• Plaid 1940s Fall Frock •

Hello to all my dear blog-readers....if there are any of you left, that is!  ;)  I thought I'd take advantage of a evening home from church due to sickness and try to write up a little blog post.  Life has been hectic, as usual, and I do plenty of thinking about blogging, but that's usually as far as it gets.

This little dress is one that I whipped up last fall (nearly a year ago now!) and it fast became a favorite in my fall/winter wardrobe.  Made of a woven cotton, it isn't necessarily super thick and insulating, but renders itself just the perfect weight for comfortable cold weather wear.

Last October, a customer of mine where I work brought in a big bag of vintage patterns that had been her aunt's, which she "was sure weren't my size, and I probably wouldn't use them."  As it turned out, they were ALL but one in my (and my mom's) exact size range and were amazing, gorgeous, distinct 1930s-1950s patterns that I had not seen anywhere else.  It was SO sweet of her to bring them, and it really was the Lord's timing, as I was having a very hard day and she brightened it immensely with her sweet gift!

This dress was made from one of those patterns, a quintessential '40s frock with just enough nifty details to make it really fun to wear.

{{It has a POCKET....}}

The pattern called for strips of fabric cut on the straight grain and topstitched with 5-6 lines down them, but since I had a plaid to work with, I thought bias would be just the ticket.  It was a little tricky to work with since it became stretchy, being on the bias, but made for a pretty cute contrast!  It also allowed me to NOT have to match up some of the seams, which was very much to my liking!  I love plaid, you might even say I have an addiction to plaid fabrics, yet I really, deeply despise having to match the pattern.  ;P

The sleeves on this dress are some of my favorite '40s long sleeves, and I've used them in several projects since then.  The sleeve cap has three gentle darts, and the remainder of the sleeve is eased in with little or no visible gathering.  The cuffs are pointed just so, which adds another quiet detail. 

My mom bought me these awesome buttons at an antique shop a few years back, and they worked out perfectly for this dress!  Small buttons just didn't cut it, but the large, carved ones gave the dress just the "pop" of contrast needed.

One of the main reasons I love this dress so much is how comfortable it is!  The style of the collar is *perfectly* comfortable, and it fits very well around the neck area.

Oh yes....I hadn't done bound buttonholes in a little while, so I took the opportunity to throw in a little more fabric on the bias.  SO fun.

I paired the dress with my new-to-me Sam Edelman boots.  I hadn't heard of the brand before, but came across these western-inspired all-leather riding boots on Ebay, in my size, for a really great price, and couldn't resist.  I couldn't be happier with them; they are extremely comfortable, fun to wear, and feel great on my feet, even after standing/walking all day long at work.

Well, thus ends my humble little blog post!  I hope that you are all doing well!  I plan to do some more blogging as fall and winter approach, but only time will tell.  I do have great and wonderful plans for expanding my fall/winter wardrobe, so I'm very excited to work on that!  It is bound to be a busy fall with special meetings coming up at church, reenactments, a friend's wedding, concerts to attend, and practice for participating in a production of Handel's Messiah this winter.  Along with the busy work schedule, keeping up with household chores, and property maintenance.  Praise the Lord for a home to care for!

The Lord is so good, so bountiful in His blessings and care for us; we have SO much to be thankful for!  

"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

"Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

• 1940s in the Forest •

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I had the honor of attending Remembering WWII down in Linden, TN.  It was an absolutely amazing event that I will never, ever forget.  This was the second time we have attended, but the first time that we were actually able to participate.  What an amazing time!  I hope to have some more pictures to share with you of that soon, but for now, here is one of my outfits that I made for the Sunday after RWWII.

We rented a house out in the boondocks, and nearly became permanent residents there due to the a nearly impassable road that led to the house.  A lot of prayers, a lot of mud and a slightly scraped up undercarriage later, we made it!  Aside from the interesting surroundings, it was a nice house, and the land around it was gorgeous.  It was situated right on a river, so there was a nice little stairway leading down to the riverside that made for a nice backdrop.

