• 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!

• 1940s in the Forest •

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I had the honor of attending Remembering WWII down in Linden, TN.  It was an absolutely amazing event that I will never, ever forget.  This was the second time we have attended, but the first time that we were actually able to participate.  What an amazing time!  I hope to have some more pictures to share with you of that soon, but for now, here is one of my outfits that I made for the Sunday after RWWII.

We rented a house out in the boondocks, and nearly became permanent residents there due to the a nearly impassable road that led to the house.  A lot of prayers, a lot of mud and a slightly scraped up undercarriage later, we made it!  Aside from the interesting surroundings, it was a nice house, and the land around it was gorgeous.  It was situated right on a river, so there was a nice little stairway leading down to the riverside that made for a nice backdrop.

A few months back, we found a cute little '40s dress pattern on Ebay for just a few dollars, and it has turned out to be one of our top favorite patterns ever.  It's a fairly simple style, but with those quintessential 1940s details that make it *so* fun.

As an aside, I'm pretty sure I'm putting ties in every single dress I make from now on.  I love the freedom from wearing a belt, while still getting the nice fit!  :)

The dress features a slit-and-gather detail on the front bodice, making it almost appear like it has a yoke.  The collar and facing is cut in one, and the skirt features about 8 or so slim, flared panels that give it a very swingy effect in the front.

The back skirt is a simple 3-panel style.  I used some vintage '40s yardage that we had in the stash ($9 or so at an antique shop - for a little over 4 yards!!), and squeezed the dress out of that.  It would not have been a "squeeze" if it were not for the fact that I am 6' tall - that does make a difference when cutting out skirts!  In any case, the dress fit in that amount of fabric perfectly, and I got a nice little hem as well, finished with my favorite vintage Hug Snug.

I paired the dress with my favorite shoes of all time - Royal Vintage Ritas (if some benevolent stranger ever wants to buy me something, just get me about 7 more pairs of these so that I will have them 'til my dying day.)  Hahaha!!!  They are seriously that good though, I wear them while standing on my feet all day long at work, and my feet aren't even tired at the end of the day.  Love them!!

I'd been hoarding these cute little green buttons for years, and they finally found their perfect home.  They were a little grungy looking at first, but after a quick wash, they looked like new again!

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Thanks for reading!

• 1920s Silk Frock •

Earlier this year a local Art Deco theatre had their 90th anniversary celebration that my mom and I were able to attend.  It was an absolute blast, and it truly felt like you were right back in 1928!  I got to wear my true vintage '20s dress for the first time, which was also super fun!

I found this dress on Ebay under "rockabilly," "boho," "hippy," "70s," and a bunch of other...less desirable (in my opinion) tags, but just as I suspected from the pictures, it turned out to be a SILK 1920s dress in nearly perfect condition.  In my size!!!!  To say I was excited would be a massive understatement. 

It's interesting to see the construction of the dress - the strip of binding and fabric at the "waist" of the dress is actually a piece that was added after the dress was made.  The dress also features a 12" hem, which is just incredible.

One of my dear church friends, who is nearly 80, gave me this brooch for my birthday last year, and it was her mother-in-law's mother's!  That goes back a few years for sure!  I hadn't had a chance to wear it yet, so it made a very special, fun addition to this outfit. 

There was a fabulous '20s roadster parked in front of the theatre, so we took the opportunity to get a photo with it!  :) 

The theatre is absolutely stunning inside - I can't get enough of it!  I'm so excited about this season's philharmonic concerts, as they are nearly all at this venue.

At this 90th anniversary event, there was a famed theatre organist playing on the Page theatre organ, one of only 3 remaining ones in the world.  Talk about incredible music!!!  I would have loved to have gotten my hands on that organ.  I could listen to that music allllll day long.

Thanks for reading!  Hope you are having a wonderful week.  :)

• 1930s Sisters Photo Shoot •

When we were visiting Sarah and her family, we had to slip in a photo shoot of the two of us, since we hadn't had a chance to do so in a long time, if ever.  We had a fun time coming up with the goofiest poses and just being our own selves!  :)  Hope you enjoy!

Another interesting, perhaps heartbreaking aspect of these photos is that since they were taken, a tornado swept through the area and took out every single one of the trees on their property.  Thankfully Sarah and her family were safe, but the damage was incredible.

For our photoshoot, we wore our coordinating Royal Vintage Peggy pumps.  They are so comfy and versatile!

