• 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 Peppermint Dot Christmas Dress •

Last week I said I hoped I would be posting “Christmas dress progress” because I never thought I’d have this dress done so soon! But I do! Yay!!! It's always nice to be able to wear a Christmas dress during the Christmas season, right? ;)

And I'm happy to say that Christmas dress #2 (a vintage 1940s dress that is, well, gorgeous!) just arrived in the mail yesterday, so that should be up on the blog next week!

I have always loved this fabric, so when it went on sale a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t resist it. Novelty prints always seem to me like they belong in 1950s dresses, so I knew I would have to make a ‘50s dress out of it. However, I only ordered 3 yards of the fabric, so having an all-peppermint dot dress was not going to happen. I had planned on pairing the peppermint fabric with some solid red fabric, but didn’t end up having enough of the solid red either! I happened to take a peek in the fabric cabinet and randomly pulled out this red polka dot fabric, never expecting that it would actually match. Wasn't I excited when I saw that it actually did!!! :)

 I had originally planned on making a pleated skirt, but after experimenting around and finding that not only a pleated skirt, but also just about every skirt I could think of would not fit on that amount of fabric! Or if something did, it wasn’t nearly as full as I wanted it to be. I finally pulled out Simplicity 1250, and it actually fit on the fabric *just barely*! I did end up narrowing it down just a tad, but it only amounted to a couple of inches less fullness. And I LOVE this skirt! It’s full enough to look lovely with a petticoat, but still looks nice without one. Bonus! :)

The bodice is based off of Simplicity 1459 (we call it the “fall dress bodice” because that’s the first dress we made with that pattern. I suppose if we wanted to get all technical, we’d call it our “bodice sloper.”). The neckline is from Simplicity 2154, and the sleeves are from the 1459 pattern. Confusing enough? I thought so. ;)

I made the collar (Simplicity 2154) 1/2" bigger on three sides; it needed to be bigger to accommodate the lack of a bow-and-knot in the middle, of course. Plus, I wanted it to be a bigger collar in general, so I made it 1/2" bigger on the outside (round) edge. And lastly, since I was making it larger in circumference, I figured it would need to be bigger on the bottom (outside) edge in order to lay right, so I cut it 1/2" bigger on the back bottom edge, tapering to no extra at the neck edge. It was somewhat of a guess about how much to add, but it ended up being the perfect amount. Hurrah! :) And I love the size of the collar; it somehow feels a little bit more '50s fabulous!

I really really wanted winged cuffs on the sleeves, but I also really really wanted to be able to wear a sweater with it since it *is* a Christmas dress, so I had to forego them. *tear*

So instead, I made band-like "cuffs" that were simply sewn on right-side-to-wrong-side and then topstiched in place. It worked quite well, and now it's not only fun but also sweater-friendly!

This fabric is just so cute. I really do love it. And my favorite part about it is, even though it's very Christmas-y, it also can pass as just a very candy-themed dress, so I can actually wear it year-round! Yesssss! :D

This green buckle from our last antique haul adds a pop of accent color.

These buttons.

I love them.

And they were actually my own idea!! :)

At some point in time while thinking about buttons, I realized that covered buttons made out of the fabric itself would be just right! They really do add even more peppermint-y fabulousness to the dress, which was pretty much the whole idea! They were quite fun to make, although a little tricky to get centered just so. If I had it to do over again I would eliminate the red-on-red buttons because they just don't show up as good as the others do. But that's a pretty small complaint for a whole dress, right? ;) 

If only there was snow to go with how cold it felt outside yesterday! I'm sure it will come as soon as we have all our Christmas dress picture-taking out of the way. ;)

Have a lovely week, and thanks for visiting!

• 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.

~

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! •

• 1950s Favorite Fall Dress •

Months ago, I saw this fabric at JoAnn and fell in love with it. I ended up only getting enough for an apron and just loved it. A few months later, Lily of Mode de Lis posted about her fall dress, which happened to be made of the same fabric. I knew I had to have one like it. I was thrilled to find that JoAnn still had it in stock when we went back!

Since the neck had to be higher anyway, I decided to substitute a slightly different collar using Burda 7179. The collar isn't as big as the Simplicity pattern, but I still like it.

The only other alteration I made was making the sleeves less fitted. I love this dress!

The fabric called for big buttons, so these waffly ones fit the bill perfectly. 

I have been on the hunt for more vintage shoes, and found these online from DSW. They are leather, which makes them quite comfortable, and they have wooden heels! (very vintage)

This hat was my first vintage hat purchase ever from a local antique store.

My mom and I went out for a photo shoot in our matching fall dresses. It was such a beautiful day, we just couldn't resist going over to the nature preserve for some pictures. We got a few strange looks from passers by as we walked through the woods in high heels and petticoats.

Hop over to her blog to see more pictures.

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks for the great photography, Mom!

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