Civil War Series • Part I • Sarah's Blue Stripe Dress

I'm so excited about today's post! For the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting about our Civil War dresses we recently made.

My dear friend Sarah flew out here a couple of weeks ago for a week-long visit that included some serious sewing and a Civil War reenactment. When she got here, she still needed to finish sewing the binding onto her corset and put in the grommets. Once she was done with that, we started cutting into the dress fabric. We made the dress from start to finish in about a day and a half. :D There were a couple of pretty late nights, but we got it licked. And boy, oh boy, did it ever come out beautifully!!! Thank you, Lord!!

We used Laughing Moon #111, which I would highly recommend! We didn't make a mockup, just did a few basic measurements, but it ended up fitting her *perfectly* with almost no alterations. The only alterations needed were taking in the sides a tiny bit (which we knew would be necessary being she was in between sizes) and raising the darts about an inch. It was such an easy pattern to put together, and it fits so well! :)

Sarah wanted to cut the bodice on the bias in order to have a chevron effect, so she enlisted my mom, the queen of stripe-matching, to match it up. And she did, ever so amazingly!!! She changed the bodice front overlap a little bit in order to make the chevron be in the center. 

Then came the back bodice. :D Which she also matched up impeccably. 

The Civil War reenactment that we attended, although the biggest one in my home state, was rather unimpressive. Admittedly, the only other reenactment I have been to happened to be the biggest one of that era in the United States, but even so, this one was definitely lacking. There was a total of four sutlers, only one of which had period-correct items for sale, and they were all soldier-oriented, with nothing for the ladies. There was a fashion show that was quite fun and interesting, and a weaver with a 1790s loom, so those two highlights helped make up for what was lacking. 

It was also about 40* F out and extremely windy, with occasional rain, so that put a damper on everything a bit as well! Thankfully we had three capes and some shawls to wear, so we kept the frostbite away, at least. But still, my hands got colder than they've ever been before in my life. :|

That being said, it was still quite a lot of fun, and a very good excuse to make Civil War dresses. 

But then, any excuse to make them is a good one, right?!! ;)

She piped the back, sleeve, neck and waist seams. The skirt is pleated onto a waistband, and the bodice is stitched to the waistband in between the piping and the bodice. The top edge of the waistband is slip-stitched to the bodice lining. 

Even though we made the dress in a hurry, we still did all stitching that's visible on the outside by hand. :)

Layers, layers!! :D She wore a beautiful tucked under-petticoat beneath her hoop, and a fluffy, ruffled petticoat over top. All of them combined made for the perfect silhouette! Thankfully, her hoopskirt survived being packed into a suitcase, and didn't get removed for inspection! ;)

The fabric she used for this dress happens to be the blue version of my green striped 1940s dress fabric. We didn't get any decent pictures of them together as of yet, but perhaps the next time we get together we can do just that! We want to do a century-spanning photo shoot, with each of us looking positively *shocked* at each other's outfits. ;)

This was such a fun project to work on, and we were all thrilled with how it came out!

Thanks for letting us help with your gorgeous dress, Sarah! You look beautiful!!! <3

• New Items in the Shop! •

These lovely new items are new in the shop! An 1860s pinner apron, an Edwardian Era skirt, and four gorgeous vintage patterns. Don't forget, you can save 20% with the coupon code BIRTHDAYSALE, through Monday, May 31st! 

Happy shopping! :)

• 1950s Lemon Print Birthday Dress •

Since I missed posting for two(!) weeks in a row, I thought an early post was in order for this week. Between cleaning, having a grand old time and sewing like crazy with my dear friend Sarah, and taking a 1200 mile road trip, it has been a busy couple of weeks!! :) 

Starting next week, I'll be posting about our Civil War dresses in several installments, but since yesterday was my birthday, I thought I'd share my birthday dress with you first. I originally planned on making a polka-dot birthday dress, but for various reasons decided not to, and picked this lemony fabric for this purpose instead. I wanted it to be a different style than any of my other dresses, so I chose to replicate this 1950s pattern: 

I fell in love with the collar design, so decided to give it a whirl. I used Vogue V9000 as a base for the bodice, Butterick 6055 for the skirt, and self-drafted the collar and cuff patterns.

The collar is made of nothing more than angled-edged bias pieces, so it wasn't hard to make at all, once I got the right measurements. It was a definite miracle and answer to prayer that it came out right, however, since I didn't make a mockup. :) Yay!!!

The neckline is cut slightly narrower at the shoulders, flaring out to be a little bit wider at the bottom of the front neckline. The collar lays very well in the front and sides, and curves around the shoulder to the back just as it was supposed to. Phew! I love the style so much, I'm planning a more formal dress in this same design as my next sewing project! Maybe it's because I've been watching the Burns and Allen show recently that I love this dress so much, but in any case, it reminds me very much of something Gracie would have worn!

