To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory. Isaiah 61:3
Showing posts with label Wearing History Patterns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wearing History Patterns. Show all posts
Good Sunday to you all! I hope you had a most wonderfully blessed Easter! I had a really fabulous day myself! Celebrating Resurrection Sunday at church, worshiping the risen King, spending time with my incredible and fun family, getting stuffed on the most fabulous ham I have ever put in my mouth, hiding Easter Eggs for kids who are almost too old to go on Easter Egg hunts, sitting in my parents' backyard in the shade and eating yummy cake made by mom, laughing my head off at the fun stories that are told over and over. Ya, my day was most satisfying!
Another fun thing that I did today was do an exceedingly fast fashion shoot with my Colton taking the pictures. Right after church and before we left for mom and dad's, we drove around looking for the perfect blooming trees to use as back drops for the dress I made for Easter Sunday!
It all started back last summer when I saw this seriously beautiful, fun and PINK floral print cotton at Wal-Mart, I really liked it and would always pet it when in the store. I knew it would make a perfect summer dress, but then when I was doing my mad 1930s research a few months ago, I came across the perfect inspiration image and the fabric of the dress was so close to my Wal-Mart fabric I totally freaked out! The inspiration dress is more peach, but I prefer pink to peach, so that was just fine by me! I also noted that the blouse portion of the dress could totally be made using Wearing History's 1930s Day or Evening Blouse Pattern if I altered the collar and added an outside placket. Perfection!!!!!!!
Fast forward to recently. Driving around this spring, I saw all the wonderful pink and white blossoms bursting forth on all the spring blooming trees. Oh my giddy aunt! Photo shoot perfection!! Then I recalled that Easter was coming up...
Fabulous pink fabric + blossoming spring trees + Easter =
We Must Make This Dress NOW!!!!
So....slowly but surely, my Pink Blossom Easter Sunday Dress was made!!
Then I got all self conscious and didn't know if I wanted to wear it to church...with the make-up...and the gloves...and the HAT!!!
You see, I'm a "wear jeans and nice blouse to church" kinda gal. So, wearing a dress, that is vintage looking is waaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone! But after some great council from my fabulous husband (I could wear my dress that I made specifically for Easter Sunday to church as an offering to the King we were celebrating! Huzzah!!!) I decided to wear my dress! I'm so glad I did! It was more comfortable than I thought it would be and the shoes were even comfy! I am so loving this era and it's happy cotton fabrics that I am so wanting to make more and will possibly be wearing them to church in the future!
So, on to the flowers. The print on the fabric shows beautiful blossoms, probably cherry, but really, they could be any blossoms! I had an hour before we had to leave for the parents' and so Colton and I set off to find some trees. Happily one subdivision offered up two blossom colors and the third color was found off a semi busy road on the way home! We were crazy running people and I'm sure passers by got quite the laugh!
Thank you to my wonderfully talented son for the great pictures! You are a rock star!!!
Inspiration image and my dress!
Wearing History's Pattern that I altered to make my dress!
Flowers of White
Yikes! Sun Washout! Oh well...the trees were fabulous!
Flowers of Dark Pink
Flowers of Pale Pink
Well, there you have it. The craziness of Gina White. I just never know when the inspiration to make something will strike and I'm so happy that this time around all the things that I envisioned in my mind totally worked well together!
Have a wonderful week coming up everyone! Next up? Another 1930s dress. Yup. I have totally lost my mind!!
Good Sunday to you all! I hope you have been having a great end of March/first of April! We here in Idaho have been enjoying our usual "if you don't like the weather in Idaho, wait 15 minutes" weather. I do love this about our change of seasons. At least the Spring/Autumn times. During winter, you can depend on bitter cold. During summer, you can depend on disgusting heat. But in the autumn and especially the spring, it is fun to see what will happen "tomorrow". Personally I have been super busy doing life things and working on a wonderful somewhat new to me era!! Here's the story.
