The 7-month 40's dress

Some dresses just don't want to be made.  This is one of them.  I started this project back in February because I wanted a "quick and easy" vintage project to do as a break from more elaborate historical stuff.  It started out well enough, and I was thrilled to finally be able to use some vintage sheer dotted swiss fabric that I had been hoarding for years along with a cute DuBarry pattern dating from 1940.  But then disaster struck when it was time to add the sleeves - I had accidentally cut out 2 left sleeves and I didn't have enough fabric to cut another one.  ARGH!!!

Okay, I admit it.  I totally overreacted.  I had a big "woe is me" meltdown and then proceeded to angst over what to do with those the stupid sleeves for the next 5 months.  I intended to wear this dress to 3 different events this past year, but each time I would pull it out of the naughty pile to finish it, I would get all worked up over the sleeves again and then put it back away.

But finally last month some sanity came back to me and I thought to myself: "what would a woman in 1940 do if she had cut the pattern wrong?"  Well, duh - she would have pieced together scraps of fabric to fix the sleeve and moved on!  So that's what I did.  Can you see my horrible mistake?  My tragically ruined sleeves?  Neither can I.  Lesson #1 learned from this project:  CHILL OUT!  A little bit of piecing never hurt anything, and it probably looks more authentic now because of it.

Lesson #2 was something that I should know my now, but apparently I don't.  If you don't make a mockup, at least be sure of your size.  I almost never make mockups with vintage patterns, and I thought this pattern was close to my size, but it really wasn't.  It was massively huge on me, so basically I made the dress, took the entire thing apart, re-cut the pattern, and then made it all over again.  It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I had been hand-finishing all of the seams as I sewed, and it almost killed me to have to unpick all of that beautiful finishing work.  *sigh*  But it finally fits right and I think I have a better grasp of what size I really am now.  

So 7 months later, and my "easy" vintage project is finally done!  I finished off the outfit by wearing a little tilt hat that I bought in a local antique store, a $10 corde purse from Etsy, a vintage navy slip, some vintage seamed stockings, and some Madden Girl brand shoes that I found on the clearance racks at DSW last year.  The shoes originally had a very modern flowered fabric on them, but they were such a great shape, so I painted them blue with acrylic paint to match my outfit.

WWII era fashions have never been my favorites, and I was a little worried that this outfit would feel too "prissy" with the little neck bow and the poofy sleeves.  But I really loved wearing this dress and I'm itching to make more things from this period now.  If you are interested, you can see a few more photos on my flickr.

ice cream and playsuits

Yesterday was the guild's retro ice cream social.  We had rotten luck with picking a date with this event, and a lot of our regulars couldn't make it due to personal conflicts.  But even though our group was small, we still had a great time and I was so glad I was able to go!  Beth Marie's in Denton is the most adorable little retro ice cream shop, and we got a lot of positive attention and comments from the other guests.  It was a such a fun little outing. More photos can be found on flickr.

The dress that I wore was one that I started for CoLow, but I ran out of time and didn't get to finish it.  It was nice to have another excuse to wear it so soon.  The pattern that I used was a collection of playsuit separates from the late 1940's.  I was originally going to make the skirt and a matching blouse out of some vintage novelty print cotton from my stash, but I didn't have enough fabric for that, so I made a jacket out of vintage corduroy to wear to the social.   Although it wasn't my first choice, I'm glad it turned out this way because I think the jacket makes it look a lot more dressy. I also found a cute little hat on etsy that matched the color perfectly, and then I finished it off with some vintage gloves, a small petticoat, and a great lucite box purse for the total "Sunday best" look.  And just so you don't miss it, I wanted to point out that my fabric is decorated with hat stands and a variety of hats and gloves.  So adorable!

But luckily, I did have enough of the print fabric left over for the bra top.  Although it isn't pictured with the skirt on my pattern envelope, you can see examples of a cropped top worn with a long skirt in other playsuit patterns, like this one, so I knew it could be worn that way.



My midriff hasn't seen the light of day since the mid-90's, so I was really nervous about taking pics of this second look.  LOL!  I don't think it is something that I would wear often, but if I was at a pool or the beach, I think it would fit in well and be quite cute and summery without being too revealing.  And actually, the bra top is my favorite part of this whole pattern.  It is very comfortable and I would love to make up a few more to wear as pajamas or when lounging around the house during the summer.

You can find a few more photos of both of these outfits on flickr.  

