• 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!

• Pleated 1950s Dresses •

Can you imagine? I actually took a break from the 1940s long enough to sew a 1950s dress!

We actually sewed these dresses probably four or five weeks ago, but just got around to wearing them for the first time yesterday.

I have long admired this dress that Lily made. The neckline is so cute, and the skirt is so perfectly twirly! I decided to make my own rendition of it at long last with this fabric. It is a reproduction 1950s fabric, which is available here.

For the bodice, I used what is getting to be our go-to bodice pattern, which we call the "fall dress bodice." It is a combination of Burda 7179 and Simplicity 1459, which I altered the neckline on for this dress.

For the skirt, I did as Lily did, using the front skirt piece from Butterick 5813 for both the front and back. I made the pleats slightly further out on the back than the front. The almost-full-circle makes for some fun twirling! :)

I really wanted some pops of color on the dress, so I opted for red piping. We just *happened* to have some red fabric in the perfect shade, and I was able to cob borrow some cording from Mom to make it.

Just as a side note; I really am no good at piping corners. It seemingly took hours for me to get that neckline to work. There were many tries with no success, but I finally got it to look tolerable. I had no pattern for it, so I was scared to death to clip or trim anything until I knew that it was perfect. I ended up "ending" the piping right before the corners rather than actually continuing around them.

Look. At. My. Shoes.

I still can't believe it. I actually own cute shoes!! I looked, and gazed upon, and wept over Miss L Fire shoes for weeks, lamenting the fact that they did not sell them in my size. I finally emailed them out of frustration, wondering if they would ever make a size 11. They emailed back and said that they do indeed make 11's, but they are only available on the UK site. 

To the UK site I went!  I emailed again several times to clarify the sizing, because the size chart is very confusing. As it turns out, UK size 42 is the same as US 11, contrary to what their size chart says. I was scared to death to order them, but I went ahead and took the plunge, paying an arm and a leg for shipping. They arrived in something like three days! 

I was a little hesitant about the color; I mean, what on earth is bright orange going to match?

What indeed. As it turns out, they match probably half of my outfits! They are a dark enough orange that they can pass for red anytime. Oh, and did I mention that they're real leather?

Needless to say, I absolutely love them. 

My mom had these buttons in the stash (she's had them so long, they probably qualify as vintage!), and they matched perfectly! I love how a little rim of red shows on the front. 

We found this buckle at an antique shop a little while back, and it's proving to be a staple in our belt wardrobe. My mom uses it for a 1940s dress that she just made recently.

I'm so excited to finally have an outfit that matches my hat! This was one of the first hats I ever bought, and I just love it. It has a New York label, but also a label from a local hat shop that used to be in business.

Because I know you were longing to see another picture of my shoes.

And now, for Mom's dress!

A month or two ago, my former piano teacher, who is now just a dear friend gave us a whole box of Workbook magazines from the 1940s through 1960. Every issue has a page that shows patterns you could order. Many of the dresses in them feature lovely-looking asymmetrical closures. Mom liked them so much, she decided to replicate one!

She wanted to use piping on her dress, but the only fabric we had on hand that matched it was an orange knit. There seemed to be no law against knit piping anywhere, however, so she went ahead and used it! It was easy to do corners, but it did tend to stretch when she didn't want it to as well.

She found a jar of buttons a while back at an antique store for only $6. It turned out to be a gold mine. There are multitudes of beautiful buttons, and enough of each kind to actually use on garments! These cute little orange buttons were some of them, and ended up matching perfectly.

She used the same skirt pattern and bodice pattern as my dress, but altered the neckline and front closure to suit her design. The bodice and sleeves are lined with batiste.

Isn't that buckle beautiful? And the color makes it match virtually everything.

One feature of our "fall dress bodice" is easing at the back shoulder seams. It makes for a really comfortable fit while also being fitted at the shoulders. 

The sleeves on both of our dresses are from Simplicity 1459, lengthened a couple of inches.

I love her hat.

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I'll be back on Friday with an incredibly adorable baby dress that I sewed Saturday. It is just too cute, in my opinion, but I'll let you judge that for yourself. :)

• Photography by both of us! •