• 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!  :) 

• Introducing Northern Shore Vintage •

Something very exciting has been cooking in the background here for quite a while!!  :D  My dear friend Sarah and I have started an Etsy shop together, called Northern Shore Vintage, selling vintage clothing and accessories from the 1970s and earlier.  Since we both love vintage styles; the classic, beautiful, modest, incredibly stylish and timeless fashions of yesteryear, we decided to open up a shop together, selling just such items! 

We don't have a huge stock yet, admittedly, but we are both working hard on building it up.  Meanwhile, since it is our grand opening, we have a sale going on!!  Take $10 off your purchase of $50 or more with coupon code "OPENINGSALE", valid through Monday, October 3.  

Behind the name: Sarah and I both love the North Shore of Lake Superior; there's just nothing quite like it.  So when we were trying to come up with a name for our shop, we both thought of it simultaneously, and knew it was just the thing.  ;) 

Be sure to stop by the shop and check it out!!  I'll be posting updates about the shop from time to time, about new listings and sales, so stay tuned!  :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Floral 1950s Dress • Refashioned

Today's post is *so* exciting, because it features my dear friend Sarah!  :)  

Last week I got back from a week-long stay at her house, and boy, did we have a time.  Sarah is the dearest, sweetest friend and adopted sister a girl could ask for, and I am so thankful that the Lord brought us together!  Always encouraging and pointing me towards the Lord, inspiring me in numerous ways, and blessing me with her wonderful testimony.  And on top of all that, sharing an unbelievable amount of the same interests and opinions.  ;)  Love you, gal!!

A few months ago I had mentioned to her that I was thinking of selling my floral 1950s dress.  It never fit quite right, and I found myself never even wearing it.  Sarah loved the fabric and style, but it was not the right size for her either.  Since I was in need of a gift to bring for her, I decided to remake the dress into a different style that would fit her!

She liked the collar on my lemon dress, so after much deliberation I decided to do that style for hers.  It turned out to be a lot trickier than expected since the sleeve and neckline areas were both shaped differently than the original, but it worked out in the end, and quite well at that! 

Suffice it to say, I am exceedingly jealous of her gorgeous hair.  *sigh*  Perhaps being around her hair for a week will have given my hair the incentive to grow.  ;) 

I used the same skirt that was one my dress and just took in the center back seam a bit.  The front is pleated, instead of being gathered like the original.  It gives kind of an early-1950s look, which is gorgeous and doesn't require a petticoat!

A wide belt seemed like it would be the perfect touch, especially since I had a spare buckle in a wider width.

I had *just* enough scraps left of the fabric to eke out a new front bodice, along with collar pieces.  It was a tight squeeze, but it did fit, and I even matched the center front seam!  Yay!!!

This collar is so much fun to make!  Especially since I actually made pattern pieces for it in the first place, unlike what I normally do.  ;)  It's nice to actually be able to recreate a style that I like!!

Even the back of the collar is cute!  :)

I originally planned on adding cuffs to her dress, but it looked too pretty without them to add them to it.  They ended up being just the right length and size, which is so fun!!

I'm so happy that the dress fits her so well, and looks so pretty on her!  :)  A pretty dress on a gorgeous lady.  Thanks for modeling it, Sarah!!  <3

• 1940s Evening Gown •

I'm very excited about today's post!!  :)  I never thought I would be making, much less posting about a vintage-style evening gown so soon, but it worked out for me to make one just a month or so ago.  There's something fabulous about vintage ('30s-50s) evening gowns; they are more often than not the absolute opposite of today's idea of an evening gown (ie: plunging neckline, strapless, short, tight, slits everywhere, etc.  Not good!).  Instead, they were elegant, gorgeous, and (typically) modest dresses that are nothing short of beautiful.  And who doesn't love wearing a long, pretty dress?!

(See my 1930s and 1940s evening gown Pinterest boards for inspiration.)

