Sunday, March 20, 2011

Betsey Johnson For Butterick - Part One

When I was a teenager, I LOVED Betsey Johnson's designs for Butterick! I was so exited when I found a vintage copy of Seventeen magazine that featured both an advertisement and an article about the patterns I loved so much. I remembered them all like it was yesterday. Putting together the kind of post I wanted is taking me considerable time and effort, what with the scanning and searching, etc. So I am breaking it up into three parts.
Today we'll start with a photo of Betsey herself from the Butterick advertisement, followed by a picture of the actual patterns and some examples of the sewn fashions.

Pattern #6536:


Pattern #6534:





Pattern #6531:




I love how you can see various examples, and my favorites are the ones made from the knits with tiny floral patterns. Back in the day, I'd have loved to have ALL of them.
Watch for Part Two, coming to this blog one day very soon.

8 comments:

yosemite faith said...

can't wait to see the 'continued' posts. ahhh bestey johnson.......

Tina Dawn said...

Very interesting post. I used to wear my hair in the coronet braid on top of my head when I worked at the Sierra Nevada House, maybe I got the idea from Betsey. Looking forward to your additional posts on her. Love T

Candice said...

Thanks for all your hard work on this post, Heidi Ann. I love seeing patterns from the 50s, 60s and 70s. It makes me think of all the patterns we had that my mother saved over the years. We also had tons of fabrics leftover. Where did they all go?

Lorlore said...

I wore my hair that way, also Tina, you probably started it! Love the patterns, Heidi, I want to start to sew once again!!!!

farmlady said...

You take me way back to my youth on this post. Betsey Johnson was a big name back then. Those sweet dresses and that wonderful old fashion look.
I didn't wear her style much. I was more into black and leather but I can remember wearing similar "mini" dresses with my boots and leather jackets when it was time to dress up.
Thanks for a walk back into a fun time of my life.
Can't wait to see more.

Lisa Cook said...

I too grew up with loving Betsey Johnson! I think her old designs are still better than the newer ones - to frilly fussy for me. Nothing like a mini print knit dress, right? Thanks for sharing and bringing back memories of reading Seventeen magazine and wishing I could afford all the clothes I swooned over. Babysitting money didn't go far back then, did it?

jungle dream pagoda said...

love these posts!

Laurel Shimer (Enchanted By Sewing Podcast) said...

Thanks for giving me so much pinning pleasure! Yup - I recognize the pattern with the heart on the top. I made it in a deep rose pink knit and then a brilliant floral skirt I wore with it. I made a heart pocket on the top too! (in the same rose pink). And I definitely wore it with a choker that had some kind of dangly thing on it. I'm going to look for another dress pattern I will remember....