1920s Middy Shirt Basketball Uniform!!

~WARNING:  PHOTO HEAVY POST~

Ok....now THIS...this new outfit that I wore today has got to be my new, all time, most favorite outfit in the whole entire universe!! Why? You ask!!  Because I was totally able to run in it!  Hahahahahahaha!!!  That's right...I said run...as in lope, gallop, leap gazelle like...in a most lady-like fashion of course!!!

At the Gatsby Picnic that I attended today, I ran to help a lady who was carrying a very heavy burden, and I actually RAN!!!  Not hopped, or skipped, or walked fast...but RAN.  I didn't have on a corset, corselette, heels or anything that encumbered me in any way!  I think from now on, I shall wear historical sporting wear...it is so CONVENIENT!!! 

Oh, and let's not forget that this outfit follows my obsession of all things sailor dress, sailor suit, sailor anything of the like.  It is a middy shirt and knickerbockers. 

~Ok, now let's pause in this whole blog thing and say the word KNICKERBOCKER.  Say it again!!  KNICKERBOCKER.  Hahahahaha!!! Doesn't that just make your heart happy!  It is such a fun word to say!  But, I digress.....~

Anyhoo, I must say that I did have a most wonderful, if not short time at the picnic today.  (I had to get back home and take a certain 13 year old shopping for a friend's surprise birthday party.)  The picnic was hosted by the Style N Time and Somewhere In Time costuming groups from the Valley, and as always, Ken and his crew put on a most fabulous event!!!

~Inspiration~

The inspiration for this outfit began about a month ago.  I had just finished making my salmon Gatsby and Gangsters Event dress and wasn't really in the mood to make another 1920s frock.  Knowing I had the Gatsby Picnic coming up, I was perusing my Sailor Suit Pinterest board for inspiration, when I fell in total love with a fashion drawing of a young lady wearing a middy shirt and knickerbockers while holding a basketball and a pennant.  Holy cow.  My geeky heart just about broke at the adorableness of the sight!  

1925 Basketball Uniform!!!

Image used with permission from Witness 2 Fashion.  Thank you so much!!

Blog link where this above image can be found Here.

Inspiration:  This fabulous girl's basketball outfit!!  I think the young lady has such a sweet look on her face!!  She makes me happy!

~The Patterns~

The Bodice

Circa 1923 Middy Blouse

Alexandra of Eva Dress is so wonderful to communicate with.  I had some questions that I emailed to her and she was so very prompt with her responses.  I wholeheartedly recommend this pattern.  (I did have to make the collar a bit wider, but that was discovered in the mock up.)  The pattern is a tracing of an original and comes with marvelous instructions!!!  It comes in a size 18 and I didn't do any alterations at all!  Huzzah!  I do believe this is the first pattern in a very long, long, long time where I followed the instructions and pattern (with NO alterations) to the letter!  

The blouse is a very sturdy garment and I am so very impressed with how it made up.  I finished the seams in "faux" flat felled seams (I just ironed the seams to the back or down, then on the outside top stitches about 1/4" from the seam).

The Knickerbockers

I didn't want to purchase a new pattern for these if I could help it, so I altered Simplicity 3677, the lady pirate pattern.  Instead of gathering the waist into an elastic waistband, I pleated the fullness into a regular waist band and added a button placket to the left side.  I added super wide cuffs at the calf that close with buttons.

~The Accessories~

The Basketball

Found at my favorite antique store in the valley, Something Special Antique Store.  I asked Gwen, the owner, if she had a 1920s basketball and she said she didn't know if it was from the 1920s, but it was old.  We went upstairs and she dug it out from a corner and I was instantly in love!  I played basketball in Jr. High and High School, so this was super fun.  I went home and set straight to work researching my new basketball.  The only thing I could find on it was from Wikipedia.  

"In the late 1920s Voit developed and patented the first full-molded, all-rubber inflatable ball, and the first needle-type air retention valves."

Source:  Wikipedia

That's it.  There are no pictures, images, or any other information on my basketball. I am left to conclude that this is one of those balls that Voit invented in the late 1920s!!

The Pennant

To help achieve the look of the fashion drawing, I decided I needed to make a pennant.  My Mom had rescued from my Great-Aunt's house a really cool looking cane that was perfect for the look.  I purchased some navy and gold felt from JoAnn's and made a "Meridian" pennant.  I attended Meridian High School, so only thought it appropriate that I should make the pennant with the name!  Oh, and it was a high school in the 1920s so even better!  I followed this tutorial from Infarrantly Creative to achieve the slanted, pennant looking lettering.  I soooooo didn't want to depend upon pins to hold the lettering in place as I sewed around the letters, so I decided that using double sided heat and bond to adhere the letters to the pennant would be a fabulous idea and it was!  I cut out the lettering that I had printed off on legal sized paper, turned them over and traced them on the back of the gold felt that still had the paper from the heat and bond.  After cutting the letters out, I ironed them to the front side of the navy felt.  The letters stuck nicely and I was able to sew around them without them moving around!!!

