied depending on your age! (Note the pre decimal price!)
1971
Puffed sleeves and pretty. David Cassidy and Donny Osmond will have seen many a girl in these little dresses!
1972
Very similar to my school summer dress...
1973
Where the seventies started to go wrong I fear!
1974
A little more sophisticated (not in my vocabulary at the time.) I was more of a Bolan girl myself!
1975
No - by now I was in cheese cloth shirts and Jesus sandals...
1976
Can anyone remember the name of these sleeves - are they caps and bat wings?
1978
Ah - now you're talking - time for skirts with frills, and gathers, and layers and bits of lace attached to the bottom tier to look as if your petticoat was hanging down below your skirt. A Laura Ashley in every town and packets upon packets of patchwork pieces for £1 a pack - were those the days?
(Reminds me of the fabulous patchwork quilt I made from Laura Ashley pieces - over 1000 pieces all hand stitched with plain black add for a little contrast and definition. Looked fantastic. Until i washed it. The black wasn't lovely colourfast Laura Ashley. And it ran. And ran. And stained my pride and joy so it is no more.
But I have to confess that every time i see a bit of the fabric at the car boot I have to buy it - and my stash of 1970s LA fabric is growing again - so I may yet make another by hand. But without the added BLACK!)
Hope you're having some sunshine!
Love Wend
wOw those patterns are fabulous:
ReplyDeleteI'd make and wear them now definately:
well maybe not the flared tartan suit ^_*
great find you lucky thing:
☯
What a trip down memory lane! I had some very similar styles and made my favourites over and over again. I still have a few somewhere - but the sizes of 10-12 are as far in the past as the patterns!!
ReplyDeleteI used to love my long floral Laura Ashley dress! Those patterns bring back memories.My Mum used to make all her own dresses and I can remember her looking through huge books with all the pictures of the different styles.Maybe you can still do that I don't know!
ReplyDeleteBellaboo :0)
Ha we thought we did! I remember when Trevira suits were all the rage ... my mum got my cousin to make me one but she used navy blue crimplene .... eughhh! No street cred as a smoothie bird in crimplene ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love those old patterns and the story of your quilt had me gasping ... how annoying must that have been.
Those patterns look so familiar. I used to buy up the large packs of remnants and too made a quilt. Mine was machined though and is still going strong on the spare bed. Have fun making a new quilt.
ReplyDeleteCap sleeves Wendy - do you remember Loons.... that you wore with your cheescloth tops, oh my goodness how did we get that old.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Oh, this brings back so many memories. We thought we were the bees knees didn't we ...
ReplyDeleteI still HAVE my long, flowery LA summer dress. It no longer fits of course, but the nostalgia value means I'll never get rid of it.
ReplyDelete7/- for a dress pattern? That sounds rather a lot of money for back then. Around the same price as a 45rpm. xx
PS Somewhere I still have the machine stitched patchwork my sister made me from Laura Ashley remnants. Must find it....
ReplyDeleteHow heartbreaking that yours was ruined.
Oh wow! Great post! That spotty dotty long dress with the puffed sleeves looks VERY familiar. What a great trip down memory lane. In answer to your question re my embroidery: it's coming along (slowly!)
ReplyDeletewhy did Laura Ashley have to change - I'd still wear them at my age!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIve worn all of those outfits!!!! (and made the Laura Ashley patchwork - still got it!!) and as for cheescloth - I lived in it!!! Looking back at the photos, I look as if I dressed in a table cloth!!! But I was trendy!!! xxxx
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! I wore all that stuff in my teens. My mum made me a little crimplene suit like the ones in your pic to go on my school French exchange visit - think the chic French were a bit baffled!
ReplyDeleteOh thank you ! I've just shown my daughter the mini/middy/maxi dresses as now a maxi dress is mini !!!
ReplyDeleteAbout the Chinese lanterns - mine is growing happily in a large pot. There are plants that I can't grow like Viburnum...it grows like mad everywhere, but will not take in my garden !
They are wonderful! Bought back lots of memories of cutting up the big pattern books and playing beauty contests with them!
ReplyDeleteLisa x
I made a dress with the last pattern in your list, in Rose and Hubble fabric if I remember rightly! Where does the time go?
ReplyDeleteCrikey you've took me back,I used to make dresses and smock tops 'Style' was my favourite:)Linda
ReplyDelete