Remnant challenge wiggle dress

I've really enjoyed participating in the Historical Sew Fortnightly this year, but I hate that it limits my time for retro sewing.  I'm trying to sneak in a few quick and easy retro projects every once in a while to give myself a break and a dash of something different.  It might mean that a HSF challenge doesn't get finished on time (like my Pretty Pretty Princess dress, which I'm horribly behind on), but giving myself some time away from the HSF stuff is helping me keep my sanity, and that's a good thing too.  :)

So when one of my favorite local fabric stores, Fabrique, recently announced that they were going to do another remnant challenge, I snatched up a small piece of midnight blue linen and decided to make myself a 50's wiggle dress.  The whole dress was made with less that 1 and 1/8 yard of fabric, which I am really proud of.  Laying out the pieces to make the best use of the fabric was almost like doing a big jigsaw puzzle, and it was SO satisfying when I finally figured out that I could make it work.

The pattern is cloned from a vintage dress that I bought a few years ago for a few bucks.  The sewing thread was completely rotted on the dress, so it literally fell apart on my body when I tried it on.  I took the whole thing apart and thought I would re-sew it, but when I noticed that there were a lot of moth-holes and stains on it too,  I decided to just use the pieces to create a copy of the original.  And as a fun bonus, I was able to wear this dress as a visual aide for a class that I taught this past weekend about cloning historical garments.

The original dress has some really cool seam-lines, including a shelf bust and an odd little panel over the belly that connects to the skirt.  I wanted to bring these elements out as a more obvious design feature, so I added a lighter blue wool piping to all the seams.  I think it ended up looking really modern and almost futuristic because of the unusual construction.  I mean seriously - horizontal pleats across the ribcage?  Where the heck did that come from?  But even though this dress is a bit strange, I think it's a fun combination of retro without looking old-fashioned.

vintage shopping

Two weeks ago, I ran down to a "going out of business" sale for a Dallas vintage clothing shop.  I could have spent days looking through all their clothes, but I only had an hour or so to spare, so I sped-shopped and came away with with 5 fabulous new vintage dresses... for $60 total!  Woohoo!

This weekend, there was a new Vintage Clothing and Jewelry Show that I was very interested in checking out, so I picked one of my new vintage dressed and headed out for more shopping.  There were a ton of amazing clothes there, but I didn't buy anything this time.  It seemed silly to buy even more dresses when I'm not even sure when I'll get a chance to wear the ones that I just bought.  But I still had a blast at the show and I saw a lot of other ladies wearing fabulous vintage attire, which was a lot of fun.  I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that it comes back again next year!

 And I really enjoyed wearing my new dress. I think it has a very classic shape that doesn't look too terribly "costumey", so I think that this dress this will get a good bit of regular use in my modern wardrobe.  I don't wear dressy outfits very often, but when I do, I LOVE wearing vintage!

Fabulous 50's fun!

Yesterday, I got together with two of my costuming friends and we went to a "Fabulous 50's" fashion show at a local antique mall/tea room.  It was even better because Christy and I used it as an excuse to dress up in our new vintage 50's outfits. Girly outings are always more fun when you are wearing gloves, pearls, and fur!





I tried to pincurl my hair, but the back refused to cooperate, so into a chignon it went. *bah* I also didn't have a hat that I really liked for this outfit, but that problem was solved beautifully when I picked up this little $7 beauty at the antique mall after the fashion show.



The fashion show itself was fun too, but I was surprised by how "normal" a lot of the dresses looked without 50's hair, makeup, and undergarments. It's amazing how much those finishing touches matter when capturing the look of a period. My favorite part of the fashion show was the evening wear. Most of the gowns were so timeless that they looked more like something from this year's Academy Awards red carpet vs. something your grandma once wore!



I got pictures of nearly every gown in the show, and you can see them all in my Flickr album. There will also be a repeat of this show, plus even more 50's fashions, at the Antique Elegance Show next Saturday at 9:00.

1958 dirndl skirt

I was having one of those "I have nothing cute to wear" days today, so I decided to make a new skirt to go with a sweater that I got for Christmas.  I dug out this 1958 Simplicity playsuit pattern and some vintage plaid that I bought at an estate sale, and a few hours later... ta-da!  I have cute skirtage!  Woohoo!

This was by far one of the easiest garments that I have ever made.  There isn't even a zipper or hooks - just one button and the opening is cleverly hidden in the pleats.  I usually don't wear skirts that are this full, but this thing was so fast and stress-free to make that I'm a complete dirndl convert now!