The 70's emphasis on funky collars and "family"! Feel free to listen while you read.
Groovy music videos to set the early 70's mood:
"You are always on my mind" by the Partridge Family! Nice vocals, sound quality and great tune.
Another one of my favorites!
Sly and the Family Stone's Family affair Gotta love Sly's airplane-like collars!
First version with $1/yd swap meet fabric.
I have been searching for a collared wrap top suitable for knits and wovens. Here is one of my recent ebay wins: a 70's wrap top! I have been looking for a wrap top pattern suitable for knits with 70's flair! The high neckline is taboo in Burda land.
It's obvious I like that 70's collar which defined this top's signature look. which conjures up an image of John Travolta's iconic disco pose. Obviously many people like my mom would not want to be caught wearing these collars again. I understand. She and her friends were most likely envisioning some creepy Mr. Joe cool guy at Studio 54, flaunting his chunky chains around his neck, and of course, wearing that Haggar polyester butterfly collar jacket with swishy "Angel Flight" (remember that brand?) bell bottom pants.......You get the picture, but we all DO NOT want that picture!
Pattern Description
From 1973, "Misses Blouse: The front wrap blouse V. 1 and 2 with front gathered to back yoke at forward shoulder seams has "V" shaped neckline, collar, tie ends, fastened in back and optional top-stitching tri. V. 1 has elbow length set-in sleeves. V. 2 has short set-in sleeves. The top-stitched blouse V. 3 &4 with front slash opening has collar and long set-in sleeves. V. 3 has self fabric drawsting slipped thru casing.
I sewed view 2 the wrap blouse with short sleeves which consisted of 8 pieces: the front, back, yoke back, tie end, collar, front facing and back facing. It was nice that the pieces for each pair of views is printed on the back of the envelope as a handy preview.
Size
Misses' size 14, bust 36"
Suggested fabrics
Lightweight wool, double knit, matte jersey, jersey, challis, shantung, sateen, printed silk, crepe-back satin, surah, crepe, crepe de chine.
Fabric I used
First version: cotton knit from a local swap meet for $1/yd, which was easy to work with
Second version: Maggie London jersey with a bit of lycra/spandex from Emma One Sock. Slightly slippery to work with, but has a nice resiliency.
Directions
They came all on one page: the entire front consisted of the layout and a few tidbits on cutting, marking, and types of stitching. The back were the directions, nicely organized by view number (1-4) and in an easy-to-read format. Today's patterns could take a cue from many vintage patterns on saving paper by compacting the directions onto few sheets as possible. Unlike Burda WOF and even some of its packaged versions, nicely written directions with a clear illustration beside EACH step!
I easily became familiar with the steps after making my first version, that I was able to sew my second version with minimal reference.
Likes
*Pleated front.
I marked the fabric (dotted, solid lines), folded each of the three pleats following the up arrow from a solid to a pleated line and basted them to hold them in place.
*The iconic 70's collar
*The slight gathers at the front yoke below the shoulders
*The length which on me landed on my hips. On a person with a longer torso, most likely just past the waist.
*The drape of the short sleeves.
*The neckline did not droop. Yeah!
Dislikes
*The tops of the sleeves had a lot of positive ease (I was working with knits)
Modifications
*For my first version,I used a piece of fabric left over from Heather's retro circles dress for the upper collar to add some contrast. After doing this, the top seemed 50's diner/bowling/cosmic retro looking to me.
*I skipped the front facing and back for my second version. Somehow the front due to being cut on the bias did not stretched beyond the facings. I turned the raw edges in and made tiny zig zag stitches. I slipstitched the upper collar's tucked in raw edge over the lower collar.
*I lengthened the ties so that it would wrap around. The original ties were so short and appeared to be meant to be tied in the back.
Conclusion
This was really a fun pattern to work with. I might make View 4, the open square neck tunic looks with that style that seems to be revived in current patterns and in the fashion scene!
cute clip of Shirley Jones and David Cassidy presenting unbeatable 70's grammy nominees. You can see that David had a good hair day!
You should be dancing!(but not with those guys watching JT!)
