Sunday, April 3, 2011

New Collar


I finally decided how I wanted to do the collar on my dress. I added the lace and let a bit hang off of the collar. The rest of the dress is done so as soon as I sew the lace onto the collar I'll finally be finished!

Also I originally order buttons from this website- Accessories of Old . I order some pearl buttons and waited and waited. By the 10 day after ordering and hearing nothing and receiving nothing, I tried to contact them. First I sent a message through their site and waited a day, sure they would respond soon. After waiting two days I looked up an email address on the website. I sent them an email explaining that I was extremely frustrated and the email bounced back. Then I checked the address and resent it, once again it bounced back. I searched the site for some other email and tried that one. It went through but I still didn't receive any response. I tried calling them and it didn't even ring, the phone was out of service. I found another phone number online to contact them that did actually ring but would go to voice mail then say the mailbox was full. I called that number numerous times and no one picked up.
As a warning to everyone else, do not order from this store! From some very few and scattered reviews it seems it was a shop but closed down and then operated from the website. I can only assume the store has closed down but they never took the website off.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Other News..



So I have a couple projects i'm working on at the moment. My first that I'm really excited about is my new Etsy Shop! I've wanted to start a vintage shop for a while but I finally got around too it!

This is a 1970's lounge dress/ house dress. The tag inside says it's from Neiman Marcus.
I just finished repairing a tear in the sleeve and now it's ready to go in the shop!

It's such a great 70's print and of course I love wrap dresses!
Lately I've been really interested in 1970s.





My other project is this "Snoozy Kitten" stuffed animal cat. It's either a 1950 or 1940 pattern. I found the pattern a while ago but it sold before I could buy it. I searched and searched for it and eventually found a reproduction of the pattern so I got it. The first one I made was for my friend. The picture is the cat not quite completed, there were still the ears to put on and other things!

Right now I'm working on another kitty for myself. It's in the same fabric as my friend so that ours are matching.


And in other news im still making progress on the graduation dress. I'm waiting on the buttons I ordered still. I'm frustrated because I order them 7 days ago now and i've heard nothing at all from them since the day I ordered them. I have to have it done by next friday so I'm a little nervous. Worst case though, I can do the beading or embroidery or whatever I decide for the collar later. The collar may not be done for the picture day but at least it would be done for graduation.




Simplicity 4203


I actually started this dress a while ago, I got some really pretty somewhat stretchy dark blue fabric and was really excited about it. I think it's a really great dress pattern. I love the bodice and the skirt on the dress. I also really liked the sleeves, i'm not really into super poofy sleeves and sometimes my 1940 dresses come out pretty poofy.

So I ran into trouble on this dress with the collar. I was making view one and I embroidered it. When I went to put the collar onto the dress I had the absolute worst time getting it to fit right and even still I ended up with the embroidery not entirely even on both sides. This was actually why I put the dress down for a while and didn't get to finishing it until two days ago.

I also originally had the longer sleeves but long sleeves never turn out very well for me, I definitely need more practice with some long sleeve dresses!
So I cut the sleeves and just made them short and they looked fine. I ultimately think I like them better short anyways.



It was a bit of a struggle to get through, but I'm glad I did! I really think i'll get a lot of use out of this dress!





















New shop!

I've finally got my etsy shop up and running and i've got 7 listings at the moment. Go and check it out! :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Graduation Dress


At my school for graduation, it's a tradition to wear white dresses. Most of the girls buy dresses from 4 or 5 styles the school has picked out that fit the standards but I wanted to make a dress so I could make something I really love and that is unique.

My inspiration came from a 1940 pattern, Advance 5341. I didn't have the pattern for this dress so I had to draft it. I changed it a little bit by taking off the sleeves and making the collar a little bit more off the shoulder. I also added the hemline from the style 1 to style 2. The skirt for my dress is also not bias like the pattern says to make it.

This is the bodice in the making.
The hemline of the dress the lace stops right above it and has a scalloped edge.

Right now the collar is plain but here I was playing with the idea of adding leftover beads that came from the lace. In this picture I have the scalloped trim from the lace possible going on the collar and maybe a piece of lace on the corner of the collar. I'm still deciding on this because I may want to do some embroidery in white thread and with beads in it.


Here is the finished dress put together. All that is left is the handsewing and to put the buttons on. I just ordered a card of 24 pearl buttons from 1940 that will line the back of the dress.
I am also thinking of adding the little pearl beads to the waistline. Now that the dress is all put together I almost wish I had put little sleeves on it. There's something about the neckline that I don't absolutely love. I've shown it to a 4 or 5 of my friends and they all said they don't like the collar and to take it off. So maybe that's what is making me a bit unsure of it. They also don't like vintage though. I really don't want to take the collar off just because honestly i'm tired of working on this dress and I think it would look way to plain especially without sleeves.
If I had time I could probably add some small sleeves but they'd have to be absolutely right for it. Once the collar has lace or embroidery or beads on it I think it may look better, so I'll probably get that done first than rethink adding sleeves.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Butterick 9385


About a month ago I had to make a trip up to Memphis to visit a school and I decided to make this dress- Butterick 9385
I wasn't able to find the dress pattern online so I drafted it the best I could. I really like this dress, but I didn't get the fit perfect. It's a big in the waist so I usually have to wear a belt with it and the neckline doesn't quite lay flat.

