Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress

One of the great things about vintage is that it connects people across time. Today I am going to share with you a dress that is connecting a whole lot of ladies not across time but across the world!

When Joanna of Dividing Vintage Moments suggested a traveling vintage dress, I knew I just had to join in if the dress would fit! As luck would have it, it was just about my size. The waist was a bit small but that's nothing a waist cincher couldn't fix!

The dress is a darling handmade gem from the late 40s. I just adore late 40s styles and I knew that it would look smashing on me! (It's cut very similar to this dress which is probably my favorite dress ever!)

The details on this dress are even more amazing in person. One of my favorite details are the self-fabric buttons and button loops that close the front of the dress. I love these little matching details even if I wouldn't have the patience to add them to a dress I made myself.

I'm towards the beginning of the dress' journey so I haven't seen it styled a ton of ways but I wanted to try something a bit unexpected with the styling. I wanted to stay away from pinks, yellows, oranges and browns with my accessories to push myself into some more daring styling choices.

The dress had lost it's self-fabric belt somewhere along the line (even though the belt loops were still in tact) so I started there. My favorite black velvet vintage belt was just the ticket.

From there I added more black accessories with the shoes and gloves to tie the whole look together. The floral hair combs were sort of a necessity since my pin curls were being a bit crazy that day. (Seriously, hair flowers can totally save a bad hair day!)

For the photo shoot, we walked down to a near by park. I love shooting at this park but usually it's too hot or too busy. Now that school is in session, weekday mornings are very quiet!

 We're all going to sign a ribbon and then have it sewn into the hem of the dress to commemorate the traveling dress but silly me went ahead and mailed the dress and forgot to sign the ribbon! Whoops!

I've had so much fun being a part of this project and can't wait to see how everyone else wears this dress!

Photography by: Will Thorpe Photography

The Story of a Vintage Dress

Every vintage garment tells a story. Each piece is a tangible link to another person, connecting us to them across time. We become part of their story and they become part of ours.

There was a woman who wore this dress. Did she make it herself? Why did she add it to her wardrobe? Did she have a special event in mind or was she just treating herself to a new frock? What did she do with her life? Was she a high school senior trying to impress a boy or a mom of two trying to keep up with a hectic schedule?

 She was a neat and tidy seamstress. Each seam is finished cleanly and pressed.

But she also added a line of ruffles around the neckline so I think it's safe to say that she wasn't afraid of a bit of whimsy.

She was a confident woman who wasn't afraid to pair patterned buttons with a loudly patterned dress. I'm afraid I would have chosen a rather plain black button for this project!

But those buttons are just decorative and the dress actually closes with snaps! I wonder why she chose this method. Was it suggested by the pattern? Did she hate making button holes? Perhaps her machine didn't have a button hole function.

She made clever use of the selvages of the fabric on the facing of the bodice and on the skirt side seams. The woven selvage won't fray and doesn't need any special finishing techniques.

From the size of this dress, I can say she was rather curvy, long waisted and likely tall. She also must have loved the fashionable bullet bra as the darts go quite high on the bodice!

 When I wear this dress, I'll think about this seamstress. Where she wore the dress. What things it has seen. And I'll add a few more chapters on to the story of this dress' life.

Crafting a Wedding Dress

Having wasted loads of time spent hours researching on pinterest, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for my wedding dress on the beach!

Being a beach wedding, I wanted something comfortable, not too hot and oh so cute!

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Having already spotted this great vintage wedding dress on etsy

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And the pattern (c. 1947) it was made from, I had a plan!

So I ordered up 12 yds of cotton lawn (since I knew I'd have to at least double each layer for modesty!) and got sewing!

The actual sewing of the dress was quite easy especially since I found a copy of the pattern in my magic size 15 (Bust 33).

Originally, I had wanted to do flowers under the bustle like in the vintage dress, but I never found any I liked so ocean blue ribbon it was!

Veil/ Vintage Box 1947
Earrings/ Sparkle Lux
Parasol/ Epcot
Pattern/ Wearing History

What's your dream wedding dress look like?

Photography (c) Charity K Photography unless otherwise noted

Summer Yellow

There are some colors that just go so well with summer and I think yellow is one of those colors!

Not to mention that bright cheerful colors help me be more perky in the morning. (I am so not a morning person.....)

And you know, I just bought a cute pair of yellow gloves! Normally, I'm much more of a matchy matchy person when it comes to shades of colors, but I'm trying to get over it.

Alas, we've gotten to the part of the summer where my hair deflates a lot if I'm outside at all. Oh, how it makes me long for the days when it was long enough to just throw up in a snood.

Let's hope you're all too distracted by my bright yellow dress to notice.

What colors do you love wearing in the summer?

The Let's Have a BBQ Dress

I saw this fabric over on Bernie Dexter's site as one of her dresses and I feel in love! I spied it again a few weeks later on fabric.com and I just had to snag some!

Tada! Retro 50s BBQ fabulousness!

