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

Fall and Winter Sewing Plans

I know it's the middle of summer, but fall will be on us before we know it! My husband and I have a busy fall wedding season and then we'll be moving so I'm hoping to get a head start on my chilly weather sewing! Here are some things I'm hoping to sew!

Blouses! On an unrelated note- check out the tiny watch hanging off the blue skirt on Advance 8511

 I love a slimmer skirt for fall and winter to keep your legs warm!

I could not resist this adorable 50s pull over pattern! I need one in plaid flannel!

Another great winter pattern! I've got some teal corduroy for this!

I'll be pulling out the Wearing History WWII Home Front Overall pattern to whip up some jeans! :D

I've got some great brown plaid suiting with tiny orange stripes and I want to make a matching dress and jacket!

What things are you dreaming of for fall?

Inspiration: Costume College Gala Dress

Thanks to all who voted on my Costume College Gala Dress poll! A lot of you really wanted an inspiration post so that's what you're getting today! Some of you wanted to be surprised and some wanted to see construction posts so I've not decided what to do about that. The surprise people may win out just because I haven't taken any construction pics yet!

Patterns from the 19-teens are hard to find! I decided on this pattern from the Vintage Pattern Lending Library from 1918. Originally, I was going to do exactly this pattern but I changed my mind and I'm just using the skirt part and I'm drafting the bodice that I really want.

with flash

Fabric was a big issue with this whole gala dress project. A lot of early ideas had to be cut because either I couldn't find appropriate fabric or I couldn't afford appropriate fabric. I ended up with these two home dec fabrics (plus the white crepe underneath the sheer).

no flash

They are all polyester but home dec fabric is soooo expensive even at 100% poly! I found these at Hobby Lobby. They seem to have the best prices I can find locally on home dec fabric. These two were in the $10-12 /yd range verses the $30-40 /yd stuff I found at Jo-Ann's.

The theme of this dress is go big or go home and I've decided to add pearls to all of the little fabric poofs. So far I've sewn on about 150 of these glass pearls that were originally destined for my Renaissance dress but never made it and I need to run out and get some more for the sleeves!

An Evolving Personal style

Style shouldn't be static even for those of us who take inspiration from the past. Here are 10 things that I'd like to really make part of my personal style this year.

1. Circle Skirt

One of my first sewing projects and I still wear it all the time!





These are my most worn articles of clothing and I love making them! And they are separates which are great for a versatile wardrobe.

2. Hats

One of my favorite hats!

I adore vintage hats and one of the things I hated about short hair is that it's harder to wear hats with. I'm so looking forward to wearing more hats as my hair grows out!


3. Hair Flowers

In my heart, I'm a Belle Blossom girl!

The same goes for hair flowers. I love them and they are great for me to wear to work because they look cute without being over the top.

4. Cropped/vintage length cardigans

An appropriate length cardi keeps you from having awkward lumps and bumps in the waist and hip areas!

Cardigans are a must for a vintage wardrobe and ever since I got a nice short cardigan, I've realized how much better it looks with my vintage looks that modern hip length cardigans. I'm going to try and shorten some of the cardigans already in my wardrobe and be on the look out for cute short ones.

5. Jersey Tops

A black knit top is so versatile!

I've come to the realization that I don't wear a lot of my me made tops and it's because they are woven and I just don't like woven tops that much. And since I have no desire to sew tons with jersey, I'll be adding cute jersey tops to my list of allowed purchases.


6. Fun Prints

I adore this dress!

I love fun and novelty prints so I'm going to run with it. I'm ok with fun prints that are not "historically accurate" and beside, novelty prints are so 40s and 50s!


7. Some Rockabilly Flare

 Gorgeous!

I'm approaching graduation and I've been thinking a lot about a good work wardrobe. I'm a chemist and vintage and lab work don't really go together. I really want to move in a bit of a modern/edgy/Rockabilly direction for work so I can still enjoy some vintage in my day to day life. Plus there's loads I like about Rockabilly style.

8. Bangs

Bernie is my bang idol!