My mom has this thing for heads-sticking-through-tree-limb-style photographs, but this time I rather liked the effect!  Haha!!

Sarah wore her gorgeous red, white and blue floral frock that she made from an original 1939 pattern.  It is such a gorgeous style and fits her perfectly!

I wore my old trusty 1930s polka dot dress, which you can read more about here. 

We are kinda cute, if I do say so myself.  ;)

Because every blog post has to have a shoe close-up.

Thanks for being such a special friend and sister to me, Sarah!  I love you!  :) 

• The Polka Dot Project •

After many months of silence on this blog, it feels great to be back writing again!  Sick days are good for at least one thing, that being blog-writing.  :) 

This post is about a project that had been in the works for a couple of years; my friend Sarah purchased a 10-yard length of this polka dot fabric, and upon finding it to be great fabric, my mom decided to purchase a length as well.  We developed a plan that "someday," we would all make outfits from the fabric, each being from a different decade.  It took us a few years, but we finally made those plans come to fruition.

Here's a few group photos, with the specific outfit details later on in the post.

Sarah and her mama are just the cutest ladies in the world.  And I'm not biased at all.  ;) 

Mom and I in our frocks.

1950s, 1940s, 1930s and 1920s, all in a row!

There was a good quantity of silliness involved in our photo shoot, which just made it that much more fun.  ;) 

Now onto the outfit details!  First off is Sarah's dress:

Sarah made her dress using Simplicity 1250, a 1950s reproduction pattern.  She altered it slightly to have a back zipper as well as functioning buttons in the front, making it nursing-friendly.  She also drafted the neckband to echo the sleeve details, which adds to the vintage beauty of it.

While it might seem like a simple thing to add the neckband, if you look closely at the overlap, she had to make the angles of the neckband match up precisely at the overlap, which is obviously not right at the center.  Bravo, Sarah!!!  She is a wonder!  Check out her Etsy shop for some of her fabulous work!

The back of the dress is equally gorgeous, with that flattering peplum.  And can I just mention her gorgeous hair?!!?!?  Not jealous at all!!

Next up is my mom's dress:

She made her frock from an original 1930s Excella dress pattern.  The pattern was too big to start with, so she had to work with it to make it smaller while still keeping all the unique and fabulous details.

The dramatic collar on this dress is one of my favorite details!!  Another fabulous point is the sleeves, which have unique seaming that goes up to the elbow, with slightly pointed and gathered cuffs.  So, so gorgeous.

A tie belt makes the perfect accent for this beautiful frock.  She paired the dress with her original 1920s oxfords (found at a local antique shop for $20, in perfect, like-new condition, and they are COMFY.).

"Ma's" outfit is up next!

Sarah made Ma's outfit using Simplicity 8462 for the bolero, and Simplicity 3688 for the skirt.  The scalloped lapels on that bolero are *so* gorgeous!  She paired it with a gorgeous peacock brooch and vintage necklace from her collection. 

Separates like this are so nice to have, as they can be worn in so many different ways! 

Lastly is my little frock:

For my birthday this year, my mom got me several gorgeous patterns from Lady Marlowe Patterns on Etsy.  This is the second pattern I have made so far, and I have been thrilled with both garments!  This dress was actually extremely easy to make, even with all the multi-directional pleats, and it went together in a very short period of time.

I was planning to do white accents for the neckband/tie and cuffs, but then I saw some scraps of this red, white and blue polka dot, (leftover from my peppermint dot dress), and that settled it.  Gotta have that little pop of pizzazz, especially in a 1920s dress!!

I paired my new, FAVORITE Royal Vintage Claire oxfords with my dress.  They are so comfortable and versatile, I could not be happier with them!

One last outfit I cannot leave out was Sarah's daughter's outfit.  I didn't get a real clear picture of it, but this was the finished product right before our photo shoot.  I used a "vintage" pattern from the '70s, I believe it was, but it is a very versatile style that could have been used in the '40s-'50s, in my opinion.  It was an easy make, and fit her well at the time.  :) 

Just, ya know, flappin'....or perhaps I should say swingin', for the latter eras!  :)

Need I say it?  THE END.

I will be posting more frequently (at least for a little bit), as I have several more posts to share!  I have been sewing like crazy, but the photos of said outfits happen very rarely.  I'll try to remedy that problem though!

Thanks for reading!