A Quick Review of 2017

Well it's only been forever. My last post was over a year ago, and a lot has/hasn't happened since then.

The first immediate bad news - I haven't sewn anything remotely historical in that time period. However, that doesn't mean I haven't done any sewing.

The good news is I still have sewn - a lot. My sewing took a bit of a retro swing (no pun intended) and I've been making oodles of dresses - 10 in fact! I've had a variety of fabrics in my stash for a while and at the beginning of the year, I made a promise to myself that I would try to work through it. In addition, I thought it would be fun to have several dresses for my destination wedding in August (more on that in a bit). Here's a quick overview of everything that was made, in no particular order of completion.

Christmas holiday dress - Retro Butterick B5748, Halloween dress - McCall's Archive Collection M7086

These were both made for work. They relax dress code during Christmas time for us and allow us to wear holiday colors, so I had to make a dress for the holiday season. I found this fun vintage-looking fabric on sale and it screamed to be made into a dress. This was my third go at the pattern (a reprint from 1960) and since I already had modified pieces for my measurements, it went together in a matter of a couple days.

My ghost dress I tried to finish in time for Halloween but failed. Part of the problem was I attempted to make it using a pattern I had not used before, so I had to do make a mock-up then adjust for my measurements. This McCall's reprint from 1963 was modified and I did away with the faux belt decoration on the front. Hopefully I'll have a chance to wear it for Halloween this year!

Bridal shower dress - Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book by Gretchen Hirsch, dress for fun - Retro Butterick B5748

1960s Repro Work Blouse

So another addition to the "things I've made but haven't gotten around to posting yet." This piece also stems forth from my recent binge shopping trip for vintage patterns. The pattern I used for this project was Simplicity's Jiffy 1364, a reproduction from the 1960s.

Simplicity Jiffy 1364

I opted for View B, since I wanted something comfortable for summer. For the fabric, I opted for black and white polka dot charmeuse purchased from Denver Fabrics, since I wanted to be able to wear it work with one of my retro skirts. I reviewed the pattern and it was fairly simple in terms of execution. The real challenge came in the material I selected. I have never worked with charmeuse before, but figured this was a good pattern to test it out on since it would be easy to put together.

It definitely proved to be a little tricky since the material is very slippery and silky. I've worked with dupioni and shantung silks before, but those are a little stiffer. Perhaps the hardest part was sewing two bust darts along the bias of the material. It took a lot of pins to make sure nothing moved while I put the darts in.

Spring Time Swing Time Fever

Over the winter holidays, I got bit really hard by the retro bug. Last October I had made my spider web flare skirt. We had a mild winter in northeast Ohio so we've already had several bouts of warm temps (meaning 55-65 degrees F). As a result, I've had warmer weather clothing on my mind for a while already. With no upcoming historical events to attend as of now, I'm deciding to go outside of my comfort zone and work on some - recently - historical clothing. Not to mention I'll be able to wear it on a more day-to-day basis (Crinoline hoop skirts are fun, but they're a b!tch to wear around town regularly and while driving). Plus there's the added fun of doing research about it.

I had bought Vintage Vogue pattern V8788 a loong time ago, but have never had an idea of what fabric I wanted to use for it. Recently I discovered a love of cotton poplin and shirting fabrics because they're super lightweight and still have a nice dressy look even though they're completely natural. Wanting be able to wear it into work (We have a black and white only clothing policy), I found this pretty floral poplin from Denver Fabrics.

Then I went and saw the movie Brooklyn with Saoirse Ronan close to awards season, and that retro bug became a full blown infection. As I sat in the theatre trying to ignore the packed audience around me, I fell in love first with the story of Eilis as she immigrates from Ireland to Brooklyn, New Work, during the early 1950s, then with all of the outfits that she wears (And if you haven't seen the film yet, do!).

Alice Dress Update #1

I've been out of touch with blogging over the last month, but my card guard skirt has kept me endlessly ruffling (more on that in another post) and I'm also in the process of moving. My free days have been consumed with packing, organizing, and the annual closet purge to get rid of things I just don't need anymore.

In the midst of it all though, I've been working on the dresses for this October's Wonderland Wedding for my best friend. Now by dresses, I mean not only my own, but the bride's as well. It was only briefly mentioned last time, but I'll also be making Jenna's bridal dress as well for the special occasion! I met with her a couple weeks ago and while I don't have sketches, here is her shopping list:

Because the theme is Alice in Wonderland, she is looking to go as Alice. Rather than wear a dress that looks like Alice's, she is going to use it as inspiration for the color scheme in her own dress.

In case the notes are incoherent, she is looking at doing an underbust corset/bodice. My pattern drafting skills still aren't up to par so I trotted off to the fabric store in search of patterns that I might be able to adapt. I found a couple patterns that followed the shape of what I was looking for.

Butterick 3906

Simplicity 1819

Using the pieces for the bodice on the Butterick pattern and the underbust corset on the Simplicity, I started Frankenpatterning (to quote Kat at Madame Modiste) the bejeezus out of the pieces.

The initial steps were to trace over the original pieces with wax paper (my favorite for tracing) and make initial adjustments such as letting seams out and adjusting the neckline.

 The next bit of fun was taking some of the existing pieces and making additional adjustments to make the pieces I needed to form the actual finished garment. There were some instances where I had three pattern pieces stacked, trying to figure where lines would go for these new pieces.

And this where we stand. I have to get some corset hardware first, but then I should be able to but everything together toward the end of the week. In the meantime, I will be working on the blouse to go underneath.