A few months back, we found a cute little '40s dress pattern on Ebay for just a few dollars, and it has turned out to be one of our top favorite patterns ever.  It's a fairly simple style, but with those quintessential 1940s details that make it *so* fun.

As an aside, I'm pretty sure I'm putting ties in every single dress I make from now on.  I love the freedom from wearing a belt, while still getting the nice fit!  :)

The dress features a slit-and-gather detail on the front bodice, making it almost appear like it has a yoke.  The collar and facing is cut in one, and the skirt features about 8 or so slim, flared panels that give it a very swingy effect in the front.

The back skirt is a simple 3-panel style.  I used some vintage '40s yardage that we had in the stash ($9 or so at an antique shop - for a little over 4 yards!!), and squeezed the dress out of that.  It would not have been a "squeeze" if it were not for the fact that I am 6' tall - that does make a difference when cutting out skirts!  In any case, the dress fit in that amount of fabric perfectly, and I got a nice little hem as well, finished with my favorite vintage Hug Snug.

I paired the dress with my favorite shoes of all time - Royal Vintage Ritas (if some benevolent stranger ever wants to buy me something, just get me about 7 more pairs of these so that I will have them 'til my dying day.)  Hahaha!!!  They are seriously that good though, I wear them while standing on my feet all day long at work, and my feet aren't even tired at the end of the day.  Love them!!

I'd been hoarding these cute little green buttons for years, and they finally found their perfect home.  They were a little grungy looking at first, but after a quick wash, they looked like new again!

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Thanks for reading!

• 1950s Projects •

Today I thought I'd share a few projects that I made towards the end of last year for different folks!  This first one was a custom order in my Etsy shop for a lady who was going on a vacation to Europe, and wanted a vintage-style formal gown to wear to a performance of Swan Lake that she was attending in Paris, on Christmas Eve!  The dress has been referred to as "The Swan Lake Dress" ever since.  ;)

I was halfway scared out of my wits to make such a dress, out of satin, in what appeared to be a complex pattern (Vogue 8850), for someone else, just based on their measurements, but it ended up being a pretty easy task!  The pattern is actually quite fun to make, and the satin was not nearly as difficult to work with as I expected.

My customer chose this gorgeous seafoam green crepe-backed satin for her dress, and I *love* the color.  Positively gorgeous!

The only major change I made to the dress was the sleeves; the ones that come with the pattern are very fitted in the upper arm as-is, so I believe I cut the sleeve on a larger size, and then tapered the seams down to the appropriate measurement at the forearm.

Hand-picked zipper!  This picture makes it look all bunchy, but it really was not in person. 

A really fun aspect of this dress is the skirt overlay, which actually hangs about 2" below the skirt hem!

It is a quarter circle, gathered on top, and ideally rolled-hemmed by hand all the way around (nope, didn't do it - just ironed under the edge twice and slip-stitched), and then tacked to itself on the underside so it lays just right.  It's so nifty!!

The top gathers are part of the right bodice piece, but the gathers on the lower part of the bodice are a separate piece that is gathered on both ends and blind-stitched down on the edges.  The button tab is also cut in one with the right bodice piece.

Next up is this cute '50s blouse that I made for a friend last summer.  I had gotten the fabric on sale shortly beforehand, and it seemed like just the right print for her.  I used a vintage blouse pattern in my stash, and whipped it up in no time.

I love the details of the blouse, especially the neckline with bow!!  It was a bit of a trick to do that narrow of binding around the neck, and then to turn the ties afterwards, but it came out good, thankfully.

Can I just say, YAY for pattern-matching?  ;)

Covered buttons are always a good thing.  ;)  I also made a vintage-style tie scarf to go with the blouse out of the green polka dot fabric.

Another *yay* for armhole facings!!  So much easier than bias, and it lays much more smoothly when it's finished.

