• 1930s Day Dress in Plaid •

Life can get so hectic and stressful at times, and as such blogging gets put onto the back burner.  Thanks so much for bearing with my crazy and impromptu schedule though.  :)

Today I'm sharing another dress I made for my vacation back in August.  I wore this dress on the day I left, making it my airplane-travel dress.  It worked amazingly well for that purpose and was extremely comfortable, which is a huge bonus!  So yes, I was that gal trotting around the airport sporting milkmaid braids, a goofy dress covered with yellow bows, and hand-sewing a colonial corset for a doll.  What else would you expect from me?!!  ;)

This dress from Raleigh Vintage was always one of my favorites, so when I happened upon it again in a search for plaid dress styles, I knew that it was the one to make.  The fabric I used is from the Aunt Grace Ties One On collection by Judie Rothermel for Marcus.  It is an absolutely lovely fabric that is comfortable to wear, nice and thick, and doesn't wrinkle much at all!

For the front bodice, I used Simplicity 3688, cutting the neck a bit bigger (I think?), adding a center front seam on the yoke, and spreading the gathers out a bit more on the yoke front-bodice front seam.  I also took in the bodice quite a bit at the waist for a more fitted look.

The original dress actually just has a bias-bound keyhole opening in the front, but since I didn't want that much neck showing, I opted for a little zipper instead.  At a glance, the original dress actually looks like it has a zipper, so it works out just fine!  ;)

The back bodice is also (sort of) from S3688, modified to have a back yoke and a gathered back bodice.  In essence, the top of the bodice was cut wider in order to gather it onto the yoke, but the bottom was then cut narrower than the pattern in order to have it be fitted without darts.

Since I have always found the sleeves from S3688 to be terribly restrictive (I can't raise my arms without the whole garment shifting), I used the sleeves and armscyes from Simplicity 3847.  That worked really well, so much so that this dress features some of the most unrestricted arm movement of any of mine!   Hurrah!!! 

The skirt is comprised of two pieces, a front and a back.  The front features two large pleats that are topstitched down, and both the front and back pieces are flared.  I had to cut the skirt approximately 11" longer than the finished length (adding 4.5" for a 2.25" finished width tuck, plus 5" for the hem and 1.5" or so for seam allowance and hem adjustments).  From what I could tell, the original dress had a deep hem that extended up beyond the base of the tuck, thereby hiding the stitching line.  So I did the same with my dress!  I sewed my tuck all the way around, then used some gorgeous blue 1" rayon seam binding from my stash to hem up the skirt.  It worked famously, and I was able to machine-stitch the hem with no guilt whatsoever!  (Actually, I do sometimes machine-stitch hems that are going to be visible, and really don't feel guilty about it at all.)  ;) 

The skirt hangs so nicely with such a deep hem.  Too bad there isn't always enough fabric to do that!!

Sarah made me aware of the gorgeous Kona cottons at JoAnn to my attention, and I couldn't be any happier with them.  Great quality, nice and thick, and a far better price than one can purchase an equivalent for at a quilt shop!  I found some perfect yellow and white solids that were just what was needed for the accents on this dress. 

The bows are just tacked on so they can be easily removed for washing.  The upper one is tacked to the zipper pull, thereby disguising it.  ;)  The collar was a bit of a trick to draft, and I didn't quuuiiite get the shape right, but it's pretty close.  Close enough to be quite satisfied with!!!  ;)

Sometimes, like with this dress, you need a plain fabric tie-belt.  But I always hate wearing them because of the way that they scrunch up as soon as you start moving around.  So with this one, I was determined to figure a way to stiffen the thing in order to prevent that!  I finally came up with the solution, which was to sew wide grosgrain ribbon (exactly like what I am wearing for a belt in these pictures) to one half of the belt before sewing it together.  The ribbon only extends around to within about 2-3" of the knot on each side, so it doesn't interfere with the knot at all, but stabilizes the belt perfectly!!!  I couldn't be any happier with how it came out.  No fuss, no muss, no constant fiddling, yet it is just as comfortable (if not more so!) as a plain fabric belt.  I can't wait to use this trick again!!!  :D

An extra bonus?  The ribbon is yellow and polka-dotted, so it not only matches my belt, but makes it super fun to look at when taking it on and off.  ;)

This was such a fun dress to make, and I love having my own version of that pretty green one.  And it really brought home the point to me once more, that you can quite easily recreate a lot of dresses just by combining patterns that you already have.  It might take a little bit of finagling, but it's so worth it in the end.  Have you ever reproduced an original dress?  I would love to hear about it!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely week!!  Enjoy these last weeks of fall!  :)

• 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!! :)

• 1940s Nautical Dress •

I made this dress (affectionately known as "the boat dress") way back in March, anticipating a full season of fishing, starting with coho fishing in the middle of March. As it turns out, this has been one of the worst years for fishing ever, so this dress hasn't had a whole lot of experience yet!

