Youtube: Pretty as a Pin Up: Real Neat

Today's tutorial is inspired by this lovely pin up art!

I just loved the little bangs and center part! Enjoy!

A Bit of Irish Fun

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I have a thing about St. Patrick's Day and all things Irish. It's not that I dislike them. I just don't go crazy over them like most people do. Maybe it comes from not being Irish....Idk. But every so often, I can be in the mood to enjoy it.

 

And it just so happens that the Dayton Celtic Festival is far enough away from St. Patrick's Day that I'm in the mood for it again.

 

 

In keeping with my St. Patty's Day tradition, I wore no green and instead opted to rock out the 50s.

I had just enough fabric left over from my BBQ dress to eek out a sleeveless top!

Fabric: Micheal Miller BBQ fabric ($5.50/yd)
Pattern: Advance 8511
Year: 1950s
Notions: buttons ($4)
First worn: June 2013
Wear again? I've wore it loads already! It looks super great with my Freddies of Pinewood capris too.

I love getting to watch the Irish dance groups!

Maybe it's the marching band nerd in me, but there is something about feet moving in unison that makes my heart go pitter patter. And the fact that most types of dance aren't actually that much in unison.

There was a wide variety of Irish beers available, but since I'm not a beer fan, I stuck with wine. This year, they had cute little one serving cups!

Outfit:

Blouse: me-made Advance 8511

Skirt: me-made circle skirt

Shoes: Payless

Purse, Hat, Earrings: vintage

Necklace: Forever 21

There was loads of great music from more traditional tunes on bagpipes to modern groups like Gaelic Storm.

Are you a die hard Irish fan or are you more a casual partaker like me?

19-Teens Day Dress: The Guts

Since so many people liked the post on the closures on my Gala dress, I thought I'd share how my polka dot 'teens day dress closes. I did do some research looking at extant dress to try and figure this one out and I'm pretty happy with it!

The front closes with a snap placket down the side of the inert. I did have to draft my own placket pieces but that's not hard. I hate sewing on snap so I sewed them on a bit far apart.

The skirt closure is on the side, so the extra waist (blouse) fabric is gathered onto a strip of twill tape. You could add snaps here to keep this in place but my waist band is tight enough to hold it in place so I skipped that part.

The waist band closes with two sets of hooks and eyes. I added a little strip of the polka dot fabric that snaps to the under skirt layer to camouflage the opening in the skirt.

I finished the waist band with another waist band piece that is slip stitched over wrong side of the waistband on the dress. Such a pretty way to finish this part of the dress!

The underskirt had a really interesting construction wear the bottom was a separate piece near wear you'd add on the ruffles. I think this is so the upper skirt could be out of something other than the fashion fabric. I just made both out of white since I was going to cover the bottom with ruffles anyways.

A Casual Ensemble

Somehow, I never have difficulty photographing pretty dresses but casual basics never seem to make it to the blog. This week, I set out to show off some of the casual basics that I've made.

The blouse is Butterick 7641 c. 1958. And the shorts are Wearing History WWII Overalls in the shorts version.

This blouse is another incarnation of my friend's curtains. I love this color so much! And with the vintage mother of pearl style buttons, it fits with my unofficial theme for this summer's sewing-a touch of western.

It's been so great to have shorts again! There are just some activities that don't go well with skirts.

I love the cute little tab detail!

And here you can see a peak of my pocket lining! I used the same fabric as I did with my overalls. It just makes them that much more fun!

I'm definitely making a pants version of this pattern for this winter but I think they'll need belt loops. I keep wanting to throw a belt on with these shorts. There's something I like about high waisted pants and belts. Maybe it's the *hey look at the smallest part of me* vibe it gives off.

Do you find it hard to blog about those basic pieces even if they do get into your regular wardrobe rotation?

Youtube: How to Tell if It's Vintage

Let's talk about dating clothes! It can be daunting to try and thrift for vintage or shop for vintage online when you are just starting out. Here are some things you can look for when shopping for vintage.