This dress was for the same lady, also from an original 1950s pattern.  My mom cut out the dress, seeing as she is the pattern-matching master in the house, and I did the sewing.  ;)  She did a smashing job of it too!

I love the style of this dress - it's such a classic style of vintage housedress.  The front just closes with a zipper that extends below the waist, so it's easy on-and-off!

And that's all for today, except to say that there is a SALE going on in my Etsy shop right now!  Use the coupon code WINTERSEND to save 20% off your purchase, now through Monday, March 20th.  Check out the shop now!

• It's All About the Boots •

It's time for the big, exciting, amazing, and long-awaited shoe post.  :D

In short, I have new boots.  And to say that I love them is a definite understatement.

Last month, Royal Vintage Shoes announced that the Victoria Carriage Boots were no longer going to be available on the RVS website, and therefore were on sale.  Well, I have been mourning the lack of any winter-appropriate footwear in my "shoe wardrobe" for a long time, and these were so utterly tempting, I couldn't resist.

The boots are made of velveteen on the outside, with genuine mouton (soooo soft) fur trim, grosgrain ribbon ties, and a quilted sateen lining.  In short, they are the fuzziest, wuzziest, most wonderful boots I've ever owned, or will ever own.  And on top of that, they are gorgeous and oh-so-vintage, instead of looking like bedroom slippers!  ;)

Since the soles are made of leather, I took them in to our (amazing) local cobbler and had him put some thin rubber soles on the bottoms for both durability and traction.  He did an excellent job, and they are now ready for anything winter throws my direction!  I also gave them 4(!) coats of waterproofing/stain-repellant spray, which has worked wonders so far.  All the crunching through snow that I did in this and two other consecutive photo shoots left them dry as a bone; the snow didn't stick to them, and any moisture just beaded off.  Amazing!!!!!!!  :D

The boots are still available on the American Duchess website HERE, but only until the remaining sizes sell out, then they'll be gone forever.

As for the outfit, this skirt is a recent make of mine.  My dear sis Sarah sent me a "just because" package back in January, consisting of a vintage pattern and two different wools, one of them being this plaid and the other a solid brown, which I also recently made into a skirt.  I love wool fabric, plaid, and the color gray, so this was a total winner.  It is so good that I waited practically a year to make it into *just* the right garment!  ;)

I've been making quite a few skirts lately, and am having a blast wearing them.  Before I started making my own clothing, my wardrobe consisted of about 97% skirts and blouses with only about 3% dresses.  Now that I do sew my own clothing, however, the situation has just about reversed for whatever reason!  I am really enjoying adding more skirts and blouses to the mix though; they are so comfortable and very easy to customize for a dressier or more casual look.

For this one, I used a vintage '50s pattern in our stash for a medium-fullness, flared skirt.  I definitely wanted that chevron effect at the front and back seams, and shockingly enough, none of our modern repro patterns seemed to have that!  The pattern I used had the centers front and back directly on the bias, with the side seams being on the straight grain.  It was the perfect pattern for the fabric, because it fit on to the 2 yard piece just right!  :) 

The blouse is a make from earlier this year; you can read about the construction of it here.  

Although I love plaid, I tend to avoid making garments out of it like the plague, because I have so little faith in my matching skills (and rightly so!).  This one was a real confidence-booster though!!  It's always so fun when something comes out just the way you want it to.

Have I mentioned it yet?  I love these boots.  --->SO MUCH<---

Another super-exciting aspect about them is, they not only work great with my everyday vintage wardrobe, but also will work (even more so, if that's possible) beautifully with my historical dresses as well, since the original design dated from the 1860s-1920s.  I can't wait to pair them with a big, fluffy dress.  ;)

This is a pretty good photo to end with; it pretty much sums up the way I feel about my new shoes, and this skirt.  ;D

A big thank you to Sarah (<3) for my gorgeous wool, and also to Lauren and the crew at AD and RVS for the stunning boots!!  I would highly, highly recommend them to anyone looking for wintry vintage footwear; comfortable, incredibly high quality, and downright gorgeous.