About two years ago (at least I think it was that long ago...) when I was in my "let's do all the 1930s, 40s and 50s things!!!" mode, I was at Antique World Mall when I came across the most beautiful pattern I had ever seen. This includes all of my 1950s sailor dress patterns, even my few Victorian-1916 patterns. Why? Because of the blue floral print dress. My heart was lost utterly and completely to this era. (Great!!! Like I need another era to have my heart be lost to!!!!) I think I was just at this point searching for inspiration into this era and hoping that I would be able to find some patterns in my size...both body wise as well as wallet size. One of my favorite booths offered up the pattern that would change my mind when it comes to the 1930s...that is until I made the 1930s Fall Suit. But I digress...
Giddy with delight, I photographed it with my phone and went to the one spot in the store that gets internet reception and Facebook messaged it to Lauren of Wearing History. I think I jokingly asked her if she would size it up for me as the bust size is 32" (if I didn't actually ask her that, I am pretty sure I was thinking it. When you get "old", memories that are over a week old, begin to get fuzzy.) Being that I have an ENORMOUS rib cage, there wasn't a snowball's chance that this would fit and I don't even know where to begin sizing patterns up. Almost immediately I got a response from Lauren and I am pretty sure she was as giddy as I was with the beautiful pattern. During the course of our furious messaging back and forth, it was decided that I would send her the pattern and she would work her magic and create a multi-sized pattern for all to enjoy!! I was thrilled! And to be perfectly honest with you, my thrilled-ness was totally selfish, because that meant that IIIIIIIII would totally benefit from this idea!! But, yes, I was also thrilled that Lauren would be making a new pattern to sell and others who love vintage dressing and sewing would benefit from the new pattern! Win Win for us all!!
Well, things over the year happened, like the back yoke piece not being in the pattern and the search for one commencing , and ooooooh a most beautiful, joyful, longed for and loved baby being born and the events that go along with that and the pattern took a while to get sized up. Lauren kept apologizing that she hadn't gotten to the pattern. I was totally fine with that as I realize that being pregnant and having a baby totally take precedence over pattern making and I was in no way in any hurry!!! But recently (see? I can't even remember when the flurry of hurridness started!) Lauren informed me that the pattern was being printed and would I like to be a pattern tester? Well, again perfect honesty here, I hadn't been too impressed with how the Orange Fall Suit fit and I didn't like how I looked in it and "would I really ever use a 1930s dress in a fashion show?" and do I even want to fuss over this "vintage" era as it's not antique? All these thoughts went through my mind as I slept on her question. Finally I decided that yes, I would be a pattern tester. After all, she had been worried that I would be upset if the pattern didn't come out in time etc, so how could I NOT be a tester!!?? See? I can totally be a selfish snot.
Finally the pattern came and the name of it was "1930s Gina Dress". Lauren had asked me my opinion on naming the dress and I said I had no idea and that I trusted her to name it. I can't remember if she told me what it would be, or maybe I forgot what she had said in the hurry and hustle of daily life, but when I was holding the pattern in my hand and saw what the name was, my heart constricted and I got a flush of happiness, humility, unbelief, awe and a huge dorky smile spread over my face and my eyes misted over! What a great honor to have this pattern named after me! (Thank you so much Lauren!!!)
I got right to work on the mock up using some horrible fabric that was scratchy and gross, but as the shape began to take shape, I got more than excited. How had I missed the awesomeness of this era? Perhaps it was the using of a pattern that wasn't an actual vintage one, I don't know. In any case, I hit AAAALLLLL of the quilt shops in town looking for a similar fabric to the one shown on the pattern. Finally I found a fat quarter of THE PERFECT FABRIC at a store called Crafter's Warehouse. Of course they had sold out of the fabric and wouldn't be getting any in. I then re-visited AAAAALLLLLL of the quilt stores in town and nope. Not a one of the stores had my fabric. So to the internet I went. Happily Hancock's of Paduca had some! I ordered it and anxiously waited until it came. Theeeeen I had to order a soft hand cotton organdy. That too took "forever"!!! (I so totally need a worm hole!!) But both came and I got to work!!!
Below is my version of Wearing History's newest pattern!
