The temperatures are hugging the triple digits around here yet my mind has been wandering to fall fashions (and I haven’t even spotted the fall fashion bible known as Vogue, yet!). I remember when I was a young woman, I would eagerly await the college issue and read it cover to cover (do they even still have the college issue?). I was always envious of the really great autumnal clothes the coeds got to wear to school. Here in Los Angeles, we don’t really have an autumn like the ones I enjoyed when we lived in New Jersey and Indiana. But I still fantasize about coed-worthy autumnal clothes, nonetheless.
If I were the editor of the Grandma’s Sewing Cabinet Fashion Magazine college issue, here are some of the styles I would feature:
Simplicity 6132 from Out of the Ashes
I love that this “Jackie O” era pattern has enough options for when a girl needs to be studious, be professional, and when she has to go to her rich roommates’ “cabin” (read: huge estate) for the weekend.
Simplicity 6977 from Out of the Ashes
Every coed needs to have a sophisticated ensemble for those dinners to meet the boyfriend’s parents or an on-campus event. This dress and coat ensemble can be dressed up for evening by using finer fabrics while a nice wool fabric would make it ideal for a trip to the art museum.
And finally, for those times of just lounging around the dorm, Butterick 8372 from Mom’s Patterns 
No self-respecting coed would just flop around in sweats and a t-shirt. Glamour all the way for our coeds.
How about you? If you were editing a “college issue,” what patterns would you recommend?
This post brought back memories for me — watching for the fashion magazines, checking out the new fabrics, choosing patterns and fabrics. Here in the Inland Northwest, the days can be hot into October, but I went bravely off the college with my wool skirts. We didn’t wear spring attire in the fall. When I started college in 1967, there was a dress code. We had to wear skirts to class. That dress code entirely disappeared my senior year.
Just before I left home for my freshman year, my mother quickly made me a beautiful robe. “I think you’ll need a robe to wear to the firesides,” she said. This robe was a fitted princess style, of a strange quilted fabric which she lined — green with tiny pink rosebuds. It had an invisible zipper up the front. The robe was dressy to my way of thinking and too fitted to wear over anything but underwear. When the first fireside was called, I slipped out of my comfy clothes and dutifully put on the robe my mother made for me. I was totally overdressed. Everyone else went as they were.