• Fall in the Wintertime •

Back in mid-September or so, when fall was beginning to make its appearance, I happily started getting my fall/winter garments out.  One of the ones I was most excited about wearing was my fall dress, made two years ago.  I ironed it up with glee and hung it up to wear for the next day, only to try it on then and remember just how much I didn't like it.  There was something about the fit/style that just never agreed with me; the fact that I made the sleeves far too big probably didn't help that at all, but in any case, I just didn't like my dress anymore.  I thought of making it into a skirt, but never got around to doing so until I saw Lily's post in which she did just that with her fall dress!  :)  Hers was so gorgeous that it inspired me to finally remake my version!

One of the things that also inspired me to get it done was my gorgeous '50s sweater from Paper Luna Vintage.  I never get tired of wearing it!

Last year I made this long-sleeved cream blouse out of some rayon-blend fabric.  The sleeve pattern I used was dreadfully tight in the forearm though, so I could hardly wear the blouse as it was.  I finally snipped off the sleeves and hemmed them up into short ones at the same time as I made the skirt so I could finally wear it.  I actually like the silhouette better with short sleeves!  It has quickly become a staple in my wardrobe what with the versatile color and style.

Naturally I had to pair it with my ever-versatile Victoria Carriage boots.  :)  I just love those things!!

Since I hadn't liked the gathered skirt on my fall dress, and also have a deep love for pleated '50s skirts, I decided to do just that; pleat it.  What was fun was having the pleats come out the perfect size on the very first try.  :D  That is always fun!!!

I used a big cream-colored vintage button from my stash for the waistband. 

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever wear another hat again other than this wondrous gray beret.  It has become somewhat of a landmark atop my head these days.  ;)

I love brooches, but never remember to wear them!  I was so excited to wear this pretty one from Emily with this outfit, and I just love how it looks!  :)  Thanks, Emily!!

I really like the skirt from Simplicity 1459; it had been so long since I used it that I was remembering it being fairly straight-cut, but it is in fact quite flared!  It gives a really nice shape, and offers marvelous twirliness, which is downright vital.  ;)

Thanks for stopping by!!

1950s • Winter Woolens

First off, thank you all so very much for your overwhelmingly kind comments from last week's post.  You don't know how much that meant to my mom and I!!  You all are the best, and I'll never forget your kindness.  <3

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Last year I had a total of 2 winter-friendly garments, those being a wool dress and a flannel skirt.  This year, although I'm not exactly rolling in woolen garments, there has been a great increase in them, which makes me soooo happy!  I have been planning a fall/winter wardrobe for ages, but in the past, whenever the time came to actually sew it up, I either got busy, catastrophe struck, or I just felt like making fruit-covered sundresses.  ;)

I found this grey fabric at JoAnn a couple of months ago in their Famous Maker line.  I ended up getting it for something like $3 per yard because of the coupons we had, and it is not only 100% wool, but also made in Japan and 60" wide!!  Can't beat that!!

I used Simplicity 8250 for the skirt, but simply cut the front on the fold and omitted that extra seaming/foldover/topstitching business.  Somehow it seemed like that would have been terribly bulky in a heavier-weight fabric like this.  I also omitted the gigantic circuitous pockets....and skipped that wacky waistband.  So I guess you could say I based it off of S8250.  ;)

This sweater is so much fun.  I purchased it from Paper Luna Vintage at the same time as my mustard sweater, but this one had numerous moth chews on it, so I got it for an extra-good deal.  I set it aside when it arrived, though, because I really had no idea how to mend the holes.  I finally buckled down and decided to tackle it one day (the same day as I remade my fall skirt and cream blouse, incidentally; that was one awfully productive day in the mending realm!), using some cream colored yarn I found in our stash, a small embroidery needle, and our needle felter.  First I weaved the yarn in and out, catching the loose stitches, and kind of weaving it closed, and then I took that mended spot, laid it on the needle-felting pad, and felted it a bit, just to kind of blend the stitches and secure it together.  It worked quite amazingly well, and the spots are not really even noticeable anymore!!