I really love this pattern though and would like to try it again sometime and see if i can get a more perfect fit.

Also I sold my first vintage item on etsy today! It was a pair of 1940 brown heels!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Knitting and Civil War dress!

I am determined to learn to knit so I can knit 1940 and 50 sweaters. I know a little bit so I thought I would just go ahead and start with a 1950 simple sweater pattern but I was way in over my head. So I'm starting with some simpler projects first. I haven't made any new dresses or garments for reenacting lately and I found a renewed interest so i'm practicing knitting making some 1860 garters from Godey's lady book. Then hopefully I'd like to try to make a knitted 1860 pattern for a hood and a shawl. I also found this pattern that I'd love to try!
Other than that I've finished another blouse from 1950, I just need to take pictures.
So until then I'll keep working on my knitting and hopefully I'll learn enough to make a sweater sometime soon!!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Simplicity 5418



I have quite a few patterns for blouses and I've been meaning to make some since I desperately need some blouses anyways. I started with this 1960 pattern Simplicity 5418. Its the same blue gingham as my apron dress I made last week, I have a lot of that fabric!
It is a little bit big for me its a size 16 and a 14 would have been better but I can always tuck it in and even not tucked in it doesn't look bad.

Tonight I went to a dance for country music. Everyone wears cowboy boots to it and I didn't have any dress I liked that went well with my boots, so last night I made Simplicity 2880 again in a cream fabric. I'm not sure exactly what kind of fabric it is. I'll post pictures next post!
It was really nice out today and the perfect temperature for this dress, though it does seem weird to be wearing a sundress in January, but that's Texas for you! Anyways I think in the summer I will definitely get a lot of use out of this dress, its a perfect simple sundress.

Friday, January 21, 2011

New York Pattern 1619




Ny1619
Originally uploaded by DelysiaPie
This is my newest dress, I just put the final button and other hand sewing on today. Typically I haven't had the best experience with patterns such as these, but this one was wonderful! It was easy and the instructions were great!






It is the same blue gingham I used a while back for a dress. It's still too cold to wear this but I will definitely be wearing it all the time this summer!
The sleeves may possibly be my favorite part which is funny actually because I tend to avoid super ruffly 1940 dresses.
I love everything about this dress, I would definitely make it again sometime!

Simplicity 4578



S4578
Originally uploaded by DelysiaPie
This is one of my favorite favorite patterns.. but only as a pattern.
Maybe the fabric was a bad pick for this dress, but I made this and it came out absolutely awful. I was unhappy with the fit, the style, and how it hung on me. The sleeves especially looked awful, so in an attempt to save this dress, I altered the bodice to make it a bit smaller and I took the sleeves off.




It's better now and wearable but definitely disappointing. I just love how it should in theory look from how the pattern looks. It just didn't look like that on me at all!

Simplicity 4718



S4718
Originally uploaded by DelysiaPie
These two dresses are both from Simplicity 4718. The first one I made was the blue one and I made it a long time ago. I ran out of the blue fabric and so made the front of it white.
The Second time I made this dress I used all red fabric and did the square neckline and though its hard to see, this one has buttons going all the way down.





I made both pretty quickly and I use these just as house dresses mostly I clean in them, so I didn't spend too much on the detail of the dresses. Neither of them are hemmed.

Simplicity 2880




Dress side
Originally uploaded by DelysiaPie
Back in the summer time around the fourth of July I talked about making a fourth of July dress. I made it out of Advance pattern 9209 unfortunately it came out awful. So I cut the dress up and used the fabric to make this dress. I absolutely love this dress!! I can't wait till the Fourth of July to wear this!
These aren't great pictures but I haven't been able to take pictures except from my phone lately.

My only trouble with the pattern was the point in the middle between the bust and the mid section piece. Other than that it was very easy and it fit perfectly!

Simplicity 4373



4373
Originally uploaded by DelysiaPie
I made this top probably back around September. It is Simplicity 4373 and I made a black full skirt to wear with it, inspired by the picture on the pattern.

I love the look of the red stripes with a black skirt!

Mccalls 6056



I've sewn a bunch of dresses lately but I am awful about keeping up with posts! Tonight I decided i would catch up on everything ive made in the last couple months and what i'm working on now.

This is Mccall's 6056.



It is dated from 1961. It's a quick and easy "Misses' Lounger". I had a cute purple cotton with flowers on it that was perfect for this pattern. I wouldn't have made a dress out of it but it's perfect for a house dress. This went together in maybe two days. Its comfy and I love it!