1950s • Winter Woolens

First off, thank you all so very much for your overwhelmingly kind comments from last week's post.  You don't know how much that meant to my mom and I!!  You all are the best, and I'll never forget your kindness.  <3

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Last year I had a total of 2 winter-friendly garments, those being a wool dress and a flannel skirt.  This year, although I'm not exactly rolling in woolen garments, there has been a great increase in them, which makes me soooo happy!  I have been planning a fall/winter wardrobe for ages, but in the past, whenever the time came to actually sew it up, I either got busy, catastrophe struck, or I just felt like making fruit-covered sundresses.  ;)

I found this grey fabric at JoAnn a couple of months ago in their Famous Maker line.  I ended up getting it for something like $3 per yard because of the coupons we had, and it is not only 100% wool, but also made in Japan and 60" wide!!  Can't beat that!!

I used Simplicity 8250 for the skirt, but simply cut the front on the fold and omitted that extra seaming/foldover/topstitching business.  Somehow it seemed like that would have been terribly bulky in a heavier-weight fabric like this.  I also omitted the gigantic circuitous pockets....and skipped that wacky waistband.  So I guess you could say I based it off of S8250.  ;)

This sweater is so much fun.  I purchased it from Paper Luna Vintage at the same time as my mustard sweater, but this one had numerous moth chews on it, so I got it for an extra-good deal.  I set it aside when it arrived, though, because I really had no idea how to mend the holes.  I finally buckled down and decided to tackle it one day (the same day as I remade my fall skirt and cream blouse, incidentally; that was one awfully productive day in the mending realm!), using some cream colored yarn I found in our stash, a small embroidery needle, and our needle felter.  First I weaved the yarn in and out, catching the loose stitches, and kind of weaving it closed, and then I took that mended spot, laid it on the needle-felting pad, and felted it a bit, just to kind of blend the stitches and secure it together.  It worked quite amazingly well, and the spots are not really even noticeable anymore!!

This spot on the arm was the worst one; it was literally a gaping hole with a good 1/2"-5/8" of knit missing.  I weaved it shut and felted it though, and it came out pret-ty good!  ;)

The beading details on this thing are downright incredible.  I just can't imagine having the patience to do all that!!  The brand is "Broadway, Suburbanite Sportswear," dating from the 1950s.  The fun part is, while working on it I found a paper tag sewn inside the lining with the original price of $2.98 on it.  Hahaha!  Hard to even imagine such a thing these days!!

In the last few posts featuring '50s skirts, I've been wearing both my regular Malco Modes petticoat and a tiered flannel petticoat, and I'm really enjoying the fullness it lends!  On top of that fact is how wonderfully warm it is, as compared to nothing but a nylon net petticoat.  Big difference!!  I'll have to do a post on it sometime soon just so you can see the design of it and all.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

• 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!  :)

• 1940s Winter Wool Dress •

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a terrible tendency to make nothing but cotton dresses year round. Lightweight, pastel, summery cotton dresses. And that just isn't always practical when it's freeeezing cold outside! Thankfully, I managed to be in the mood for sewing a couple of warmer garments in the last few weeks. It was actually quite fun!!

I purchased this wool, 3 yards in total, last summer at our local fabric shop on clearance. I can't say that I actually loved it, because I didn't, but I really didn't care. Pendleton wool, 60" wide, on sale, USA made.
Irresistible, right?

I tucked it away in the "winter" section of the stash, figuring that I would make a jacket out of it eventually. Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago, I pulled it out to see what, if anything, I felt like making it into. We recently bought the new Vogue pattern 9052, which only calls for 2 7/8 yards for the dress. Heehee. Perfect, right? Except, who wants short sleeves on a winter wool dress? Not I. An eighth of a yard is not enough to get longer sleeves, but I decided to just start cutting out skirt pieces anyway in hopes that I could squeeze longer sleeves in later.

Thankfully, I was able to get three skirt pieces cut out of the width of the fabric, so that left me with plenty of leftover fabric to make my desired sleeves. I used the pattern's sleeve cap, but made the rest of the sleeve from Simplicity 1777. Now I have elbow darts. Happiness. :)

For being my first plaid-matching project ever, I'm definitely happy with how it came out! The fabric was really nice to work with, unlike the flannel on my pleated skirt.

I am glad to say that our lovely fur piece goes with the dress nicely! :)

Since the neckline of the dress pattern was quite low, I decided to do away with the front slit and replace it with a back keyhole opening. It worked out great, and I really like the slight V-neck effect that the final dress has. I used a plain cotton for the facings and topstitched to keep everything in place. I just love that little candy red button!

After I had the dress assembled, I tried it on and was shocked after looking at it. P-l-a-i-n. SO plain. Terribly, shockingly plain. The depths of despair were nearby, but I warded them off and started thinking about what I could do to make it interesting.
What would redeem it? Buttons? Pockets? Sashes?

I finally decided on pockets, and they ended up being just the thing. It's really nice to have them on a dress at long last! I used to be adamantly against them, but I'm starting to discover their uses. :)

It was so cold out that we decided to try an indoor photo shoot for once. But when you combine bad lighting and a bright red dress with a horrible photo editor (me), the photos end up being a little...interesting in color. I think I need to study up on Photoshop. A lot. Or become realllly good friends with a photographer. Hmmm.
All that aside, I am very happy with my dress! Now I will not be cold!!

• Photography by my mom •