I've been looking back at past blog posts to try and decided what to do with my hair. And I really like myself better with bangs even if it does limit my style options a bit. Plus, it looks great with Rockabilly and is very work friendly. I'm sure I won't always have them but I want to make them a more regular part of my style. Now I just have to decide how long I want to grow my hair out before I cut them again.


9. Winged Eyeliner

Love the brows too!

I do wear winged eyeliner on a daily basis but lately I've been experimenting with a bolder look and I really like it. (Especially since I can go bolder when I'm wearing glasses or lab goggles). Here's to more eyeliner practice!


10. SOWERS/outside appropriate outfits

Aren't they so cute!

Aside from needing work appropriate clothes, I need some outdoor appropriate clothes. I am so not an outdoors kind of girl but I am part of SOWERS at church where we teach elementary school kids about nature/science and God. It's really fun but during the summer we do outside activities like gardening, creek stomping and playing games. As much as I would love to be a skirt girl, I need some outdoor summery things. I really want to make some overall shorts and a bunch of light cotton blouses.

What will be driving your personal style this year?

On Vanity

Those of us in the vintage community are used to being over dressed. In general, I enjoy being the best dressed person at an event but sometimes I just feel, well, vain. Perhaps it is my chosen profession. Chemists are among the people expected to have the least amount of fashion sense.

See, it's all lab coats and safety goggles. It's not that chemists can't look nice. I know some who do, but with wardrobe limitations due to safety and the natural hazard to anything you might wear due acids and other gnarly chemicals, it doesn't exactly encourage a trendy wardrobe.

I often fear that I will be perceived as less serious when I dress in such an overtly fashionable way. And it is true that the bulk of my wardrobe is completely inappropriate for work. *sigh*

Yet there is another arena of my life where fashion is utterly inappropriate. I go to a very active and involved church, which is not a problem in itself, but we meet in a riding arena. Dust, dirt, cats, horses, no ac, no central heating and an entire pit of sand to walk in. Don't get me wrong. It's a nice riding arena and there have been loads of improvement since we first moved our church there, but most people dress appropriately for the conditions.

And then there's me who can't remember the last time she wore a pair of sneakers. And I wouldn't wear them to the arena anyways because they are suede.

But all of these are really just reflections of the attitude prevalent in modern society. People marvel at me when I wear hats but for hundreds of years, no woman would dare leave the house with her head uncovered. Even in the 50s hats were a regular part of a woman's wardrobe. Oh, for the days when showing your ankle was scandalous! Now I can barely walk out the door without seeing some shirtless, overweight middle aged shirtless man and the undergarments of 9/10 of the young women I see.

Compared to the low standards of modern society, I don't see myself as vain at all just putting in a bit of effort, but that doesn't keep me from feeling that way.

I like nice things. I have pretty and impractical shoes. My one pair of rtw shorts come from White House Black Market. I adore giant poofy skirts. I pin curl my hair. I wear red lipstick and winged eyeliner.

And tonight, I will be going to my church's 4th of July fireworks event. It will likely break 100 F and it will be crazy humid. I will be wearing a dress and a crinoline and red lipstick. But I will be practical and leave my hat at home.

And mostly, I'm ok with that. What the average person doesn't realize is that it doesn't really take that much effort to look great. A cute dress is easier to slip on than jeans and a t-shirt. I spend less time on my hair than most teenage girls. And red lipstick is not hard to wear. It just takes courage.

So here is my message to all of you whether you are already a fashionista or if there is a stylish woman inside of you who has been too scared to break out of her shell. This is the message that I have to tell myself sometimes when I look in the mirror.

It's ok to be fabulous. It's ok to be different. It's ok to be beautiful.

This is how I feel fabulous and different and beautiful. Sometimes, other people may make you feel bad for being fabulous and different and beautiful but you can't let them keep you down.

And now I have to go do my hair and put my lippy on.

Dressing Downton Modern

Downton Abbey is full to the brim with lovely costume inspiration! I've been focusing on more reproduction type projects but what if you're looking more for everyday type looks? Let's look at some ways you can bring that inspiration into a more modern wardrobe.

Long skirts were very in during this period, though the length came up towards the end of season 2. Love a great skirt from the show? Shorten the hem to more modern length for an instantly wearable look. Keep the interesting details like the buttons on the back of Mary's skirt or the matching belt on Isobel's. For a more flowy skirt, try a half circle skirt. For a slimmer look, go with an a-line.