This spot on the arm was the worst one; it was literally a gaping hole with a good 1/2"-5/8" of knit missing.  I weaved it shut and felted it though, and it came out pret-ty good!  ;)

The beading details on this thing are downright incredible.  I just can't imagine having the patience to do all that!!  The brand is "Broadway, Suburbanite Sportswear," dating from the 1950s.  The fun part is, while working on it I found a paper tag sewn inside the lining with the original price of $2.98 on it.  Hahaha!  Hard to even imagine such a thing these days!!

In the last few posts featuring '50s skirts, I've been wearing both my regular Malco Modes petticoat and a tiered flannel petticoat, and I'm really enjoying the fullness it lends!  On top of that fact is how wonderfully warm it is, as compared to nothing but a nylon net petticoat.  Big difference!!  I'll have to do a post on it sometime soon just so you can see the design of it and all.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

• Plaid in the Snow •

Ever since getting my marvelous boots, I've kind of been wanting to retake pictures with any and all outfits that they could possibly match.  Fortunately for you, that hasn't happened with all of them, but it did with this vintage '40s dress.  ;)  Back when I first blogged about it, we (of course) had no snow, so it made for about the lousiest Christmas dress pictures possible.  But this year we have snow, I have new boots, and therefore a new photo session was absolutely imperative.  ;)

This dress is such a pretty one, both because of the fabric and the design.  You can tell at a glance that it is vintage fabric, and it also has that "aged cotton," if I may call it that- feel to it.  There's nothing softer!  :)

My mom let me borrow her pretty black coat for these pictures, and I sort of stole her mittens for it too.  ;)   I still want to make a vintage coat, but have not happened upon any mountains of free wool coating with which to make one just yet.  And somehow it's way more fun to spend money on pretty dress fabrics........and boots.  ;)

This past summer I found this pretty velvet hat at an antique store; I can't even remember if it was local or out-of-town, but in any case, I really like the hat.  It didn't want to stay on in the frigid wind, but other than that it seems to do so quite well.  And since it is velvet, it matches my boots super-good!!  ;)

I've been on the hunt lately for some good cream-colored sweater tights; so far all the pairs I've tried have been dreadfully short and therefore totally unwearable.  They always say that they'll fit a 6' tall person, but when you try them on?  Hehe, let's just say that they don't.  At all.  So the hunt goes on.  In any case, these gray ones are my absolute favorite because, well, obviously, they're GRAY, and they also fit very well!  ;)

It's so much fun to be able to wear colored tights now that I have these boots; none of my other vintage shoes seemed to look decent when paired with them.

That pose doesn't look familiar or anything, now does it?  *cough*

My hands and pretty much my whole body was freezing while we took these pictures, but my feet sure weren't!  :)  Hurrah for warm boots!!

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• Pictures by my wonderful mom, as always.  <3 •

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

• It's All About the Boots •

It's time for the big, exciting, amazing, and long-awaited shoe post.  :D

In short, I have new boots.  And to say that I love them is a definite understatement.

Last month, Royal Vintage Shoes announced that the Victoria Carriage Boots were no longer going to be available on the RVS website, and therefore were on sale.  Well, I have been mourning the lack of any winter-appropriate footwear in my "shoe wardrobe" for a long time, and these were so utterly tempting, I couldn't resist.

The boots are made of velveteen on the outside, with genuine mouton (soooo soft) fur trim, grosgrain ribbon ties, and a quilted sateen lining.  In short, they are the fuzziest, wuzziest, most wonderful boots I've ever owned, or will ever own.  And on top of that, they are gorgeous and oh-so-vintage, instead of looking like bedroom slippers!  ;)

Since the soles are made of leather, I took them in to our (amazing) local cobbler and had him put some thin rubber soles on the bottoms for both durability and traction.  He did an excellent job, and they are now ready for anything winter throws my direction!  I also gave them 4(!) coats of waterproofing/stain-repellant spray, which has worked wonders so far.  All the crunching through snow that I did in this and two other consecutive photo shoots left them dry as a bone; the snow didn't stick to them, and any moisture just beaded off.  Amazing!!!!!!!  :D

The boots are still available on the American Duchess website HERE, but only until the remaining sizes sell out, then they'll be gone forever.

