Child of the Seventies – Simplicity 5196

Call it serendipity, but I shortly after I launched the “Sewing The Seventies”, The Monthly Stitch announced that this month’s challenge is “Through the Decades”. I’m a child of the seventies, so my sewing plans and The Monthly Stitch are truly aligned this month!

My pattern stash largely consists of seventies patterns re-homed from charity shops. So far, I have sewn very little from this collection and I wanted to remedy that. I picked out Simplicity 5196 as a pattern that I had to use. It consists of a sweater, shirt and three versions of a bias-cut skirt. I can imagine myself sewing up all three of these.

I started with the sweater. My fabric is a beautiful, wool and angora blend, which I bought from Barry’s in Brimingham. I made quite a few adaptations for this sweater, primarily because seventies knit fabric was less stretchy. There is a back seam and back zip in the pattern, but I did away with this, when I created my jumper. And, although I started with a size 12, which is generally a good base for me, I also had to make some reductions to the shoulder and body width and to the width of the sleeves. It was rather over-sized when I first tried it on.

Next, I made the shirt. For this I used a 100% rayon fabric from my local Fabric Land. I made very little in the way of adjustments to the standard size 12; just widening at the centre back. I made a couple of changes to the construction. I included interfacing on the button and button-hole bands and mistakenly placed the patch pocket on the wrong side!

I’m very pleased with both my makes. I was struggling a little for warm winter clothing and these two items have definitely filled a gap in my wardrobe. I’m also surprised how modern these two items appear, bar the over-sized collars on the shirt – I suppose there are lots of seventies fashions on the high street and perhaps my choice of fabrics is quite modern too.

There’s more description and photos here (sweater) and here (shirt) on my site.

Don’t forget to take a look at the Sewing the Seventies challenge on my blog! I can’t wait to see all your seventies makes!