The green buckle is borrowed from my peppermint dot dress. The yellow dotty ribbon from my navy polka dot dress makes a nice belt as well, if I want a different look. 

One of the gifts my parents got me is this gorgeous vintage yellow beret. I absolutely love it, and it matches so many of my garments! Since I didn't have a hat to wear with this dress, I got to open this particular present early. ;) Berets seemed to be a popular style all the way from the 1930s-50s, so it is very much the ideal hat, and fills a very large color gap in my hat wardrobe.

My mom has a lighter blue version of this fabric that she is planning on sewing up soon! It is going to be so gorgeous, I just can't wait to see it sewn together! The style, though also from the 1950s, is totally different than this dress, and perfectly suited for the fabric.

Perhaps we need to do another photo shoot with this dress, with a glass of lemonade as a prop. ;)

I officially *almost* have my vegetable gardens all in! All that remains to be done is planting green beans, a few pinto beans, and a few green onions. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers (bell and hot), black beans, onions, carrots and peas are all officially planted. :) 

Lord willing, we'll have a bountiful harvest this year!

Since my Etsy shop just turned a year old on May 16th, and I just celebrated my birthday, there is a sale going on in the shop! Save 20% off with the coupon code BIRTHDAYSALE, through May 31st. 

Thanks for stopping by! :)

• Striped 1950s Dresses •

Today's mom-daugher post is rather appropriate since Mother's Day is just around the corner, don't you think? :)

Both of these dresses were made by my mom, other than a few finishing touches on my dress. I really got the good end of this deal on every side; not only did I not have to make my dress, but I didn't have to do any stripe-matching!! ;) We each bought yardage of these coordinating diagonal striped fabrics almost a year ago, with no particular design in mind for them. My mom picked out the blue, and I picked out the brown. She got the itch to make her fabric into a dress when we found this picture of a 1950s dress from Croatia Vintage on Etsy:

A diagonal stripe, in very similar colors, and just about as cute as possible. :) She decided to make it, and painstakingly cut it out, matching up stripes all over the place, only to find that she just didn't like it on her at all. Somehow or other (heehee!) I ended up trying it on and really loved it, so we arranged a bit of a trade. :) It worked out quite well, I must say! 

She used Vogue 8811 for the bodice, and the skirt is just a simple dirndl-type. It's about 90" around, which is just the right size to be big enough for the petticoat, while also keeping it contained, so to speak.  

Strangely enough, although the fabrics appear to be exactly the same, the blue doesn't wrinkle a bit, while the brown does. The pattern hides it quite well though.

Incidentally, I have recently become a convert to deep hems. I used to do nothing but narrow (1/2-5/8") hems, but ever since doing a deep one (3", I think?) for the first time on this dress, I'm addicted! They are nice for so many reasons, the best ones being added weight to keep the skirt in place as well as less chances to snag the slip-stitching on various things. I'm definitely hooked! :)

I didn't really want a tie belt (although I'm starting to think I might just like one!), so I made a standard belt with a buckle. Ironically enough, since the fabric is a diagonal stripe, the belt is cut on the bias in order to get a straight stripe! :)

Someday I hope to be as good at pattern-matching as my mom. Although that's not likely to happen since I typically tend to avoid sewing fabrics that require matching like the plague! :|

Now for the good stuff! :) This dress is just adorable; I love it so much!! Mom wanted a completely different design for her dress this time, so she decided to replicate this 1950s pattern:

(Pure eye candy, don't you agree? I've got my eye on some pink and black ric-rac fabric that I'm dying to make into the same dress!)

She used Butterick 6055 for the bodice, and the front panels of  Butterick 5813 for both the skirt front and back.

In order to get the chevron effect, she had to cut one half of each front and back bodice (and skirt) straight-grain and the other half crosswise. 

Need I mention it again? She's a pattern-matching magician. :)

These buttons were part of the contents of a jar that she purchased a while back, and they were THE perfect touch for the front of her dress, along with the ricrac accents on the collar and sleeves.

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I discovered, ironically enough, on April 30th, that there was such a thing as "Me-Made-May," and so was able to sneak in at the last minute! The challenge is to wear something handmade each day of the month, but since I already do that, I decided to put my own personal twist on it, which is to wear a different (handmade) outfit each day of the month! So far it has been fun, and I've got it all scheduled out, so we'll see how it goes! :) I'll post a roundup of the outfits each week. 

Also, if you haven't done so already, hop over to Emily's Vintage Visions blog and check out my guest post about vintage footwear!

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Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful rest of your week, and Happy Mother's Day!