A blast from the past, the first pattern I ever bought

[Gernella]

I'd just started work at 15 and mum bought my clothes.  The only thing I made at that stage was skirts, with no pattern. A chunk for the skirt and the a piece chopped off for the waistband.  No zips, homemade buttonhole.  My new job (apprentice hairdresser) required something to cover up my clothes.  To long ago to remember what I actually wore at work but I had the bright idea to make an overall, although I think then they were called duster coats. This is what I bought and from memory made a good job of it.  Only trouble was mum was not impressed, she said it looked like something you would wear if you were pregnant. After that I don't remember but it didn't wear out (lilac polyester or similar not sure if that had been invented).

Last night I got Clothspot's email of latest fabrics and it also featured an old pattern, my first pattern. Mine was the yellow one. 



I do remember the sewing machine, passed down from my paternal grandmother, an old Singer with a funny shuttle.  the expert on sewing machines was my dad.  He'd left the RAF after the war (he was a sergeant but didn't want to stay  in) and by the time he was 21 he'd had 21 jobs and got fed up of them.  One of them was a sewing machine repair man and another was typrewriter repairs. 

[Ploshkin]

The first thing I can remember making from a pattern was a tent dress with a zip up the front and (very exciting) a ring on the zip!  It had a mandarin collar and long sleeves.  @Flobear made one too.  Mine was lime green, hers was blue, patterned iirc.  It got a lot of wear because, in those days, you didn't have many non school clothes.

[sewingj]

Until I was 16 my mum made all my clothes. Then I went away to college with a sewing machine and made a long Laura Ashley type tiered smock. I did hardly any sewing at school and can't remember sewing with mum so I must have just learnt from patterns as I went along

[Elnnina]

When I first started work I made myself a Duster Coat, and very useful it was as well,  I had to travel up to London daily to work, and at least wearing this coat I made sure my dress was still clean and tidy  ready to start a day's work.

[Ohsewsimple]

I remember making a dress at school, although I hated sewing at school. 
It was orange and yellow psychedelic print.  A line with long flared sleeves and just covered my behind! 

[Gernella]

The first thing I can remember making from a pattern was a tent dress with a zip up the front and (very exciting) a ring on the zip!  It had a mandarin collar and long sleeves.  @Flobear made one too.  Mine was lime green, hers was blue, patterned iirc.  It got a lot of wear because, in those days, you didn't have many non school clothes.

Oh I remember the zip up the front and ring dress.  That was when I fancied myself as Jean Shrimpton. Actually I've just had a look and seen a picture of her now, really bad picture although she's three years older than I am.

I didn't earn enough to buy clothes so sewing was a necessity for me and my parents had got a 5 and 12 year old so cash was not swilling about.

The funny thing is that occasionally I have a dream when I am back in my old bedroom and sorting through for something to wear and that zip up front dress is there.

[Flobear]

I remember that dress well @Ploshkin and loved it but went off it a bit when one of the Brownies said, 'Are you pregnant, Miss?' 

Another very early pattern was a 'Shift Dress' - a straight up and down sleeveless number iirc. I think I made one in light green - or maybe you did.

[Starryfish]

There is a photo of me aged about 13 in a green print shift dress with a white ruffle collar and cuffs. That must be the first pattern I bought. It didn't fit, but I was extremely thin then.

[UttaRetch]

The first pattern I ever bought, no idea.  I can recall some of the things I made and came across the pattern for the last thing I made back in the 80's before I gave up sewing.

[Tamnymore]

I had very uninspiring sewing lessons for 2 years at secondary school and never finished the sludge coloured blouse that was my project there. At the age of 14 I bought a pattern, fabric, a zip and thread and made myself a dress with set in sleeves, a long back zip, princess seams and a round neck with a neck facing. I cut it out and sewed it on my gran's treadle Singer machine which came to us when she died. It never occurred to me that I was doing something difficult. I wore the dress for years - still had it at uni three years later. After that I just carried on sewing and I haven't stopped yet!

[toileandtrouble]

1963  I was making shift dresses from a Simplicity pattern and Bushbaby fabric in dark colours.  Fisheye darts, long back zip and faced neck and armholes. Made them up in the afternoon and wore them that evening. I keep looking in vintage patterns but have never seen one I recognise.

[WendyW]

The first time I remember using a pattern was when my mom helped my sister and I make our first communion dresses. I was probably 11 or 12, approx year- maybe 1977. I had been making doll clothes for years at that point, so I wasn't totally new to sewing in general. My mom got confused with part of the pattern that was a new thing to her, though she had been sewing her own clothes since her teen years. I read the instructions and taught her how to do it.  The dress was white with little purple flowers. It had a square neckline and bell sleeves.

[Helen M]

The first pattern I used was in 2nd year senior school 'needlework' lessons. I think it was Simplicity and was a sleeveless dress with a fitted bodice and a gathered skirt and it would have been 1963/64. I remember it being an emerald green poplin and because I'd grown from when it was cut out we had to add a bit to the bottom of the bodice. Fortunately I had a tie belt of cordinating fabric which hid the join!

One of the first patterns that I bought and made up was this Simplicity 7625  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  and would have been in 1967.

I think I still have a picture of me wearing it somewhere as well!

[maliw]

The first pattern I made was a shift dress, it had a yoke so the fabric went one way on the yoke and the other for the rest of the dress. It was a stripe so I must have looked like a deckchair I've never seen the pattern since although I have seen several others that I made years ago.

[KayK]

First pattern I ever had a hand in was for a school dress - we could either have them ready made, or make them ourselves out of pale blue poplin.  The pattern was for a zip front dress with mandarin collar, short sleeves or no sleeves, and yes! the zip had a ring pull on it.  I remember my mum helping me make it on an old Singer hand crank machine - and the wretched dress lasted for years as I never grew- I am the same height now (5'0) as I was at 11!