Sometimes you'll get lucky and find a modern pattern with similar lines.

Vogue 8648 would be a great starting point for Mary's garden party dress! I'd start with the yellow version and add details. Cut the pieces so the stripes line up with Mary's (or somehow interesting), cut the waist pieces in a darker solid for a belt look and add cuffs to the sleeves. Lace trim around the neck for that finishing touch.



Fallen in love with a great jacket? There are a couple of options here. A lot of jackets from the show would look great with jeans! For a more modern look focus in one one detail-pockets, a unique closure, or a great color and apply it to a modern cut jacket.

Vogue 8333 is a great place to start. It has classic lines but the little side detail makes it special. Change the collar, closures or color.

Vouge 8621 is a much more modern pattern but still captures that spirit of specialness all of the Edwardian jackets from this show have. This is a great option to capture a color that's been calling your name.

Don't forget to think outside of the box. Wouldn't Mary's riding jacket make a great coat dress?

McCall's 6279 would fit the bill.

I feel like a lot of the blouses would be very wearable with jeans or a modern skirt.

I've got many more ideas, but this is getting long so I'm thinking of doing a series of posts on this topic. So please post questions, requests and ideas!

Costume College

I really want to go to Costume College this year. Not only have I started becoming more interested in Renaissance and Edwardian fashions, but also the bonus track of extra classes this year is The Golden Age of Hollywood: 1930-1955. How perfect is that for all of us vintage lovers! Now, I'm usually a learn it on my own kind of a gal but that's mostly because most of the sewing that goes on in my corner of the country is quilting and the occasional Halloween costume. It would be so awesome to be able to learn some new things  and learn them the right way, not to mention getting to meet loads of people including the lovely Lauren.

Now, the downside of Costume College is that it's in California. So I'd have to fly cross country by myself which is a bit terrifying. I've only flown by myself once and it was from the tiny airport in my home town to the tiny airport by my grandparents. Yay for LAX (not). And, well, it's going to be expensive. Not unreasonably so but definitely a dent. Plus I'd want to make some lovelies to wear so I don't feel too shabby next to all of the people who have been going for years. (On the upside, it shouldn't be hard to get off work.)

While I'm still deciding to go or not to go, I'll share the fun part of trip planning with you-wardrobe.

American Duchess is getting ready to start presale of these lovelies this month. I really want a pair and Costume College would actually give myself somewhere to wear them. She's hoping to get enough presales to be able to offer both black and ivory and I'd love to snag a black pair.

Photo of prototype from American Duchess' Facebook page.

So, with these lovelies in mind as well as wanting a not too expensive yet versatile wardrobe to take with me here are some pieces I'd like to make.

Mary's garden party and flower show dress. I already have material for it so it will be getting sewn California or no California.

I love this purple dress Cora wears in season 1. I'd like this to be my kind of fancy outfit. Doesn't look too difficult minus all of the lovely beading.

I'm totally in love with these pjs Cora wore in last night's episode. Wouldn't be at the top of my to sew list but would definitely be fun to have.

 I've also got fabric for this blouse from season 1 that also made an appearance last night. I did pick a purple print to stick with the same color scheme.

Edith's black floral blouse (duh) plus a black skirt.

This lovely mauve blouse Mary wears plus a grey skirt for mixing and matching. I already have a lace cami to go with it.

I don't plan on going to the gala, because I really don't have anything to wear nor do I think I can really afford anything fabulous enough to stand up with some of the photos I've seen online, but if I do get a chance to make something, I'd love to have this pink dress from season 1.

Or this red and black layered one from season 2.

And here are vintage outfits I already have that I'd like to take.

1930s style scalloped collar blouse

1940s sailor playsuit + matching skirt

Embroidered circle skirt and teal sweater.

1930s beach pjs

I don't think I'd take my Renaissance dress as it's huge (how does one transport hoops on a plane!), I can't get into it by myself, and, well, it's my first effort and I'm not really that confident in how it looks. It still needs a lot of trim etc to make it look really good.

So that's my kind of vintage and Edwardian Costume College dream wardrobe.