An entirely British production: Debi made my pattern!

This week on sewweekly, Debi made a gorgeous 1950s shirtwaister dress. See it here.

She made it from a pattern that I took to the sewweekly meet up and pattern swap in London. The pattern was one that I acquired last year as I embarked on my recent vintage sewing journey. A lovely older lady on freecycle called Marjorie was giving away what she described as a shoebox full of vilene interfacing. When I collected it we talked about my vintage sewing ambitions and she gave me a whole box of her own patterns from the fifties onwards - she said she had given up sewing now and just wanted to see them used.

How generous.

However they were too small for me, as I am a larger sort of person. Mostly they were 34 inch bust. So when it came to the swap, even though I was reluctant to part with any of Marjorie's patterns, I took a couple along because she wanted to see them used and I though it was the right thing to pass them onto proper sewing people.

So you can imagine how pleased I am to see Debi has made the pattern! And, in the true spirit of Marjorie's gift, she is giving it away on her blog.

Debi also says she loves Style Print patterns, of which this is one. I have been through my stash, and as a sort of thank you to Debi, here are the Style Print patterns I have:

Two from the sixties, one of Marjorie's on the left (look at the great skirt) and one I bought from ebay (I think) on the right.

Two earlier ones, both from ebay (I think, my memory is pants), the one on the right might be slightly earlier, even though it is not my bust size I have taken to rescuing patterns that are not really selling on ebay that I just love, pretty isn't it?

My final pattern is one from my original Marjorie stash that is far too small for me, but really pretty. 

It is another shirtwaister, the envelope is tatty but it seems to be all there.

Thanks Debi for making the dress. If you want this last pattern it is yours!