• Brown & Cream 1940s Separates •

Believe it or not, I didn't forget about the fact that I have a blog! It just seems that way! ;)

I've been so busy ever since Thanksgiving (and before!) that I kept putting blogg-y things off until later, which translated into them not happening at all! Oops!

I am glad to be back into it though, and I can't wait to share my upcoming projects with you! A couple of Christmas dresses are in order, but I had better hurry up or I'll miss getting to wear them for Christmas entirely!

Last week our church had a Christmas banquet, so I whipped up a blouse (and a skirt) to wear to that. Unfortunately for me, the skirt didn't end up fitting, but fortunately for you, it's now for sale in the shop! :) Check it out here. I ended up wearing my '30s flannel skirt with it for the banquet, but the blouse matches pretty much all of my skirts, including Grandma's wedding skirt! I realize I did sort of break my vow not to wear it until I had the jacket made, but...you know...who can help wearing a pretty skirt that's just hanging there in their closet?!

I made the blouse out of the same fabric as Grandma's wedding blouse, which is a poly-rayon blend. It is very soft and comfortable, but not so fun to deal with! It does not take kindly to any stress on the seams, so I'm going to have to do a little fixing-up on a couple of them. :( GRR. Rayon is on my hate list right now.

But aside from that lovely little fact, I still really do love this blouse!!

I used Simplicity 2154 for the bodice, using Simplicity 3847 as a guide for the armhole and shoulder areas in order to accommodate sleeves. The sleeves are from Butterick 5846 (like my green and cream 1940s dresses).

I made the bow on the blouse quite a bit longer, and a little wider so that it would be "deliciously drapey." Ahem. ;)

I also cut the collar rounded on the front edges rather than pointed for a more 1930s-40s look.

Although Simplicity 2154 is technically a 1960s pattern (oh dear! 1960s!), it is very handy for making a variety of blouses and bodices from the '30s-50s. And the bonus is, it's as easy as pie to make! :)

I'm also a big fan of this skirt! It too was exceedingly easy to make, and fits quite well. Just for the record, I have worn it with Grandma's wedding blouse...just not for pictures yet. Maybe I'll reserve that honor for when I get the suit made.

I was going to entitle this post, "Of Dead Monkeys," but I thought it might throw everyone off a little bit. ;)

A few weeks back when I wore this fur piece to church, one of the little girls there saw me and said, "That looks like a dead monkey!" Another little girl piped in, "It does look like a dead monkey!"

I proceeded to explain to them that it was a mink, and a vintage one from the 1940s at that, to which they replied, "What's a mink?"

So now we have a name for these little fellas; Dead Monkeys. Very endearing, don't you think?

;)

I'll be back next week with (hopefully!) progress on my peppermint-y Christmas dress! See you then!

• Grandma's Wedding Suit....Almost •

Whew! I am alive! I didn't vanish! It just seemed like it! :) We've been ridiculously busy of late, and I got hooked on the Bronte sister's books, so I'm afraid I spent my hours of leisure reading instead of blogging. Whoops. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I already read them all, so I'm back to blogging again. ;)

In any case, I am two-thirds done with Grandma's wedding suit! Yay!! I had started the skirt last month, but it ended catastrophically, so I had to buy more fabric and start over. That experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth, which is probably why I took this long to try again! This time it went very well, I'm glad to say, and both the blouse and skirt were very easy, one-day projects.

(Please pardon the detestable-quality picture! That's what happens when you take pictures in the basement, in the evening, and your subjects are starkly opposite dark and light colors. And you're a bad photographer.)

I LOVE this lace! I used a rayon-poly blend from Field's Fabrics for the main blouse fabric (Simplicity 3688, incidentally), and a gorgeous lace from JoAnn for the overlay on the yoke. I originally thought I could machine-baste the lace onto the yoke using the walking foot, but that ended up being a very bad idea! It skewed, caught up on the foot, and was pretty much a terrible mess. So I ended up hand-basting the two pieces together, and that worked great! The rest of the blouse was a cinch.

As for the skirt, I don't have any decent pictures of the entire garment, so I'll have to leave you in suspicion. I'm quite happy with how it came out, especially that side opening! It seemed to work so much better to have the zipper end at the waist rather than at the top of the waistband.  

The fabric is a lovely brown and tan-striped cotton, which is not only beautiful, but the name of it is "Chocolat," so I really can't help loving it. ;)

I realize that Grandma's suit was without a doubt made of wool, but since I found no appropriate wool, this cotton worked out just fine.

A nice view of her whole suit, and even a glimpse of the skirt!

The suit is what I'm absolutely, positively dreading. The idea of having to fit it just so, and all the upper collars, under collars, over collars, inside collars, outside collars, (okay, maybe there aren't quite that many!) is just not sounding fun at all. But I won't let myself wear the rest of the outfit until the suit is made, so that should provide some incentive! Hopefully it will come together a lot more easily than I am picturing!

Meanwhile, I'm very excitedly preparing for an 1812 reenactment next month. This will be the very first historical reenactment-type event I've ever been to, so it promises to be a very fun day!! I took the opportunity to do a little revamping of my calico regency gown; I took the lace off the hem, remade the sleevebands, made undersleeves, and added some much-needed hooks and eyes at the back. Thanks to Lily's recommendation of making the sleevebands wider and more fitted, they came out great and fit perfectly with the undersleeves. Thanks, Lily!! :)

^ Part of the reason why we've been so busy lately! ^ 

We were blessed with a wonderful tomato crop from our garden, (which isn't even very big!), and were able to can 54 quarts of tomatoes, and 20 quarts of salsa. It is so wonderful to see a full pantry again! :) Praise the Lord for such a wonderful crop!!

Last but not least, thank you all SO much for your lovely, encouraging, sweet comments on every single post. I appreciate you all so very much! You're the best!! :)