Summer Deco Dress #2: Complete! For reals this time!

     Since my last Heart dress update, I made some changes. First, I wasn't sure about the buttons, so I tried some other ones I ordered off of Etsy that were bigger and darker. Here's the comparison:

     I really liked both, but the small ones just seemed to work a bit better. But I am still in love with the big heart buttons! They are the sweetest things. I will keep them for something special. 

     Nest, I felt like the waist needed a little "umph". A belt. Taking after the original Decades of Style pattern, I made a pointed split belt of a scrap of some old red cotton. I set the belt parts pretty wide to not disrupt the vertical fabric stripes in front. It's long in the back so I can tie it in a big happy bow! To brighten it up even more, I added two more small heart buttons at the points on the belt. And she was done!

     I'm really happy with it! I feel a little funny about the varying red tones of the materials, but I think it works. :) Another success!

Costume Mail Swag!

     I love it when mail comes for me! Especially packages! So exciting. I recently received two items I have been wanting for a while. A pattern from Eva Dress that makes me drool and a role of hoop boning from Etsy.
     The pattern is from the 1930's with slit sleeves and back. Can't wait to make it up. Eva Dress has tons of other awesome vintage patterns.
     The hoop boning is for my TV Grand Bustle pattern that I've had laying around FOR EVER! It was 12 yards for like $20, which beats any other sellers I've found. The shop is called "boning" on Etsy. Check it out.

There are two bodice options. I'm going for the one
with long sleeves.

  Over and out.

Summer Deco Dress #2: Heart Dress Complete?

     A couple days ago I possibly finished my 1930's Heart dress. I say "possibly", because I'm not sure it's as awesome as it can be. So, it's possibly finished for now. This is what I have:

Unsure mirror selfie.

Front

Back

Close-up 

Pretty heart buttons.

     So, I might change up the buttons. I found some that are still hearts, but there are visible button holes on the fronts. Next, I'm trying to figure out the belt. It's a split belt on the Decades of Style pattern, which I think I like. It wouldn't disrupt my careful stripe matching in the front... If I do a belt, I think it will be red like the buttons and piping and tie in a nice perky bow in the back. This dress is all about cuteness.

Summer Deco Dress #2: The 1930's Heart Dress beginnings

     So, remember that heart and stripe fabric of amazingness that I ended up not using that I mentioned in an earlier post? Here's a refresher:

Amazingness.

     I decided not to use the New England dress pattern and instead use the 1930's Button Dress pattern, ALSO by Decades of Style. I decided to change patterns for a few reasons:

1. Boyfriend thought the 30's one was better

2. It's so much easier to match the stripes on the 30's rather than the New England

3. I want to wear it to the Gatsby picnic this year (and Gatsby is usually 20's and 30's)

4. I like the lines of this pattern! Kinda sexy...

     I've had this Button Dress pattern lying around for ages and actually used it once before long ago for my first ever 1930's dress. With that one I made certain alterations to the pattern and this time around I am doing some more alterations, just a bit different. 

     I am not a fan of the top tie in the back. It just seems weird to have a nicely tailored front and then funny ties at the back. Maybe ONE tie at the waist. But not two. So, I scrapped the top tie and raised the back. Next, I remember the waist seam not being at high when made up than it looks in the illustration, so I cut it a bit higher. Lastly, the bottom of the sleeves was a little too short to make a tidy hem, so I lengthened them. 

I made my mock-up from old bed sheets.

Cutting out the pieces.

     I don't know much about pattern matching, so I just aimed to get the front panels to line up with the stripes as I was cutting my fabric. Right now, I'm done with the cutting and I'm just sewing all my pieces together. Here's a picture of all the supplies for the dress together:

Woo hoo!

Summer Deco Dress #1: Complete!

     So, what started as a mock-up from weird gingham fabric of the Decades of Style "New England Dress", well.... I just kinda went ahead and made it into the final dress. I chose the fabric originally because I didn't really care what happened to it, but the pattern went together so well with so few alterations that I just used it as a final. The results: (btw, my extremely tall sister took these photos, which accounts for the strange angle, but I love her for taking them for me!).

This is my "Deco-joy" face.

Can anyone tell that I didn't exactly take this photoshoot seriously?

Detail shots:

     I'm a total wimp when it comes to following legit patterns, because I usually just fudge patterning until it looks okay, so this was a test for myself. The pattern was pretty easy to follow and had satisfying results. I didn't change much. I just lowered the neckline about a half inch, took in the back shoulder seams an inch, and changed the zipper. 