****ALSO****

My Etsy shop is having a Christmas sale right now!!  Save 20% off your purchase when you use the coupon code MERRYCHRISTMAS20, valid through Sunday, December 25th.  Stop by the shop and check it out!  :)

• Red, White & Blue 1950s Separates •

My mom made this blouse for the 4th of July, and I found it utterly too fabulous not to share immediately.  ;)  

She found this nautical novelty print fabric at our favorite antique shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin (Antique Corner) for $0.50.  It is such a cute print, and the colors were perfect for a 4th-of-July-themed blouse!  The tiny polka dot fabric (JoAnn) was the perfect accent.

She is currently working on a dress made from a vintage 1950s pattern that Robin of Auntie Establishment on Etsy so kindly sent us, and this blouse is essentially the wearable mockup from that pattern.  It is always nice to be able to put your efforts into something wearable when making a mockup, rather than something that you can never wear.  

Robin sent another pattern for a stunning draped 1940s dress that I can not wait to get started on!  (What am I waiting for, that's the question.....!!)

She made tiny strips of binding out of the polka dot fabric to accent the sleeves.  It adds such a perfect nautical flair, don't you think?  

Her skirt is made from a 1950s pattern, but she altered it so much, it might as well be her own self-drafted pattern.  ;)  It is an eight-gore skirt, with in-seam pockets, incidentally, made from the most wonderful poly or poly-blend fabric from Hancock Fabrics.  I think a large *SOB* covers that subject pretty well.  

The waistband of the skirt, as well as the front, is accented by button tabs that act as belt loops when she wears a belt with it, but just make for pretty accents when she doesn't.  Gotta love that fun '50s flair!!

As always, she matched up the pattern *precisely*.  I think I shall hire her to do all my matching from now on.......... ;)

These cute little round buttons were the perfect accent for the blouse, and she sewed them on in groupings of three for added vintage flair.  I have the same buttons as well, and can. not. wait. to put them on *just* the right dress.

Her shoes are sadly hidden in most of these pictures, and I believe it is their first airing on the blog!  Sadness!!  They deserve a whole post to themselves, I think.  ;) 

They are the cutest shoes ever, inarguably, and she got them for an incredible price.  Miss L Fire "Betty" sandals, which retail for $165.  I happened to be browsing on Modcloth one day, and lo and behold, they had ONE pair of them left, in size 8.5, which is what she wears.  For $50.  Yep, you read that right.  Needless to say, they came our direction very shortly thereafter.  Now if I could just shrink my feet by approximately 30%, I could wear them too!!!  ;)

This blouse and skirt of mine are fairly new makes as well, but I wanted to save posting about them until they are paired with the right pieces.  This photo was too fun not to share though.  ;)

I recently added a clearance section to my Etsy shop, so do hop over and check it out!  Have a lovely week, and thanks for stopping by!  

• 4th of July Polka Dot Dress •

Since I missed posting (again....) last week, I thought I'd take a break from the Civil War series and share my latest creation; a 4th of July-themed dress! 

This fabric was originally intended for my birthday dress, but the lemon fabric ended up taking its place.  Finally I decided to make a fun 1950s dress that would be suitable for the 4th of July!  Although it's not quite your typical patriotic blue color, it has enough fun flair to fill the gap, don't you think?  ;)

I really wanted to use ricrac on the dress, but not just around a collar or some such; I wanted it sewn into some seams, like on Tara's polka dot dress.  I finally settled for this late 1940s Chicago Tribune Pattern (side note to Gina: based on the postmark on the envelope, this pattern is from 1949 or before!), with a circular skirt.  Thankfully, earlier this year when I purchased the fabric, I got 6-1/2 yards, plus an additional 1-1/2 yard piece, so I had plenty for a nice, full, circle skirt.  I didn't end up using the 1-1/2 yard piece, but that should make an awfully cute little girls' 1950s dress.  :)

