Early Fall Simplicity Patterns means more lovely sleeves!!

Another pattern catalog, and another 1930s multi sleeve pattern from Simplicity!!  Hooray!  I have yet to cut into my copy of the previous reproduction sleeve pattern, but I may have to push a 1930s frock to the front of the queue in order to play with these fabulous design features.  Love it!!

The styling of Simplicity 8686 is less than ideal, but look past the scraggly hair, the poor fit, and the boring fabric, there is a wonderful dress with great style lines.  For real inspiration, just take a look at the original illustration - this is a really cute garment.  I am curious why Simplicity chose an invisible zipper in the side seam which would not be original to the design.  Seems like an odd choice to me.  But it does look like they have improved the length of these vintage reproductions.  [One of my main complaints with Simplicity vintage reproductions was that they were drafted at or above the knee with tiny seam allowances when the originals would never have been that short.  I may have chalked it up to one bad pattern, but it happened with Simplicity 1777 and Simplicity 1587.  Happy to say this dress does not appear to have that issue.]

This dress is probably familiar to vintage pattern enthusiasts.  The short sleeved version is the Sew Chic "Tia Dress" pattern.  If I remember correctly, the red and yellow print version is the original sample; the three-quarter sleeve is an addition to the pattern which I really like.  I have been tempted by this one for years, and now that it should be available at my local JoAnn Fabrics sometime soon, you better believe I will be picking this one up for my collection.

Here we have another basic blouse.  The v-neck with the dickey is sweet, but I am not loving the sample in the shiny fabric that is too big on the model.  You wouldn't know it from looking at the sample, but this is a somewhat fitted top that has a zipper - and again, Simplicity uses the invisible option.  I have metal invisible zippers on cotton twill tape from the 1960s if the color choices are anything to go by, so they probably existed when this pattern was first released in the 1950s, but I would guess that a home sewing pattern would not use a fairly new invention that might not be available to a home sewer.  I would definitely be interested in hearing from Simplicity about why they are substituting something like zipper type on reproduction patterns.  Anyone know why?

I do love that Simplicity is releasing original patterns, but I am not sure why they keep choosing overly simplistic designs for these "authentic" reproductions.  At first I thought this was a poncho.  I guess it is actually a caftan, but how many of those does the catalog need?  They must be big sellers, I guess.

The other original pattern is this lovely 1970s tie/tux accessories offering.  Anyone need a super wide paisley tie?  I would love to try my hand at making a tie one day - I believe they are rather tricky to get right and make that point nice and sharp.  But that's a challenge for another day . . . too many dress pattern to tempt me.   

The only other design that grabbed me was the Mimi G Style dress.  It looks very 9 to 5 chic to me; it's not exactly the right silhouette for the movie, but that was my first impression of the style.  In the right fabric, I think this could be fabulous.  I would lengthen the hem by an inch or so, and definitely choose a fabric with a significant amount of drape.  The floral jacquard does not work all that well, in my opinion.  But I see possibilities . . .

Do you have any new favorites?