     My only big gripe is that I find that Decades of Style mixes vintage and modern techniques that don't always translate perfectly. One example is that their patterns call for invisible zippers, which I've never seen on any vintage pieces I own. So, I just inserted a normal zipper. Maybe another problem I have with DoS patterns is that I have found the neckline a little too high on this New England Dress and the 1930s Button Dress. But those are just minor things. They still are great patterns. 

     I'm not so hot about my fabric choice. I usually don't go for this sort of thing, but maybe I'll warm up to it.
I like my buttons though. Just big plastic navy buttons. I like big, simple buttons. :)

Cost:
4 buttons: $1.80
fabric: free
thread: free
pattern: $23   +
total: $24.80        
   
     Not bad! If I don't count the pattern, the whole thing cost me like $2. Hell yeah. It's a good day.

Smooth Sailing Trousers Mock-Up

     Well, still no pictures of completed Wearing History's Smooth Sailing denim trousers, but here's the mock-up! Yeah, not super good quality pictures....

Only one leg hemmed and no waistband. The real pair
hist a bit higher on my waist. 

Blurry picture, but you can sorta see the way the darts
fit over my behind. Pretty smooth fit!

More photos next time. 

Wearing History's Smooth Sailing Trousers

     Recently, I purchased Wearing History's "Smooth Sailing" trousers E-pattern.

This is for the blouse, too, but I only bought the
trouser pattern.

     Wearing History is a small historical pattern company with patterns from about the 1870's through the 1940's. Great stuff. Check out the website and blog.
     I have never made pants before (unless you count PJ bottoms as pants) and I wanted to give it a go. I bought the E-pattern to try out that method, since I had heard good reviews. It printed out just fine and I began to assemble. Pretty easy business. I cut out out the pieces and set to work on my mock-up. It went together very fast and the fit was perfect.
     I am petite with slight curves and a high waist (which can often cause fitting issues), but the only modification I had to make was taking about 6 inches off the trouser length (which is a common adjustment for me). With that taken care of, the fit was perfect and super comfortable!
     For my not-mock-up (the real thing) I chose a jean fabric so I could wear the pants out casually. That went together just as well. So fast, that I got them done last night in just a few hours. In fact, I got to wear them today! They remained really comfortable and I got some nice compliments.
     I really recommend the pattern and have heard great things about the other patterns on the website.

     I will post pictures soon! 

     

The Gatsby Picnic 2013

     What a good time it was! Hotter than it ever should be, though!! Boiling... But such a good time. I was working the Auto Team in the morning (directing the vintage cars), so my shift was luckily over by the time the heat got legit. My home base picnicking group was so lovely. They set up such a wonderful picnic and were so kind to have me with them. Just lovely, lovely folks. You'll see a bit of their set up later in the post.
     I knew MANY more people this year than I did last year. Which was a bit of a shocker. And I met many more just from wandering around.
     There was this awesome French picnic that I ended up spending a lot of time around. Paul, Francis, Tullia, and Tara (the brains behind their set up). They had a big French flag flying high above vintage French board games, saucy French postcards, and a perfect French lunch (with Ratatouille! Yummy!) I think most of them knew a fair amount of French, even though they were all American. They were jabbering away in it, sounding very elegant and classy. I think I heard a few lines of La Marseillaise! That was fabulous...
Paul was dressed in his own reproduction of a 1920's French police officer's uniform, with original buttons and badges! SO COOL. He and Tara won Best Dressed Couple in the Costume Contest! They totally deserved it. Hands down. 
      Not to be vain as heck, but my outfit was great. It pulled together so nice. Looking at the photos now, I realize that my dress looks a lot more early 40's. I think the picnic was supposed to be 20's/30's, but I don't really care. My dress was Deco-era and that's what matters. I wore Boyfriend's vintage boater, pearl tear drop earrings, "Repeal the 18th Amendment" pin, and an original Air Core sweetheart pin (WWII era). Another gift from the boy. 

With Kathy and Tasia- ladies in blue!
photo credit Kim Y.

With Yuri at her perfect picnic.
photo credit Alan D.

We went climbing around the broken down swimming pool.

American Duchess shoe pic!!!
 I ran into three local costumers: green is Vivian, brown is Natalie, ivory is Elizabeth, and spectator is me.
photo credit Natalie W.

Natalie and Elizabeth looked just smashing! Both dresses sewn by their wearer.
Natalie said she made hers from an original pattern and Elizabeth said she took an old 60's dress to
pieces to make hers. I love both of them!
photo credit Natalie W.