The Blue and Gold of Meridian High!!  Go Warriors!!

Super cool rubber Voit basketball!  Thanks Gwen!!!  Interestingly enough, when the ball got hot (like when it was in my HOT car) it got sticky.  A very good indication that it is not plastic, but indeed rubber!

Close up of the stitches that the heat and bond allowed!!

The Middy Patches

One of the things that the pattern from Eva Dress does not include (it has been lost for some time) is the embroidery pattern for the navy patches that go on the Middy.  I was searching through eBay one day and found a most fabulous find quite by accident!!  I can't even remember what key words I typed in, probably something having to do with "cracker jack uniform patches" and came across this packet.  It is a kit of patches specifically for Middy Blouses from the 1920s!!!  They came in the original onion skin paper envelope with an image of a lady wearing a Middy blouse.  I could not believe my fortune to have found this!!  And thank God I didn't have to design and embroider my own patch!!!

1920s Middy Blouse patches kit!!

The onion skin envelope.

Three patches were included in the kit!

The silver threads have a bit of a metallic sheen to them!

The chevrons are made of wool and the fabric is cotton.

So incredible to have this piece of history!!

I had originally planned on making my Middy white and had even cut the blouse out, but when the patches came and they were a darker, almost putty color, I immediately changed my mind and used a putty colored duck cotton that I had in my stash.

My feathering stitches.  I hadn't ever made any of this particular stitching this small and am really pleased with myself that they actually look decent!!!

For the stripes on the collar and cuffs, I found some actual, antique, specifically for Middy blouses braid on Etsy!  It is so much nicer to work with than soutache!  I'm just sayin'......

~The Event~

My Mom actually stood still so I could get some photos of her.  Here she is, looking at a very futuristic sort of device!! 

We were in a rose garden, so I plucked a rose for her to smell!  Isn't she just adorable???!!!

Mama and me!!

I so love being able to attend dress up event with my Mom!!

The whole group.  Ken does such a wonderful job setting the scene for the Gatsby Picnic!!  He is a rock star!!!

Well, I have definitely learned a lesson from today's wearing of history.  Sports outfits/uniforms are the way to go!!!  Huzzah for comfort!!! 

For more research and pictures go to these places:

We Wear History's Facebook Page

Pinterest Board: Middy Shirts

Pinterest Board: Basketball

Be blessed my friends!!!

g

~Photos of me taken by my fabulously adorable Mom!!!~

In Which I Wear My 1920s Dress...

Yesterday, I got to go to 3rd Annual Great Gatsby Picnic hosted by Ken and Suzanne Comontofski of Style in Time costuming group.  It was such a wonderfully fun time, not to mention a time of peace and tranquility.  The weather was lovely, not to hot, not too cold thanks to the wonderful breeze that lent itself to the afternoon.

For my hair for this day, I did some research to see what medium length hair was styled like.  I found many examples of curled hair as opposed to the Marcel Wave and the straight bob with the cute little swoop of hair at the cheek bone.  I was so happy that I found it because I was entertaining a hair cut (like when I first cut my long hair in the fashion of The Honorable Phryne Fisher), but Pinterest saved me again!!!

Before I went to the picnic, I went to Mom and Dad's farm so that my Mama could take some pictures of me wearing my new ensemble with her awesome sauce camera!  I keep trying to abscond with her camera, but she keeps thwarting my efforts...So, here they are.  Mom is such a wonderful photographer and did a great job making me look pretty!  Thanks Mama!

I photo shopped some of my pics to make them look a little more vintage.....

Dancing...no.  Posing...yes!

Mom said, "Get a stick and play in the water..." I was like, "Are you crazy?"  But as usual, Mama knows best and the pictures actually turned out great!  We both almost ended up in the stream when she helped me up from this position!  hahahahahahaha!!!

Bravely fording the stream....No, I didn't fall in!

Now for the photoshopped "Vintage" images.  I love looking at the pictures from the 1920s.  They did some really silly poses that actually look good!  I tried to emulate those poses...some of them looked absolutely ridiculous and some of them turned out good!

Introducing, Gina the Starlette!

