1940s • Winter Tones

These photos were taken almost a year ago, but we never got around to posting them!  Typically when I go back to the archives for outfits to blog about, the background never matches the current season, but in this case, it does!  ;)

My mom made this dress last year from some gorgeous fabric purchased for her birthday by my dad.  :)  She used Simplicity 3847 for the bodice, and added a simple gathered skirt for a perfect '40s shirtwaist look.  This is a similar style to her Rose Chintz Dress.

I love how the dress can look dressy with furs and accessories as shown in these pictures, as well as being a practical housedress at other times!  It's not often you can balance those two looks with one garment, but this dress is very much up to the mark.  ;)

The famous "Dead Monkeys" (read more on that here) fur piece has been featured with quite a few different outfits on the blog: 

-red plaid '40s

-'40s separates

-'40s Pendleton

She used the sleeves from Butterick 5846, for a less fitted look.  She also added ease to the back shoulder seam for added comfort. 

The fabric this dress is made of is a lighter-weight variety, so she made a 3" or so hem, which makes it hang ever so nicely.

Bound buttonholes!!!!  :D

These niftiest of buttons are some that she purchased from Czechoslovakia.  They are made of glass, and feature the prettiest design!  She has as couple of other styles and colors that she's just itching to use.  :)  There's nothing like vintage buttons!!

It is hard to believe that December is here already; we just had one of those a few months ago!!  ;)  I am hard at work on a custom dress for an Etsy customer, but meanwhile am planning my winter wardrobe as well.  I already have a (very) few pieces made, but am excited to add some more!  There's also a new addition coming in the footwear department that makes all of this winter sewing muuuuch more delectable to think about.  ;)  More on that soon!

Thanks for stopping by, ladies!!

• 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!  :)

• 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. :)

• Rose Chintz 1940s Dress •

I had several other posts scheduled ahead of this one, but this gorgeous dress of my mom's is such a favorite, I couldn't help making it the first in line!

She just made this dress last week, but it's already my favorite garment she's ever made. She found the fabric for it at an antique shop in Wisconsin, and at the time, I really didn't like it. But as soon as I saw it becoming a dress, I fell in love too!

The fabric is only 39" wide, so it is quite obviously not modern fabric, and most likely pretty old. Does anyone know when manufacturers started making fabric wider than that? 

In any case, she happened to have some gorgeous peach (I call them sorbet) buttons that matched the fabric perfectly, so it all came together very nicely. Our green buckle (also shared with my '40s Gumdrop Dress) was the perfect match for the belt.

She used Simplicity 3847 for the bodice of the dress, adding tucks in the front and back for a fitted-at-the-waist style. The skirt is gathered, but I love how it almost looks pleated!

Aaaanndd, this is her grand premiere of bound-buttonhole-making! Fortunately (or unfortunately), she seemed to have caught on to the finer aspects of the art much faster than I did; her buttonholes put mine to shame!

The pleats are only sewn together for about 1 1/2" from the waist seam, but they give it that perfect "shirtwaist" look. So gorgeous!!

The buttons. Yummy. 

She only had 3 yards of the fabric to begin with, but managed to squeeze the whole dress (and belt!) out of it. The scraps that are leftover, however, are not going to make too many little girls' dresses; that teeny pile includes what she cut off of the hem. That's what I call economical sewing!

~

I hate to bring political subjects up on my blog, but what happened last week goes far beyond the realm of politics; our country has indeed been fundamentally changed.

I, as a Christian can not stand by in silence when vile sin is celebrated and uplifted. 

The Bible says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil..."

The morals of our country are fast disappearing, and if Christians do not take a stand, who will?

Let us pray for our country to turn from its wickedness toward God.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord..."

When It Rains • 1940s Blouse

....it pours.

It has been quite the momentous week, between having sewing sessions with friends, kitchen appliances breaking down, and some other very interesting happenings. I was intending to wear and photograph my new 1930s dress yesterday, but I did not end up finishing it in time. I did manage to get this blouse finished, however, and I just love it!

My mom and I have been wanting and needing a nice vintage-style button-front blouse pattern for a very long time. We finally discovered one - Simplicity 3847 - and after searching multiple stores, found it in the right size. We weren't sure how it was actually going to look, considering the dreadful pattern cover art, but last week I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl.

As it turns out, it's one of the easiest to make, most comfortable blouses I have ever made! I like it very much, and can't wait to make some more renditions of it.

I was on the hunt last week for a suitable blouse fabric, and when I saw this cute umbrella-laden material, I just couldn't resist. Every girl needs an whimsical umbrella blouse, right?!

It pairs quite well with my trusty 1940s skirt, and my favorite red hat!

I found these lovely red rose buttons at an antique shop months ago, and they happened to match this fabric quite well! The bonus is that I still have 9 of them left to use for something else!

Oh, and I made bound buttonholes...again. They're so addictive! Whether I am getting better at making them or not is a whole different matter. ;)

I lengthened the sleeves 2 inches, but other than that there were no alterations. Yay! 

As you may have guessed, these photos were not taken by my lovely mom. I tried my hand at taking some self-portraits with the tripod, and they just aren't up to the mark.

In any case, I am looking forward to finishing up my 1930s dress and photographing it! It came out even better than expected, so I am quite excited! :)

Also, I am a little behind in the comment-responding department, but that will be remedied very soon. Thanks for bearing with me!!

Sew & Tell Saturday