The pattern I used has two tucks coming down from the yoke seam, with gathers on each side at the waist.  I really didn't want it to be blousy, but rather more fitted, so I narrowed the bodice pieces down and drafted darts instead.  Let's just say it's a miracle that the fabric survived that many unpickings!!  ;)  I was only basting the darts in each time, but it still ended up being an awful lot of sewn and removed stitching lines.  The end result is what counts though, and I am very happy with how it came out!

The ricrac I used on the bodice was from a vintage packet, but the ricrac around the skirt was new.  I went to the local fabric shop to get some, hoping to get 7-1/2 yards, because that's what I thought I would need, based on a preliminary measurement around the unhemmed skirt.  They only had 6-3/8 yards at the store, but I bought it anyway in hopes of it....growing.  ;)  Thankfully, once the skirt was hemmed, I ended up only needing approximately 6.12 yards, so I had a nice little piece leftover.  Happy day!!!  :D

Since I was going for a fun, casual look with the dress, I opted for a contrasting sash, rather than a belt.  

One feature I really love about this dress is *the pocket*!!!!!!!  :D  I used to be a total anti-pockets-in-the-side-seams person, until I was reminded of the fact that certain types of side-seam pockets are actually really nice.  As long as they are sewn into the waist seam and not just the side seam, they lay beautifully and are downright handy to have!  Hence, my first side-seam pocket.  And I am officially a convert.  ;)

Since I haven't wrapped my mind around how to insert a zipper and a pocket in the same seam yet, I'm sticking with a right side pocket for now, since I've noticed other seamstresses doing the same.  Easy, and too much fun!

When one is wearing a circular skirt, one simply *must* take the obligatory melting-dress photo.  ;)

I mentioned having changed the tucks into darts earlier; it was not such an easy feat on the back bodice!  At first I made the two little tucks on each side at the top, with a dart coming up from the waist below them on each side.  What resulted was a nice, big bubble on each side.  Hmm.  Then I tried just taking a couple of tucks at the waist on each side.  More bubbles.  Finally I had to just continue the tucks down to the waist on each side, taking in the needed amount of fabric at both the yoke and waist seams.  It worked, and hopefully doesn't look too out of place.  

This is actually the first real circle skirt I've ever worn!  I have made two of them before, one in a green diagonal plaid, that sadly did not fit, and the other being on my remade 1950s dress.  Although the '50s dress has a circular skirt, being it was taken off of my original walkaway dress, it does not hang quite like a standard circular skirt would because of the original way it was cut out.

Happily, this dress convinced me that I do indeed like circular skirts!!  :)  They might be a little frightening in wind storms (check the forecast before choosing outfits, perhaps?), and a little painful to wear when one is cutting out a project on the floor, but other than that, they are a delight to wear.

I was able to do a little over a 1" hem on this skirt as well, which was fun!  I was afraid it would have to be eased in an awful lot, but it really didn't, and was surprisingly easy to hem.  And perhaps the slightly heavier hem than on my previous circular skirt will help ward off the inevitable results of those undesirable gusts of wind.  ;)

Thanks to my mom for the gorgeous buttons!  I originally planned to use some rather monstrous red ones that I purchased at JoAnn, but they were utterly too big.  These were just the ticket, and beautiful to boot!  :)

If you haven't done so lately, do stop by my Etsy shop!  I have recently added several garments to the stock, one of which is in a smaller size, and can be custom ordered in a different fabric of your choice.  And there is a sale on through July 4th; receive 20% off when you use the coupon code HAPPYFOURTH.

I hope you all have a lovely week and a very enjoyable 4th of July!  Let us pray for our country, that the Lord would grant us a revival, and our country would return to the values and beliefs that its founders stood for.  Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!