 It all started with this gorgeous rayon fabric my dear friend Sarah gave me; I needed to make a dress to wear to a friend's wedding, and this fabric seemed to be just the ticket.  I couldn't decide what style of dress to make for the longest time, but finally decided on a more formal-style evening gown, as opposed to a day dress.  I was still agonizing over the design, but then I saw this dress, the design of which really appealed to me.  Rather simple, and with almost a shirtdress-type bodice, but still very elegant and unmistakably formal.

The only problem with that design was that I didn't have enough fabric!  The skirt I made ended up taking an awful lot of fabric, so there just wasn't enough left for the bodice.  I ended up going to the fabric shop and finding an 18-somethings repro print that matched really well!  It's definitely not a combination you would expect to go together, but I think the two patterns and colors compliment each other nicely. 

I used Simplicity 8050 for the bodice, making the neckline just like the pattern, and adding a (very much needed!!) modesty panel.  I didn't want to try to alter the neckline, as doing so would have completely changed the look of it, as much as it would have needed to be raised.

I looked at '40s evening gown patterns that I could find online to see what the width around the hem was, in order to have an idea of how full to make the skirt.  They were surprisingly full, on average, so I ended up using a vintage '50s pattern for the skirt, just lengthening it, you know.........a lot.  ;)  I really love the way it hangs, and it's full enough to drape really well in the rayon fabric.

I made a cummerbund, using the Simplicity 1459 piece as a guide (although I may have made it wider than the pattern piece, I don't recall).  I did NOT cut it on the bias, however, and it's a very good thing I didn't, as the rayon fabric keeps stretching out each time I wear it!  I already took it in a bit, and it stretched out beyond that once again.  The side "seams" of the cummerbund are "boned" with collar stays, as is the back opening.  We won't talk about the night-before-the-event cheat of using hook-and-eye tape for the back closure.  ;) 

Just reading the directions, the collar seems really crazy to put together, but once you are actually making it, it's quite easy!  It was rather difficult in this case, dealing with one layer of persnickety rayon and one layer of un-persnickety cotton, but it still came out perfectly.  I half expected the dress to come out of the wash with a very shriveled collar, but it came out looking perfect, thank goodness!  ;)  I would love to make this dress up in a pretty cotton floral!

A side note on the fit of 8050; I'm not quite sure what they were thinking when they came up with the measurements for that pattern, but I ended up cutting the bodice out almost a whole size bigger, while having to cut the waist smaller.  If I recall correctly, they allow something like 1" of ease in the bust, while allowing around 4" at the waist.  And they don't want you to wear a belt.  Hmmm.....

Sarah, who is an amazing seamstress, has a gorgeous 1940s-style dress made out of this exact rayon fabric for sale in her shop here, if you are interested!  It is an extremely comfortable-to-wear fabric, very good quality, and has a lot more body to it than any other rayons I've dealt with. The dress is currently on sale, so do check out the listing!  :)

The sleeves of my dress are from a vintage 1930s pattern.  I had read in several different places that the armhole area and sleeves of Simplicity 8050 were not comfortable as-is, so I went ahead and just used a different armhole and sleeve, since I wanted a sleeve with detail anyway.

The true test to see if a dress is really a good one or not, is seeing if it twirls well.

This dress passes the test.  ;)

We had fun finding some new locations to take pictures!  This house is one that was built around 1902-05  (hurrah for one of the very few historical houses/anythings in our area!!), and is quite gorgeous from all angles!  Unfortunately it is a private residence, so we couldn't go and putz around inside, but at least we got to take some fun pictures on the grounds!  ;)  

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

• Civil War Series, Part III •

It is time for the final Civil War Series post, at long last!!!  ;) 

As you probably have gathered by now, we had the grandest time wearing our dresses and taking these photos, so be warned; there are quite a few of them.  There were just too many fun ones to leave out.  ;)  I hope you enjoy them!  

First off, however, is my mom's dress!  It is made in the same basic style as my dress, with only the slightest of variations.  Her fabric was purchased from Whittle's Fabrics as well, and is also an 1860s reproduction.  The color and pattern of the fabric suit her so well!!  :)

It was so fun to have a different location for each of our dresses to be photographed in, even though we were in a very small park area in town.  We'll definitely be going back there for pictures!

