• Striped 1950s Dresses •

Today's mom-daugher post is rather appropriate since Mother's Day is just around the corner, don't you think? :)

Both of these dresses were made by my mom, other than a few finishing touches on my dress. I really got the good end of this deal on every side; not only did I not have to make my dress, but I didn't have to do any stripe-matching!! ;) We each bought yardage of these coordinating diagonal striped fabrics almost a year ago, with no particular design in mind for them. My mom picked out the blue, and I picked out the brown. She got the itch to make her fabric into a dress when we found this picture of a 1950s dress from Croatia Vintage on Etsy:

A diagonal stripe, in very similar colors, and just about as cute as possible. :) She decided to make it, and painstakingly cut it out, matching up stripes all over the place, only to find that she just didn't like it on her at all. Somehow or other (heehee!) I ended up trying it on and really loved it, so we arranged a bit of a trade. :) It worked out quite well, I must say! 

She used Vogue 8811 for the bodice, and the skirt is just a simple dirndl-type. It's about 90" around, which is just the right size to be big enough for the petticoat, while also keeping it contained, so to speak.  

Strangely enough, although the fabrics appear to be exactly the same, the blue doesn't wrinkle a bit, while the brown does. The pattern hides it quite well though.

Incidentally, I have recently become a convert to deep hems. I used to do nothing but narrow (1/2-5/8") hems, but ever since doing a deep one (3", I think?) for the first time on this dress, I'm addicted! They are nice for so many reasons, the best ones being added weight to keep the skirt in place as well as less chances to snag the slip-stitching on various things. I'm definitely hooked! :)

I didn't really want a tie belt (although I'm starting to think I might just like one!), so I made a standard belt with a buckle. Ironically enough, since the fabric is a diagonal stripe, the belt is cut on the bias in order to get a straight stripe! :)

Someday I hope to be as good at pattern-matching as my mom. Although that's not likely to happen since I typically tend to avoid sewing fabrics that require matching like the plague! :|

Now for the good stuff! :) This dress is just adorable; I love it so much!! Mom wanted a completely different design for her dress this time, so she decided to replicate this 1950s pattern:

(Pure eye candy, don't you agree? I've got my eye on some pink and black ric-rac fabric that I'm dying to make into the same dress!)

She used Butterick 6055 for the bodice, and the front panels of  Butterick 5813 for both the skirt front and back.

In order to get the chevron effect, she had to cut one half of each front and back bodice (and skirt) straight-grain and the other half crosswise. 

Need I mention it again? She's a pattern-matching magician. :)

These buttons were part of the contents of a jar that she purchased a while back, and they were THE perfect touch for the front of her dress, along with the ricrac accents on the collar and sleeves.

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I discovered, ironically enough, on April 30th, that there was such a thing as "Me-Made-May," and so was able to sneak in at the last minute! The challenge is to wear something handmade each day of the month, but since I already do that, I decided to put my own personal twist on it, which is to wear a different (handmade) outfit each day of the month! So far it has been fun, and I've got it all scheduled out, so we'll see how it goes! :) I'll post a roundup of the outfits each week. 

Also, if you haven't done so already, hop over to Emily's Vintage Visions blog and check out my guest post about vintage footwear!

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Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful rest of your week, and Happy Mother's Day!

• 1940s Lace Dress •

I apologize for the unannounced absence! I neglected to put together a post ahead of time, so when Thursday rolled around, I got so busy I didn't have time to write anything! One of the things I was busy with was this dress!

Ever since I first glimpsed Vogue 8811, I have absolutely loved it; especially View A with the lace. It's just so beautiful! Last year I purchased this blue polyester crepe ($1 a yard...yay!!), not really having anything particular in mind for it. Eventually I realized that it was the perfect fabric to make this dress out of! And not only that, I happened to have some lace in the stash that was also perfect for it!

I realize that polyester crepe was not even invented in 1940 (actually, it was invented in 1941...but that's beside the point). Since I'm just making vintage-style garments for everyday wear and not pursuing absolute period-correctness, I don't have a problem using a fabric like this every now and then. No one can accuse me of being a fabric snob. ;)

Since the fabric is slightly thin, I self-lined the bodice. That was a somewhat interesting venture! I have never lined anything with kimono sleeves before, but I confidently proceeded anyway with what I thought was the right way to do it. 

It wasn't.

I sewed the neckline of the bodice and lining together once all the seams were sewn, then sewed the sleeves together. In my mind, that was going to work quite perfectly!

It didn't.

What resulted was a Rubik's cube of fabric; an unrecognizable mass of material that couldn't be turned! I was tempted to give up on the dreaded thing, but finally decided to go back and unpick the sleeve seams. That did work.

Because of that little problem, the overall annoyance of trying to sew such persnickety fabric, trying to sew the lace on neatly, and trying to hem it decently, this dress gained the not-so-endearing name, "The Dress of Stress."

Now that it's done though, I definitely love it. And even with the problems I had, it was awfully easy to make! It would be an absolute cinch in a more easily-sewable fabric.

The pattern called for 2" lace; mine was more like 1 1/2", but it still looked just fine.

I had another rather stressful issue; I used a wash-out sewing marker to mark my lace miters, which I then spritzed afterwards to remove the marks. After the fabric had dried, I noticed that the water had left what looked like dirty watermarks everywhere that I had spritzed it! Thankfully, they washed right out, but it wasn't very encouraging at the time!

I decided to try my hand at a hand-picked zipper. I'd never done one before, but I quite like it! It may not be the most amazing job ever, but not too bad for a first try.

As for alterations, I lengthened the sleeves 2" and made the armholes smaller using another pattern's sleeves as a guide (Vogue V9000).

I also made the keyhole about 1 1/2" shorter and made it in my usual shape rather than the slightly wider, rounded shape that the pattern called for. Which reminds me, I have been incredibly lax and not posted my keyhole tutorial yet! I will do that either this week or next, and that's a promise!

Despite the problems, I'm thrilled to have a new "fancy" dress! It will be just the thing for orchestra-attending and other such occasions that call for more formal attire.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and the lovely, lovely comments on last week's post! You all make a girl feel quite special!! :)