40's blouse for 4th of July

I recently found this wonderful vintage fabric in a local antique shop, so I decided that I needed a red, white, and blue blouse for Mike's family's 4th of July party.  Don't you think the leaves look a bit like fireworks?  I made it with an Advance pattern from 1947.  It went together great with no alterations necessary - I just left the pocket off since it seemed fairly pointless.  I also used a cool new trick that I learned from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing (which I adore, BTW!).  Since the fabric was semi-sheer, I used a flesh-colored silk organza for the interfacing, which kept the faced areas from having pattern bleed-through or being brighter white than the rest of the shirt.  I'll definitely be using that technique for now on!  

pattern love

I added all of my 30's and early 40's patterns to my flickr set.  I hope I get around to making some of these soon, but in the meantime, it's fun to look at all of the charming fashion illustrations.  Some of them are so beautiful!

vintage finds

I stumbled across 3 great vintage dresses in my size while wandering through an antique shop yesterday.  At only $25 apiece, I thought they were quite an amazing find!  I need to get a few minor spots out, but other than that they are in great shape.  Wanna see what I got?

I need to make a proper slip for this one since it is so sheer! It's hard to see in the picture, but the fabric has dainty brown scribbles all over it - very suitable for an artist, I thought!  I probably won't wear this dress with my oxfords unless I'm doing a reenactment event, but I just wanted to see how it would look with "sensible" 40's shoes.  I think it would be cuter with ballet flats though.

I almost didn't get this one since crazy zebra stripes aren't really my thing, but now I'm so glad I did!  I think it looks much cuter on me that it did in the hanger.  I think this dress will get the most wear of any of them since the style is so timeless.

This one has the most amazing detailing with pintucks covering the top and sleeves and a few down the skirt.  It makes me wanna go swing dancing!!

party like it's 1949!

I never really thought much about 20th c. vintage fashions in the past. They just seemed too "normal" to me, and I preferred to research and recreate more exotic historical costumes from the Edwardian period or earlier. But then last year I was invited to a 1940's themed costume party, and as I started poking around on ebay for something to wear, something strange happened. I fell completely, hopelessly, madly in love! Now I'm quite obsessed with vintage clothing, and I've spent the last year on a treasure hunt for old patterns, fabric, dresses, notions, and accessories. My long-term goal is to start making pieces that I can incorporate into my everyday wardrobe. As an art teacher, I tend to dress very casually most days because it is so easy to ruin things while working with messy art supplies. But I have this incredible urge to be girly right now, so I'm trying to find more excuses to wear cute dresses and get my retro groove on. I want my outside appearance in the day-to-day world to finally match how I feel on the inside - quirky and creative and fabulous! ;)

One of my favorite things about retro sewing is that you can still find yardages of amazing old fabrics to work with, and most aren't even that expensive. I have a mad love for vintage novelty prints, so I snatched up this kooky mid-century modern gladiator print (how did they come up with this stuff?!?) last winter when I saw it on etsy. It was listed as rayon, but it is super shiny and feels more like acetate, so I almost abandoned this project after cutting out the pieces because I was worried that it looked too dressy for me to wear to work. It probably would have languished in the abandoned projects pile indefinitely if it wasn't for Sewretro's party dress contest this month. I decided that it would make a great party dress if nothing else, so I dug out all the pieces and got it assembled in just two days while I was home for the Thanksgiving holidays.

The dress pattern is Vogue 6788 from 1949, but I switched out the sleeves with another pattern from that year because I liked the 3/4 length better. It all went together like a dream, and this project gave me an excuse to use some of my vintage notions as well. The hems are done with some old turquoise iron-on hem tape, and the belt is made with a fabric-covered belt kit - both found at estate sales. I also got to play with a nifty little contraption that marks both sides of pattern pieces at the same time, which worked great with this pattern since it had the punched holes for the markings instead of being printed. The buttons are vintage as well, and I'm pretty sure thy are bakelite.

And now, on to the pictures!

Since this was my first try at sewing with vintage patterns/fabric for myself, here are some of the things that I discovered:
- I really need to learn some proper techniques for putting in a zipper. The pattern didn't include any instructions for that, and I thought I could just wing it, but it looks pretty crappy on close inspection.
- I also need to figure out what techniques they used for interfacing collars and such during this period. Again, the pattern didn't mention anything about interfacing. I ended up flatlining the collar with some stiff cotton fabric, but I really don't like the way it feels. It's too heavy now.
- vintage acetate (if that's really what this stuff is) is NOT fun to work with. There are old storage fold lines running across the entire dress that absolutely refuse to press out, and it shows every little crease and pucker where my tailoring is a bit lacking.
- I can't sew a straight line to save my life! I did a bad, BAD job of attaching the fabric to the belt backing, but I'm scared to take it off and try again, because the belt backing is a bit like cardboard and I'm afraid it will fall apart with more stitching holes. That was waaaaayyy harder than I thought it would be!


But all in all, I think this dress was a success.  I wore it out today and had several ladies squee over me, so I think that's a pretty good sign.  :)