HSF #15: White

This is my last Historical Sew Fortnightly project before Costume College! The challenge is White. "White has carried many connotations as a colour, from defining culture and social boundaries, to denoting status, to implying purity, or simply cleanliness.  For this challenge ‘white’ is defined as anything in the white family – from brightest white, through to ivory and cream and all the shades between. Whether you make a simple chemise or an elaborate ballgown, your item should be predominantly white, though it may have touches of other colours."

Tada! This is my 1914-1915 day dress. If you missed the inspiration post, check it out here.



The Challenge: White
Fabric: 4 yds embroidered cotton ($7/yd), 2 yds white broadcloth ($3.50/yd), 2.5 yds yellow broadcloth ($3.50/yd)

Pattern: Past Patterns #8480

Year: 1914-1915

Notions: snaps and hooks and eyes ($3)
How historically accurate is it? Pretty, I think. I used a period pattern and it's all cotton! I used loads of french seams but did end up zig zaging some of them. Not sure if the construction is 100% period but the directions weren't exactly much to go on.

Hours to complete: Started in January but didn't get finished till July! Lots of time spent figuring out how to put the pieces together.
First worn: July '13
Total cost: ~$40

I got a hair piece and this was my first time playing around with it. I'm a bit urked as I ordered the dark brown color but it's chock full of coppery highlights! Thus most of it is not actually brown at all... Oh, well. I used American Duchess' 1912 hair tutorial. 

 Love this dress and can't wait to wear it to Costume College! :D And if you'd like to see more photos, there's a ton more over on my Flickr.

(Update: Also check out my construction details post)

HSF: Inspiration #15 White

Yay for another Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge complete! This challenge was the color white. Today, I'm just going to talk about the inspiration/process for this dress and then we'll get to the actual dress later this week!

Now I started muslining this dress way back in January and was planning on doing it for the Embellish challenge due at the end of February so not all of these inspirations are going to read "white" but I thought this would be a great time to finish off this UFO since it happened to be mostly white!

I kind of started this process backwards and picked my pattern first. I bought several 19-teens patterns over last Christmas break when I knew I would be going to Costume College. My draping/drafting skills are not super awesome so I really wanted to buy a pattern rather than start from scratch. I choose Pattern #8480: Ladies' Dress: Circa 1914-1915 from Past Patterns. The pattern also had options for less ruffles and simpler sleeves.

I loved this cute blue dress from 1912! It also has cute little bows! :D

Lingerie dresses were super popular during the Edwardian period. Lace is super fun.

This dress looks so much like the simpler versions of my pattern. I love the striped accents.

 This dress ended up being my biggest inspiration! I love the pretty embroidery and I found this great embroidered fabric.

Scallops and embroidery! :D

Youtube: Kiss of Coral

I just adore coral for summer! It's such a great color! Here's a makeup tutorial for a great 1950s look featuring all things coral!

Pretty Florals

Some days just call for that extra bit of girly! And on this day, my girly was floral!

I made this c. 1948 dress last year to wear to the only wedding I went to last year as a guest (as opposed to working.)

With the uber girly print and the delicate scallops, you can't not feel feminine in this dress!

And it was just the outfit for some pink hair flowers!

It's so light which is perfect since I've got a weeks worth of 90F+ temps coming up!

What do you love wearing when you feel like being girly?

Cajun Style

Aside from blogging, wearing pretty clothes, and working on my thesis, I love good food especially from local restaurants.

We hit a local restaurant on Saturday called Jimmie's Ladder 11 which is located in an old fire house. The theme of the dinner was Cajun and was sponsored by a Louisiana beer company. There were five courses and each course was accompanied by a beer sample. I don't drink beer so I can't say yay or nay on any of them but on to the food!

First course was gumbo which was delicious! Not too spicy with lots of meat.

Salad was nothing special. I do not like fruits or nuts on my salad and this one had both. But it gets points for feta.

Paisano past chips-deep fried pasta covered with cheese and topped with sun dried tomatoes, onions and green peppers. Nom nom nom.

The next course was a chicken over pasta with a vodka tomato cream sauce, but I forgot to take a picture of it. :(

Lastly was cheesecake with strawberry sauce. Again, yummy. 

I wore a 50s vintage dress for this evening. It's a smidge too big, but that's a good then when you're going out for a five course meal!

Overall, it was quite a nice evening!