As for the outfit, this skirt is a recent make of mine.  My dear sis Sarah sent me a "just because" package back in January, consisting of a vintage pattern and two different wools, one of them being this plaid and the other a solid brown, which I also recently made into a skirt.  I love wool fabric, plaid, and the color gray, so this was a total winner.  It is so good that I waited practically a year to make it into *just* the right garment!  ;)

I've been making quite a few skirts lately, and am having a blast wearing them.  Before I started making my own clothing, my wardrobe consisted of about 97% skirts and blouses with only about 3% dresses.  Now that I do sew my own clothing, however, the situation has just about reversed for whatever reason!  I am really enjoying adding more skirts and blouses to the mix though; they are so comfortable and very easy to customize for a dressier or more casual look.

For this one, I used a vintage '50s pattern in our stash for a medium-fullness, flared skirt.  I definitely wanted that chevron effect at the front and back seams, and shockingly enough, none of our modern repro patterns seemed to have that!  The pattern I used had the centers front and back directly on the bias, with the side seams being on the straight grain.  It was the perfect pattern for the fabric, because it fit on to the 2 yard piece just right!  :) 

The blouse is a make from earlier this year; you can read about the construction of it here.  

Although I love plaid, I tend to avoid making garments out of it like the plague, because I have so little faith in my matching skills (and rightly so!).  This one was a real confidence-booster though!!  It's always so fun when something comes out just the way you want it to.

Have I mentioned it yet?  I love these boots.  --->SO MUCH<---

Another super-exciting aspect about them is, they not only work great with my everyday vintage wardrobe, but also will work (even more so, if that's possible) beautifully with my historical dresses as well, since the original design dated from the 1860s-1920s.  I can't wait to pair them with a big, fluffy dress.  ;)

This is a pretty good photo to end with; it pretty much sums up the way I feel about my new shoes, and this skirt.  ;D

A big thank you to Sarah (<3) for my gorgeous wool, and also to Lauren and the crew at AD and RVS for the stunning boots!!  I would highly, highly recommend them to anyone looking for wintry vintage footwear; comfortable, incredibly high quality, and downright gorgeous.

****ALSO****

My Etsy shop is having a Christmas sale right now!!  Save 20% off your purchase when you use the coupon code MERRYCHRISTMAS20, valid through Sunday, December 25th.  Stop by the shop and check it out!  :)

• 1845 Brown Dress, Finished at Last!!! •

This post may just be near the top of the list of my favorites for the whole year, so prepare yourself for an awful lot of photos.  ;)   After finishing a custom order and making a few skirts, I found myself in the mood for a nice, easy historical project!  Enter the 1845 brown dress, which I had started about a year and a half ago, and had the dress assembled except for attaching the bodice to the skirt.   I measured the bodice length of my blue floral 1860s dress and used it as a guide for this one, added piping, and sewed it together!  

Ever since I first started this dress, I wanted to get pictures of it in the winter, at a really nifty historical location.  Then this summer while at our county fair, I ended up going into this cute little cabin that they have on the fairgrounds, in which a lady was doing a loom presentation.  I knew right then that I had found my "nifty historical location," but still was unsure whether it would be accessible in the winter.  As it turns out, the drive into the fairgrounds was plowed, as was a path up to the cabin, but the snow around the cabin itself lay untouched and pristine.  With no people around (that deserves a definite hurrah!!!!!), it made for perfect pictures.  :D

My mom let me borrow her bonnet and cape, since hers are in burgundy tones rather than blue, like mine.  :)

When I originally got this fabric, I only had 6 yards.  Out of that I got the whole dress, including bias for all of the piping.  Since there was a shortage, I cut the skirt cross-wise on the fabric (one continuous piece), and it measures about 135" around.  Since I cut it that way, however, and was doing cartridge pleats which require a fold-over at the waist edge, I ended up making about a 3/8" seam at the hem when I sewed on the hem facing so that it would be long enough.  It may be a little bit shorter than your average 1840s dress, but apart from the historical correctness, or lack thereof, I really like the length!  Much easier to walk around in, and, well, it shows off my fabulous boots.  ;)

For the bodice, I used old faithful Simplicity 1818 (see other projects I've made from that pattern here), changing the front opening to a back one, and using Butterick 5831 for the sleeves, with a wide cuff.