Inspiration: Marion Davies

Lovely Lady

I love this one...I look super young in it!

Inspiration: Esther Ralston

The pictures take at the event can be seen on the We Wear History facebook page....

Here

I hope you all have a most wonderful Sunady!  I am off to church then home to make sour cherry jam!!! mmmmmmmmmmm...delicious!

Blessings!

g

1920s Great Gatsby/Royal Ascot Dress

One of my many costuming goals for the year 2014 was to make an entire wardrobe of 1920s clothing.  I had watched Phryne Fisher wearing fabulous, flowing, fun, fine frocks on Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and I was hooked on the 20s.  And why not?  The style is relatively simple to construct, the hats are FABULOUS and the style lends itself to "coolness" for the hot Idaho summers.  Well, as is the story of my life, differing forces decided to thwart my costuming desires and as of this date, I have only one 1920s dress for the year 2014.  Oh well.  I have lots of 20s fabrics and patterns in my sewing room for next year!

I was flooding my "1920s Fashion" Pinterest board with hundreds of images of hats, dresses, hair styles, shoes and coats, when I stumbled across this lovely frock.  My world stood still.  My eyes dialated.  My mouth went dry then instantly started salivating like Pavlov's Dog.  My creative juices started flowing in earnest and I felt the instant flash of lust and desire.  

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I don't know why I am so drawn to this dress.  I honestly don't!  It isn't heavily beaded.  It isn't over the top.  It isn't anything really super special.  It isn't even my favorite color for corn sakes!!  But my heart skips a beat everytime I see it!  

Here is the original in all its splendor.  It is from an online store called 1st Dibs.  I fell in love and so decided to make a similar dress.

Source:  1st Dibs

I love the color combination of black and yellow, but the black and white bead stripes were a little too much for me...

For Christmas, my Mother-in-Law gifted me with gift VISAs for fabric, so in January, I set off to JoAnn's.  They were having a clearance on many of the out of season special occasion fabrics and a wonderful maize yellow was among the colors.  

This was the perfect dress to make with my maize yellow crepe and chiffon!

The color is really washed out in the pictures...it is more vibrant in person.

To get the beading pattern, I enlarged the image of the original on my computer and traced it on computer paper.  When I got the size I liked, I cut it out and put on my dress.  I slipped the paper with the flower pattern under the chiffon layer and worked it around until it was at the right angle.  After I was got it to where I liked it, I pinned it down.  After taking the dress off, I then used a disappearing ink pen to trace the pattern to the chiffon!

The beads for the flower are small bugle beads. 

 I wanted a beaded rope necklace, but couldn't find one in my price range...liiiiiike This One.  I was at Walmart and discovered glass beads that closely resembled the beads in the original 1920s rope necklace!  Score!!!  I ran home with my newly acquired beads and went to work making my necklace!

The pattern I used for most of the dress.  The under dress is a simple slip/sheath.  I am thinking of making several for simple summer dresses.  It was very simple to put together.  I used the top of the dress from the pattern, leaving off the sleeves and scooping down the neckline.  The skirt of my dress I was my own "pattern".  It is two looooooong pieces of black chiffon cut at different lengths with a majority of the fabric gathered at the hips.  Then I cut a long piece of black chiffon for the belt/sash.

Because I will be wearing this to the Royal Ascot Tea at Costume College, I wanted a very wide brimmed cloche.  At the beginning of last year, I made a wide brimmed cloche for a lovely friend and copied the hat for myself before I sent hers off.  You can see the naked wire frame here.  Several years ago, I had purchased from eBay some fabulous antique horse hair and chenille millinery braid in black.  Now I finally had a chance to use it!  Laaaaaaaaa!!!!!  After spray painting the white wires of the brim's frame, I was ready to get started.  I have a Pinterest board of Wide Brimmed Cloches that fed my creativity and proved to me that they did use silk flowers on their hats and not just ribbon flowers!  Yeah!  This made me particularly happy because I had some fabulous flowers in my stach!  Daffodils, Ranunculus, Alstromerias, Sweet Peas and a Mum.  Antique flower happiness!!!

I wanted to create the look of flowers cascading out of a flower basket...

The Daffodils and Ranunculus make me super happy!

I originally wanted to just have the millinery braid for the crown of the hat, but it was too "squishy".  I ended up shortening the straw crown and slipping the stitched together braid over the top.

Close up of my braid.  It truly is fabulous.  

Tomorrow is the 3rd annual Great Gatsby Picnic that I will be attending in my sunny yellow flower dress.  I soooooo cannot wait to take it for it's maiden voyage!

Be Blessed my friends!

g