     Natalie's blog: http://frolickingfrocks.blogspot.com/ (I hope to see her details soon. I want that dress!!)
     Vivian's blog: http://freshfrippery.com/ (she's got a great post up of her outfit)

The Gatsby Picnic: What to Wear...

     Every early September, the Art Deco Society of California holds its Gatsby Summer Afternoon picnic. It's basically a re-creation of an afternoon party that Jay Gatsby would have thrown. It's happening this Sunday. Tomorrow. Check out the deets and the site: http://www.artdecosociety.org/index.htm
     I will be volunteering with the AutoTeam. We direct the vintage cars and such. I realized I would be running about a bit. It got me started on thoughts of what I should wear. I need something stable, simple, relatively comfortable, and....Deco. It should fit into the 20's, 30's, or VERY early 40's.
     I was originally going to borrow some clothes from Boyfriend (he's a Deco-era fiend). But I found I liked most of the clothes on him better. I just can't top that sexiness. Still, I stole his straw Boater. I love it!!!
     Not long ago, he gifted me a dark blue, white-polka dotted dress with a little matching belt. It's beautiful. It's vintage and we're thinking early 40's. The silhouette looks kind of late 30's, though, so I figured it would work just fine.
     I searched for some images to help me date the style:

Shows the basic silhouette of my dress.
via erasoffashion

It's similar to those two navy polka dot dresses, but with a shorter skirt. This image is from '32.

This one is from '39. Similar skirt style to mine, but the sleeves on mine are more relaxed.

     So, I  guess I'll say my dress is late 1930's. Seems roughly accurate.
The PLAN!:

     -polka dot dress

     -Boyfriend's boater

     -American Duchess "23 Skidoo" spectator shoes 

     -waved hair pulled into simple Deco-ish style

     -red lipstick

     -pearl earrings

                                                

My First 1930's Dress

     I finished my Moon Lady dress. Yay! I'll be wearing it to the Gaskell Ball this weekend in Oakland by Lake Merritt. More yays!
     I used Decades of Style's 1930's day dress as a base pattern. I altered the heck out of it. And roughly. I'm a rookie with alterations and in costuming in general. I made a mockup, literally just cut where I wanted the neckline changed (like the U-ish shape in the back), took it apart, and used it as the final pattern. For the skirt, I just eyeballed it it terms of alterations when I was cutting it out in the final fabric. I basically just extended the length on the skirt and made it grow wider at the hem (the pattern originally had the hem fall around mid-calf, but a bit longer on me, because I'ma shrimp). The fabric it a lovely silver cotton silk, 55% silk, 45% cotton. I think. Maybe it's the other way around. Anyhow, it has the brilliant sheen to it and it drapes really nicely.
     I faced the neckline with the dame fabric and hand finished the sleeves and hem as the pattern instructed. Not too bad for my first time with that. The whole dress is hand sewn. I think I was just worried my machine would muss up the fabric, but I actually don't think that would have been an issue. The cotton content makes it great to work with, not so slippery. I used an invisible zipper, which I do not believe is period correct, but it worked okay in terms of hand sewing it in and I've decided to stick to snaps and plackets in the future with Deco-era clothes. Or not-invisible zippers.
     The pictures really don't rock my world. I was having a bad hair and face day, so that didn't help. The pics really don't do the dress justice. Maybe I'll get better ones at Gaskell.

   
     For a basic 1930's evening gown, I think this is a win. Nothing fancy, just simple. And that's how I like it. I'm not big on embellishments or patterns or decorations, so this baby is my cuppa tea. I think I'll make a sash with a big droopy bow in the back for it, though. Just a touch of cutesy.
     And I'm out...

Well, I'm Back...

     Yeah, I've been lame and have hardly touched my blog for a couple months now. Life gets crazy, especially with senior year of high school. Here I am now, filling you in on what I've been up to these past couple of months....

     The finished 1830's Periwinkle:

(Yeah, the back is messed up at the top eyelets, but I'll fix that later.)

 

 

Cartridge pleats! My favorite kind!

 

 

     The very rough concept sketch for my Prom Pretty Woods dress:

     I bought the silk for it! It's this brilliant turquoise dupioni. I really like the texture the slubs give it.

     The vintage shoes I found online didn't work out, so I decided on some repros! American Duchess does some of the finest historical shoe reproductions I've ever seen. I order the 1920's Spectators, "23Skidoo" and absolutely love them! Great work.

American Duchess Shoe Shop

 

     That's the damage for now, but here's sneak peak for my next dress:

 

I call her "Moon Lady"