We did manage to catch a few panfish... :)

I used Simplicity 1587 for the bodice, and Simplicity 3688 for the skirt. The main fabric is a cotton I found at our local quilt shop; I admired and agonized over it for months, but didn't decide to get it until there were just 3 teeny little yards left. Thankfully, I was able to squeeeeze this dress out of those three yards, with absolutely no extra fabric left. Not even enough for a back facing. :)

The contrasting fabric is linen from a blouse we had saved for just such a purpose. 

The linen drapes quite nicely in the linen fabric!

This is my fourth rendition of this pattern. See the others here:

Periwinkle 1940s Dress (now for sale in my Etsy shop here)

Floral 1940s Dress

Purple 1940s Dress

My first rendition of this pattern was early on in my sewing experience, and made from a polyester crepe, which fought me every step of the way. But ever since then, making it with cottons, I've found it to be one of the easiest patterns out there. It's a great pattern for beginners and experienced seamstresses alike!

My 1840s dress is taking a little longer than planned; I didn't use a strong thread when I made the cartridge pleats, so I already had one of the pleating threads break. Very sad. Needless to say, we invested in several colors of button and craft thread, so now I've got to get the skirt and waistband redone. It shouldn't take long, especially since my pleat markings are still intact.

There's always something new to learn! :)

Happy Labor Day to all of you!

• Pink 1940s Shirtdress •

Several weeks ago we had a little dress-photography-outing, so I have been deeply enjoying being able to have photos ready for posting each week!

This dress of my mom's is another top favorite of mine. It is simply gorgeous, and the fabric is perfect for summer! 

As with her rose chintz dress, she used Simplicity 3847 for the bodice, adding tucks front and back for a more fitted style. The skirt is from Simplicity 3688.

I just love the fabric! I have a definite weakness for tiny florals, and this is no exception.

The train station in town has ended up being an ideal backdrop for photos! The back yard can get a little monotonous at times, so it's nice to have a little change of scenery.

My mom happened to have these >gorgeous< buttons in her stash (oh, to have such a button stash!), and they were the perfect match for her fabric. This jelly-red buckle was the perfect accent!

The skirt of the dress is lined, which really adds comfort and wonderful body.

And lastly, a photo from one of our antiquing forays! That particular town had a lovely courthouse, which just happened to be decked out in patriotic decor, so it made for some lovely pictures.

Since the new Vintage Vogue patterns for fall came out, I've been getting the itch to start planning for a fall wardrobe. I can't wait to get to the fabric store! :) Wool dresses, wool skirts, and some lovely 3/4 sleeve blouses are on the sewing itinerary.

Thank you all for your lovely and encouraging comments on last week's post! You're all so sweet, as always, and I appreciate every one of you. :)

• Striped 1940s Frock •

You might just recognize that fabric, right? It's the keyhole tutorial dress! :)

Several weeks back, while perusing Pinterest for sewing inspiration, I spotted an absolutely adorable dress on a 1940s pattern cover. It is so pretty!

Pattern for sale here.

I had this green striped material in my stash (to make bathroom curtains, no less), but it really was the perfect choice to make into this dress. My mom also had a couple of yards of the fabric, and was gracious enough to let me have how much more I needed. Thanks, Mom!!!

I used Simplicity 3688 (one of my new favorite patterns!) for the bodice and sleeves, cutting the yoke crosswise to look like the original pattern picture. The bottom of the bodice is gathered onto a waistband rather than tucked.

I also cut the back bodice on the fold and made a faced keyhole opening, as you know from the tutorial.

I always shudder at the thought of fitting a waistband, whether it be on a dress or skirt, but I managed to get this one just right nevertheless. There's something *so* comfortable and fun about wearing a dress without a belt!

Since the back shoulder measurement was slightly narrow for me, I made it slightly wider and eased it onto the front shoulder. That's definitely one of my favorite fitting tricks!

For the neckline, I simply cut it square rather than round, but making sure that the front of the neckline was markedly narrower than the shoulder area. I didn't care to repeat my redo dress experience! Thankfully, there isn't a bit of neckline-gaping on this one.

The back bodice is gathered evenly across the back, whereas the front has concentrated gathers that are even with the gathers at the top of the bodice.

I really love this dress, and am happy with how it came out! It was very fast and easy to sew too, so maybe I need to make that other view with the floral fabric and lace.... ;)

I've been on a vintage kids' clothes sewing binge lately, so you'll be seeing some of that soon (Friday posts again!). There's just nothing on earth cuter than little vintage baby clothes. Period. ;)

If you haven't checked them out yet, be sure to take a look at the Miss L Fire shoes for sale on the blog here.