Fabric: quilting cotton ($5/yd)
Pattern: Vintage Vogue 2960
Year: 1954
Notions: black piping, covered buttons
Hours to complete: 12
First worn: May 2012
Total cost: $30

I did make some modifications to the dress. It has quite a low back line so I raised it so I could wear a bra with this dress. I do recommend making a muslin for this pattern since the seam under the bust makes that area a bit different to fit. I did not make bound button holes like the pattern suggests (mostly because I was feeling lazy) but I did do the waist stay. I also added piping to the seam under the bust.

I had a lot of fun styling this outfit. Pearls were an easy choice but I went a bit bolder with my leopard print rose.

And my favorite polka dot shoes!

The event I wore this to was put on by a local group called Up Dayton who are working to revitalize the downtown area and get people involved in the city. This particular event was held to give exposure to the three candidates for mayor and to encourage everyone to vote.

It was held at a local bar called Brixx Ice Co. and they had some super tasty food.

Several local bands played too and it was really a fun evening. I've never gotten so many compliments on an outfit before! And a lot of guys complimented me too (in a non creepy way).

 

I can't wait to wear this dress all summer!

Have you ever sewn up a Vintage Vogue dress?

Sew For Victory!

So I kind of decided to join in the Sew for Victory sew along hosted by Lucky Lucille  at the last minute but I did manage to finish and wear my 40s dress by the deadline!

 

I did have some 40s patterns and appropriate fabric in my stash. In fact, the only thing I had to purchase for this dress was the zipper! 

I opted to make a white shirtwaist dress using Simplicity 3517 form 1940. I just adore early 40s
patterns!

This dress came together really simply. It's made from rayon which is a dream to sew with!

My biggest issue was trying to keep it clean while working with the white fabric! But I was successful.

I did use metal buttons because they were super cute roses and I rationalized that in 1940, the war had barely gotten started so rationing wouldn't be as huge of a deal yet (especially here in the states) and a seamstress might have such darling buttons in her stash already.

I accessorized with American Duchess 23skidoo shoes. Since it's an early 40s dress, 30s shoes are ok. ;) Plus I love the fact that they are white!

I also popped with red accents but the great thing about this dress is that I can wear what ever color accessories I feel like!

There's nothing quite as thrilling as a new frock

If you follow me along on facebook, you'll already know that I wore out a new dress on Saturday!

Tada! Rebecca correctly identified it as a Bernie Dexter dress.

As a seamstress, I don't usually buy dresses so this was quite an indulgence for me!

I wore it out to a bar to hear a great band play. It's called Sibling Rivalry and the girls asked for a shot with me!

It was a great night out! It was a bit chilly so I wore the dress with a newly shortened cardigan. Once the band got rocking, the bar warmed up enough for me to take it off!

As a rule I don't wear green on St. Patrick's day, but on St. Patty's day eve, I let a bit slide in with the cherry leaves. I so popped in the sea of green!

And I think I need more yellow in my wardrobe. I had no idea it would look so good on me!

Love these shoes!

Now for the dress review part. This dress did not fit me all that well when it arrived, but I really expected that. If this had been a backless/halter/strappy type dress, I probably could have gone down a side, but I went with a large because a too big dress is better than a too small dress.

I too some out of the center back at the zip. I also took a bit out right under the arm. Lastly, I made the princess seam curve more at the top so the neckline wouldn't gape. It's kind of a reverse FBA. It fits pretty well right now except that the back of the armhole does something a bit funky when I slouch. Just have to remember to have good posture!

 Since I did do a bit of remodeling, I got a chance to see the inner workings of the dress. It's really nice. Everything was clean and of good quality. I love that there were pockets! And there was a bit of boning in the bodice inset which gives a nice shape. The belt also seems pretty good quality. The only thing I didn't like was that it had a tiny hem and I would have loved if I could have let it out a bit since it's a bit shorter than I prefer. (And I'm not that tall either....)

One bummer with this dress is that they only ship one day a week and I happened to buy it the day after the weekly shipment went out so it was almost a week before it shipped.  (I bought it directly form Bernie Dexter's website as opposed to a retail place that carries the line like Mod Cloth.) So keep that in mind if you have a specific event you'd like to wear it too. It's 100% cotton but is labeled dry clean only, which really annoys me. They are probably worried about shrinkage but for cotton, the most delicate I'll do is hand washing.

Bernie Dexter Clothing is a small business and they do produce the dresses and run things here in the US which I love! These dresses are great but being a seamstress, I know I could easily make a similar dress for much cheaper if I could find a similar fabric (because then there'd be no labor costs/shipping/etc). Bernie tends to use a lot of Micheal Miller fabrics so I'll probably keep an eye out for these fabrics rather than buy another dress even if I have to get a different color way. For no sewers, the price is pretty reasonable since it's comparable to what I'd charge to make a dress like this with this fabric especially when you take into consideration the overhead for making this dress. (Being married to a small business owner has been quite an eye opening experience especially with pricing!)

With all of that said, I adore this dress and I'm going to wear it till it falls apart! Going into this purchase, I wanted a quality repro piece even if it meant paying a bit more. Grad school has kicked into high gear and sewing time is quite rare right now. I'd definitely recommend this brand to anyone. I'm sure you guys will see this dress loads this summer!