MeMadeMay 2020 day 3

“MeMadeMay (2020), day 3: My newest finished project, this cute 60’s top made from the remnants of a piece of fabric given to me for a client project. Mustard isn’t really my color, but when I saw this fabric, I knew I was gonna cut my client’s project SUPER carefully to try to squeeze out enough leftover for myself. Pattern is Simplicity 6138.”

ACCIDENTAL LAURA PETRIE! Accidental Laura Petrie is always in sort of a weird limbo in my wardrobe. If you can’t tell, the fabric is actually upholstery fabric, which means it’s made out of plastic, and not in the way that 60’s/70’s double knit polyester is made out of plastic. By which, I mean that double knit polyester has literal holes in the surface, so that your sweat can (in theory) evaporate. Upholstery fabric doesn’t have that, because it’s not supposed to be on your body. She is, of course, named thusly because I didn’t really realize until I put her on that I was going to remind myself of Mary Tyler Moore on the Dick van Dyke show.

Also, just for the record, I did have permission from my client to do this. When she was showing me her fabric choices, I LOST MY MIND over this, because finding real vintage double knit polyester isn’t… it’s not something you come across every day, and this was the first thing I ever saw that approximated the weight and drape extremely well. Would I make clothes out of a sofa again? Probably not. But then, it’s now 2025, and I have a huge stack of actual double knit polyester hanging out in my stash from literally one estate sale. (I bought two Menards’ bags full of fabric… and like 8 pieces of actual vintage clothing, and it’s the only sale I’ve ever woken up to get to at the opening on the first day. …I also did the set up for the sale, so that was probably cheating and frowned upon, but I’m not a morning person, so it would have to be unusually spectacular for me to do it again.)