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.

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! :)

Click here!

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.

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!

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!!