Since everyone has been so nice as to help me pick which dress to make for the wedding I’ll be attending on May 22, I thought I’d have a pattern giveaway!
The giveaway
Simplicity 7869
“How to Sew! Pullover dress in two lengths. Long dress View 1 or short dress View 2 with bias trim stitched over tie ends has shoulder straps and optional purchased appliqué. View 1 is trimmed with eyelet edging.”
It’s quite a reasonable size at Size 16, B 38, W 30, H 40. The instructions are there, and it’s uncut and in factory folds, even! Also take a look at the back of the envelope and the Super Sewing Extra.
The rules
- You may enter only once.
- You must follow the entry rule below to enter. Only those following that rule will be eligible for the giveaway.
- This contest will close at 7:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, May 4.
- To select the winner, I’ll use a random number generator (if there’s a lot of entries) or I’ll just draw an number (if there aren’t very many entries).
- I will announce the winner on this blog on Tuesday, and you’ll have until noon EST on Thursday to send me your snail mail address. If I don’t hear from you by then, I’ll pick another winner.
- I will ship anywhere in the world, but expect it to come by the slowest boat there is.
To enter
In the comments below, answer the following question: What is the first thing you remember sewing by machine?
This giveaway is closed and you can find out who won here.
I came back from overseas in 1984 (I was 22) and my best girlfriend was sewing all these clothes. I immediately thought “if she can do it so can I” so I went and bought a Janome SD2014 for A$199. I still have it of course! I bought a pattern, fabric and buttons. I sewed it up and wore it ……. years later, when I had part done a Certificate in Apparel Production (or the Fashion Design Course now) I realised.. “WHAT WAS I THINKING”.. why? Because it was a double yoke, self-bias neck with buttons all down the back (4 step button hole only) AND a gathered frill around the neck! Not bad for a first effort… wish I still had it. Oh and to make matters worse I found out years later that she had been sewing clothes for her dolls since when she was about 5. But you know, I now have a memory that I was sewing on my mother’s treadle Singer… I made a shirred dress .. very basic.. rectangle of fabric shirred in the bodice area and tie straps.. yes that is the first thing! I’m getting too old and tired to even remember my own history!!!
Oh, that took some digging into my memory
But I think the first thing I ever have sewn on a sewing machine was a strapless dress for my barbie doll. Just a tube, actually, but it fit and I was mighty proud 
Thanks for the great giveaway!
The first thing I remember sewing by machine was a button down shirt with collar and short gathered sleeves. It was so darling. I wore it often. I was 17.
Mmm. It was the summer after sixth grade (1966) and I believe it was simple sheath dress in an orange/yellow/green floral/mod print kind of cotton. Don’t remember which pattern company (and haven’t yet spotted it in my ongoing quest to reacquire all the patterns of my youth) but the design had a back zipper, darts, and facings at the neckline and armscyes. I took sewing lessons that summer and when I was then forced into home ec in junior high school (they refused to let me take drafting and shop classes), I was way beyond the skill level of my classmates.
I(think)it was a wrap around skirt in the early 1970′s.
Suzanne
The first thing I sewed with a machine was a pair of pajama pants in home economics in 6th grade. They were flannel and had frogs on them. Too bad I got a B on them because I put the elastic in wrong and it got all twisted up.
The first thing I ever sewed was a renaissance dress as a costume with a match long cape. I had my seamstress neighbor help me read the pattern.
Holly Dai
http://vintageorsew.blogspot.com
I taught myself to sew a wrap skirt when I was 22, using my mum’s 70s pattern (it’s the really common wrap skirt, I’ve seen the pattern everywhere since) from a purple and pink floral bedsheet.
I was AMAZED at how simple it was (without buttons and zips of course) to make clothes, and jumped into the deep end soon after that skirt.
this first thing i sewed was a pair of turquoise sweatpants in 7th grade. i must have done a fairly decent job because the teacher hung them in the display case…i never got them back…a little bitter about that.
The first thing I remember sewing was in 8th grade sewing class. I made an ankle length denim skirt with ugly purple and teal swirls on it that looked like spray paint. Ugh!
Thanks for the giveaway!
The first thing I sew was last year (yes! I’m new in this world!), a dress with ruffles and corseted top for school..very long work but it was beautiful!
Actually, the very first garment I sewed on a machine by myself (not in home ec) was the pattern you have featured when I was in junior high school! I about screamed when I saw the picture!
My gathering for the ruffle wasn’t even but I loved the design of the dress so much that I actually went on to make 3-4 more dresses from the same pattern.
The first thing I remember sewing was a pair of PJ pants. They were WAY too big. But I was proud anyway!
The first time I sat down at a sewing machine my daughter was a year old and I was determined to make her a halloween costume. My friends suggested I start with a blanket. That was definitely best since the first 5 times or so that I pushed down the foot pedal I jumped in my seat.
I first made a little ‘down’ quilt for my doll. My mom thought that my older brother, sister and I should all have a basic knowledge of a sewing machine, so we made doll blankets. I still have mine.
When I was 9, my Mom enrolled me in a sewing class at the local Singer dealer. She didn’t want me near her precious machine without proper instruction! The first thing that I made was a pink cotton print, square-ish dress with button-down shoulder straps. I did every inch of it myself and I was very proud of that but I wore it only once, because I didn’t think that the fabric was all that becoming and I wanted something that was more fitted and constructed. My second project was considerable more challenging!
[...] over at kusine.com is hosting a pattern giveaway, and all you have to do to enter is comment on this post and tell everyone what your first machined sewing project was. I’m posting my [...]