I *love* piping!!  Not so much the sewing with it (hehe), but definitely the finished look of it.  Perhaps that is one of the benefits of creating a UFO an then finishing it; you forget all the painful details that went into it at first!  ;)

The cuffs close with hooks and eyes at the wrist. 

This is my first official garment featuring cartridge pleats!!!  In the past I have been highly skeptical of them, and just always pictured the dress coming apart the first time I wore it, but I'm beginning to think they might just be a safe option after all.  ;)  Since the skirt is not super full, the pleats don't look quite as full as they could, but I still absolutely love them.  Naturally, when I first started the dress, I used (ready for this?) plain cotton sewing thread to make the cartridge pleats.  Hehehe.  Only after I finished making them did I read that you MUST use button & craft thread or a suitable alternative. Proof of that was when I tried the skirt on for the first time and heard a very suspicious "snap."  Needless to say, I bought button & craft thread and proceeded to re-do my pleats.  ;)

Now for the best part of the whole outfit!!!!!!  The pelerine!!!!!!!!!  ;D

The bodice of the dress is not necessarily quite perfect for the 1840s; I need to do some more research, but for the great majority of the time, dresses of that period had fan-front bodices.  But since I started this before I knew much at all about the period, I can forget that just fine.  ;)

Ever since the start, I pictured making "one of those pelerine things" with ruched trim on it to go over this dress.  Well, after I finished my dress, I decided that it just needed that "pelerine thing" to make it complete, so whipped one up the day before we took these pictures.

This fabric went on clearance a few months back, so I was able to purchase some more for a pelerine.  I used the dress bodice pattern as a pattern for it, and just made it to the shape and length that I wanted.  It worked quite well, and I love how it looks.  :D

The ruched trim consists of 4 widths of fabric cut 3.25" wide, with the raw edges turned under .5", and gathered up with one basting line on each edge.  After pinning it on for ages and getting the sorest back of my life, it was ready to sew.  Since I was in a hurry, I just went ahead and machine-stitched the trim on.  The rest of the dress was machine-stitched on the inside, but all visible sewing was done by hand. 

The pelerine is lined with self-fabric, and so far has just been pinned together at the front neck edge.  Eventually I'll sew a hook and eye onto the neck edge, but for the time being I've had my fill of said occupation.  ;)

My "evening project" last week was sewing hooks and eyes onto this dress for the back opening and the cuffs.  

There are something like 14 hooks and 14 eyes on the back of the dress, plus two of each on each sleeve, and the hooks had to be sewn on super neatly because they would show on the outside.  As a result, it took a dreadful amount of time to do each one, but it was quite definitely worth it.  :)  Can't even see them on there now!!

I think I might just move into this little cabin.  Perfect house for a historical seamstress to live in, right?  ;)

The sleeve seams, cuffs, side seams, shoulder seams and back seams are all piped, and the waist edge is piped with a double piping.  I have not yet tried piping a neckline yet, but need to for sure!

The hem of the dress is faced with a separate facing, as I stated earlier.  I used plain white muslin, and cut it to be a finished width of 12".

Back on with the cape!  :)  I am not sure yet if these mittens are quite period-correct, but they may just be.  I made them several years back, with no pattern!!!!!!!!  I have no idea how I did that, and even less idea how I managed to make two of them end up the same size, but I love them anyhow.  ;)

Beneath the dress are my 1860s underpinnings, with a total of four gathered (three of them also corded) petticoats.  They are sadly not starched at present, so aren't as fluffy as they could be, but still were decently fluffy.   And they provided a very nice barrier from the cold temperatures outside!!  The fun part was, unlike any time wearing historical garments in the past, I didn't get overheated one single time when wearing this outfit.  THAT is worth getting excited about.  ;D

The most necessary boot picture.  ;)  They are Renoirs from American Duchess, and I love them *SO* much.  So comfortable and durable, and downright beautiful.

And lastly, my attempt at a daguerreotype, which resulted in not much other than blurring out my face.  Oh well.  Perhaps that is a benefit, eh?  ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by!!