Building a 60s Wardrobe

The bulk of my sewing since I began has been patterns from the 1930s and 1940s. The 1930s will always be my favourite fashion decade, but I'm increasingly expanding my wardrobe to include 1960s and even some (SHOCK) 1970s cute little dresses to my wardrobe. I went through a small 60s phase a few years ago. Two dresses came from it. Sadly, I sold the patterns:

Pattern was dated 1970.

So that was my brief attempt at 60s patterns. I gave up because they are NOTHING like 1930s patterns. 1960s patterns are like a hybrid between old patterns and modern patterns. I think I had difficulty with the printed pattern pieces and the weird instructions. I know this sounds ass-backwards, but I much prefer blank 1930s patterns with the most basic of directions ("Sew A to B matching vvv and ending at o").

But here I am making a new dress from a pattern ca. 1970. You can see it in my last update. Here are some of my 60s/70s patterns in my personal collection I'd like to make:

Dated 1965

Dated 1967

Dated 1969

Probably going to do that 1969 one next ;) But I'm sure patterns aren't all you want to see! The entire decade of the 1960s as depicted in Sears catalogs:

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

And there you have what your average working/middle class American would have worn in that decade. My dad seems to be right -- he was born in 1941 and tells me "the 50s lasted from after WW2 ended all the way up until when JFK got shot in 1963!" 1964 there seems to be a fashion shift toward youth. Then another big shift toward youth in 1967.

Maybe by my next update I will have finished my ca. 1970 dress :)