• 1940s Floral Evening Gown •

This is probably one of my favorite posts of the whole year!  This gown was another one of my projects for Remembering WWII, and I absolutely love it.  But then, I love evening gowns, so........ :)

I purchased this pattern from Lady Marlowe Patterns on Etsy last year, with the intent of turning it into a fabulous little rayon day dress, and eventually an evening gown.  It took a while to come to fruition (as always), but I finally did make the evening gown, and it really worked out well!  The pattern is for a day length dress, obviously, but with just flaring and lengthening the skirt (by about 12.7 feet, you know....), it turned into a very fun evening length dress.

Oh, and you really can't see them, but I promise I am wearing my Royal Vintage Marilyn pumps with this dress.  ;)  I can't wait to add to my RVS collection, they are all by far my favorite shoes ever!

The dress features an asymmetrical design with a right shoulder yoke and gathers, echoed by a "midriff panel" on the left bodice that also extends into the skirt.  I did not make a mockup of this pattern at all (hello, time squeeze), so I was super leery of how it would turn out, but it really did work well!  I just love the sleeves on here as well; the ruching adds such a fun detail!

I had been saving this rhinestone belt buckle for years, and it finally found its perfect home.  :)

I also discovered that belting works so well for rayon fabric-covered belts!  I have made a rayon belt just using my interfacing method (see post here) in the past, but being it was made of rayon, it ended up stretching/wrinkling a bit.  I am definitely a fan of belting, especially if you can find the webbed sort as opposed to the commonly available solid, very stiff variety. 

Not only did my "V" brooch match the belt buckle, but it seemed quite appropriate for the USO show at RWWII.  :)  That whole event was SUCH a blast, and it was just an amazing experience to be able to have a small part in it.  I met so many amazing veterans, I wish I could spend so much more time with them!

Among other highlights, I was able to catch a ride in this tank as the belly gunner after one of the battles, and that may or may not be one of the highlights of my entire life from now on.  ;D

As for the location for these pictures, my mom and I were headed to opening night at our local philharmonic when we passed this glorious line of trees on both sides of the street.  We pulled in, parked, and took pictures on what ended up being the sidewalk in a local park!  It made a gorgeous backdrop, and I was thrilled that the one-way street it was on was facing the same direction I was, so I did not have to see any gawkers.  ;)  I really, really feel uncomfortable when there are an abundance of people looking on when we are taking pictures, but it is often unavoidable unless we are in our own backyard!  The leaves are gone off of these pretty little trees now, but it was a perfect location at the time.  And we made it back to the car right as some horrendous winds and rain started!  Score!  :)

Thanks for visiting, and for all your sweet comments of late on all my blog posts!  Contrary to what one might think, I have not had time to blog (or sew, or......anything) for the past month; I had one free day last month in which I penned them all and scheduled them to automatically post.  It has, in fact, been one of the most incredibly hectic and emotional months in a long time; the week that we got back from Remembering WWII, our church had revival meetings each night, so that meant racing straight from work to church every night.  A day and a half later we received news that my grandma had passed away, so we immediately headed to Minnesota for a week to spend time with my dear grandpa and of course to be there for the funeral.  As we pulled back into town from that trip, we got a call letting us know that my sister had passed away that very afternoon, very unexpectedly and very suddenly.  She was not in good health, but the reason for her passing was not stemming from her health problems, so it was a huge shock.  Needless to say, the next two weeks were very hectic and full of emotion with planning of her funeral and so forth.  So all in all, October has come and gone right before our eyes, in a very different way than we had planned it!  We were to have been at a couple of reenactments and an out-of-state antique meet having a grand old time, but the Lord had other plans.  He knew my grandma was going to pass when she did, and had me schedule time off of work for another event during that week, which was a huge blessing.

All that to say, thank you again for your sweet words!  :)  I'm hoping to get back to some sewing soon, along with a busy work schedule, trying to practice the piano more than I have been, reorganizing the sewing areas in our house, and just everyday life.  We'll see how it goes!