Vintage Vogue 9589 Review

Here she is, folks. My first vintage Vogue pattern from the 40's. Introducing Vogue 9589, in full blown color. That color is red, which is not my favorite, but its a cool kind of brick shade of red with tiny stars all over it, so I am happy with that.



I found a rather large vintage stash at a thrift store in Carthage right after we moved here. I say large but it was really more like 20. I wanted them all, so I bought them all. I want it, I got it. haha. Sorry.

So this pattern was a giant pain in the ass because it is from the 40's which means the paper is shit. Not the quality itself. I'm sure it was just fine quality when it was printed. However, that was 80 years ago, so yeah. The paper pieces themselves were ok for being that old, but the instructions were literally crumbling. Now, I have some vintage patterns in my collection from various places and it seems, just like anything old, it all depends on how they were stored. My husband's vintage toys, for instance, are all over the place with different conditions of plastic. Some types are brittle af and some are rubbery. It seems the enemy of plastic (and probably paper) is heat. Some of the best stuff he has is from northern states or Canada, nice and cool for the most part. I'm sure paper is similar because it is organic, so probably even worse about falling apart. Some of the other 40s and 50s patterns I have made and/or looked through were in varying conditions of decay, if you will, but this was among the worst.

Anyways, once we got them home and I started to look though them, I noticed they were raining pieces left and right, so I took the instructions and scanned them into the computer and then I bagged and boarded them with some of my husband's left over comic book bags and boards. That was part of the issue with making this. I kept having to shimmy over to the computer and check the instructions. I like to think of myself as semi-smart. The husband says its my glasses. So I know the basics on how to make a dress. This one just has some interesting neck shoulder area gathering stuff, so I wanted to make sure I got it right.



Its hard to see with the flash, so this is sans flash. You would think it would just be a line of gathering right there, but no. The pattern is literally slashed there and you gather one side and then sew the other side down on top of that gathering like a sammie. Kind of weird, but there you go. Its not enough gathering for me to make it worth the effort, so next time I might just slash it further and do more gathering. Or it could be the fabric choice. Maybe with a different print or something it might be more noticeable.



Then you sew the neck thingy down and kind of fold it over to make a small shawl collar. I like that part. I think it looks nice. And then you can sew a snap on the neckline to keep it closed. I did add the snap kind of near the bottom because its not that boob-licious.



This was another small thing I liked about this pattern; the closure. Its snaps on the side! No zipper or anything. I went a little fancy with white snaps instead of my little invisible ones, aka the ones without colored tops. I have some lovely dark red ones but they were the wrong shade and I thought the white looked more vintage for some reason. Anywho, they were fun to attach with my snap tool. Super easy. There is a snap hiding under the self fabric belt that I made, too.



Boom bitches! I made a belt! I have this cool old Prim's Slim Belt Kit that I think is from the 50's. It includes the grommets, a buckle and a length of belt innards. I decided to not use the belt part and instead I just used some sew in interfacing for the insides. I might use that belt part later cause its pretty tough and this did not need to be super tough. This pic also showcases the front pleat in the skirt, which was really oddly described in the instructions. I had to shimmy back to the computer a few times for this one. But once it was done, you sew down a few inches and it makes a really sweet look.



The back neck part was kind of nifty because there are two tiny darts up there, one on either side of the center back. Its hard to see in the pictures and its not that critical that I needed a really good pic to show it off. Its just darts... no biggie. But I thought it was a cute design piece. I also added shoulder pads. If you ever told me I would one day be making actual shoulder pads to add to something, I would have laughed. And then ran away. I cannot tell you how many of those I cut out of blouses and dresses from thrift stores over the years. But of course now that I have a pattern that calls for them, there are none to be found. I did try to go super cheap and use some bra pads that I had lying around, but they didn't make the cut. Luckily for me, the pattern gives instructions on how to make them. Yaaaaaay... ((sigh)) I think they look nice with the dress, and some of the vintage patterns incorporate room in the shoulder areas for them, so I had to add them. They turned out really bad and it took me 3 tries to place them decently, but they're done and I quit.

Overall, I liked this pattern a lot and would make it again with a few tweaks. Still not bad. I did trace a copy onto tracing paper because Moo laid on some of the pieces when I had them on the floor and when she went to get up, they kind of slid a little under her, uh, weight. Anywho, a few of them tore and are pretty bad. But I have a decent copy now. Boom!