She used gorgeous pearl buttons for a false front effect.  We happened to have the perfect buttons for each of our dresses in the stash, which was a rare and exciting happening!  ;)

Her bonnet is also from Regency Austentation, decorated with beautiful silk taffeta from Ensembles of the Past.  I love how the colors of the silk match her dress so perfectly!!

Accenting the neckline is one of her grandma's many crocheted collars.  And speaking of crochet, Mom made her reticule from her own self-drafted pattern.  She is a regular trooper when it comes to crocheting, and is never satisfied until what she's making is just perfect.  I think she definitely succeeded in making it that way, don't you?  :)  It is made of cotton yarn and lined in cream-colored cotton fabric.

One simply must have watched the movie "Cranford" to fully appreciate this photo.........  ;)

Some of us elegantly fan ourselves, some of us  primly fix our bows, and some of us just twirl.  ;)  It is rather addictively fun in these dresses, I must admit.  

Civil War Series • Part I • Sarah's Blue Stripe Dress

I'm so excited about today's post! For the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting about our Civil War dresses we recently made.

My dear friend Sarah flew out here a couple of weeks ago for a week-long visit that included some serious sewing and a Civil War reenactment. When she got here, she still needed to finish sewing the binding onto her corset and put in the grommets. Once she was done with that, we started cutting into the dress fabric. We made the dress from start to finish in about a day and a half. :D There were a couple of pretty late nights, but we got it licked. And boy, oh boy, did it ever come out beautifully!!! Thank you, Lord!!

We used Laughing Moon #111, which I would highly recommend! We didn't make a mockup, just did a few basic measurements, but it ended up fitting her *perfectly* with almost no alterations. The only alterations needed were taking in the sides a tiny bit (which we knew would be necessary being she was in between sizes) and raising the darts about an inch. It was such an easy pattern to put together, and it fits so well! :)

Sarah wanted to cut the bodice on the bias in order to have a chevron effect, so she enlisted my mom, the queen of stripe-matching, to match it up. And she did, ever so amazingly!!! She changed the bodice front overlap a little bit in order to make the chevron be in the center. 

Then came the back bodice. :D Which she also matched up impeccably. 

The Civil War reenactment that we attended, although the biggest one in my home state, was rather unimpressive. Admittedly, the only other reenactment I have been to happened to be the biggest one of that era in the United States, but even so, this one was definitely lacking. There was a total of four sutlers, only one of which had period-correct items for sale, and they were all soldier-oriented, with nothing for the ladies. There was a fashion show that was quite fun and interesting, and a weaver with a 1790s loom, so those two highlights helped make up for what was lacking. 

It was also about 40* F out and extremely windy, with occasional rain, so that put a damper on everything a bit as well! Thankfully we had three capes and some shawls to wear, so we kept the frostbite away, at least. But still, my hands got colder than they've ever been before in my life. :|

That being said, it was still quite a lot of fun, and a very good excuse to make Civil War dresses. 

But then, any excuse to make them is a good one, right?!! ;)

She piped the back, sleeve, neck and waist seams. The skirt is pleated onto a waistband, and the bodice is stitched to the waistband in between the piping and the bodice. The top edge of the waistband is slip-stitched to the bodice lining. 

Even though we made the dress in a hurry, we still did all stitching that's visible on the outside by hand. :)

Layers, layers!! :D She wore a beautiful tucked under-petticoat beneath her hoop, and a fluffy, ruffled petticoat over top. All of them combined made for the perfect silhouette! Thankfully, her hoopskirt survived being packed into a suitcase, and didn't get removed for inspection! ;)

The fabric she used for this dress happens to be the blue version of my green striped 1940s dress fabric. We didn't get any decent pictures of them together as of yet, but perhaps the next time we get together we can do just that! We want to do a century-spanning photo shoot, with each of us looking positively *shocked* at each other's outfits. ;)

This was such a fun project to work on, and we were all thrilled with how it came out!

Thanks for letting us help with your gorgeous dress, Sarah! You look beautiful!!! <3