The Dress
My version and the original. I am wanting to do a photo shoot at the Boise Depot as it would be a perfect fit. The Depot was made in the 1920s so would be perfect for a dress that was fashioned after the fashion of the 1930s!
The pattern. When I sent it to Lauren, I didn't think I would see it again. I messaged Lauren and asked if I could have a photo copy of it and she informed me that she would be sending it back!!! I was so ecstatic about that!!
A fun still life. Original pattern, vintage buttons and belt buckle found at my other favorite antique store (Something Special in Meridian), the new pattern and my fabric!
Emma wearing my new dress. Poor thing needs to gain some weight!!!
I so love the front of the top! The gathering into the yoke is so sweet!
The buttons aren't that interesting like a lot of the 1930s buttons were, but the "watery red" of them matched the buckle perfectly!
I rushed to Something Special knowing they would have the perfect buckle and sure enough, an oval, red buckle was waiting just for me!
Hand sewn rolled hems! I don't think they are too awful for my first attempt!
The sweet ruffles on this dress make it so girly and fun!
Awesome kick pleat at front and back! Everything about this dress is so cool!
The Hat and Accessories
I had a booger of a time trying to find a hat that would be similar to the one on the pattern, but short of a divine miracle, I am pretty sure one will never present itself. The blue of the fabric, well it's a really odd blue. Not navy, not baby, not sky, not periwinkle, not teal...Every hat I found that I held up to it was just off. And not just off, but make your eyeballs bleed off!! I decided that instead of having the shoes and hat be blue (I had the same issue with shoes) I would just use red for all the accessories.
Enter the thrift store straw hat.
This is what my 1930s fedora style hat started life out as. A 1990s summer hat. It is made of the most wonderful straw that totally does what you ask it to! I don't know the name of it, but every time I see one of these in a thrift store, yard sale or estate sale, I get it because I know that I'll be able to reshape it into what I am "needing".
The inspiration for my new hat is an original. I do have some lovely wool that matches it almost perfectly that I'll use for something 30s, but for now it played the perfect model!
The red gloves and both bracelets are vintage. Not sure exactly how old they are, but will work nicely with the dress! The shoes...the shoes. These proved to be a bit problematic. Until I am sure that I truly love this era (like will I wear it on a regular basis outside of costuming?) I don't want to invest in an expensive pair of shoes. Until I decide on that matter, these shoes from a thrift store will work just fine. They have a very vintage flair and the color was red! Not sure exactly when peep toes came onto the shoe scene, but again until I can afford some Miss L Fire shoes, these are going to be it! Also, my feet HATE HATE HATE heels...so there is that.
The platforms of this shoe are also not era correct, but aren't they so cute?
The pearl bracelet belonged to my Great-Grandma Nonni!!
Firsts For Me!
This era and pattern offered an opportunity for me to grow sewing wise which always makes me happy! Especially if there is a YouTube tutorial I can watch several times!
Rolled Hems. How I hate thee! I could totally write a sonnet about my hatred for these hems, but I'm too tired to, so just believe me when I say, that I hate them. I did find a lovely YouTube video that really helped me...along with having lovely cotton organdy that didn't ravel much!
Rolled Hem tutorial that totally helped me. The tips of my fingers are so fat and calloused from sewing that doing small work like this is very difficult. But after several hours, my hems were completed!
Bound button holes. Ok, the very thought of these filled me with dread and I had made up my mind that I wouldn't be making them for this dress. But after much agonizing about them, I decided to make them...then the real agonizing about doing them began!! Again, YouTube tutorials came to my rescue. After watching several that seemed way to much like welt pockets, I discovered this one...
This two piece bound button hole tutorial totally worked for me!!
The last first was a lap closure! At first I didn't see how it would work, but after I started working on it, it became clear and totally worked and lays flat so very nicely!!
First Wearing
As I said above, I am wanting to do a proper photo shoot of the dress, but couldn't resist putting it on along with the accessories and some lipstick! I am going to have to do some research and make sure the hat of correct proportions but for right now, I'm really happy with how everything turned out!
About the pattern... Lauren as always did a magnificent job with resizing the pattern. This being my second time making a 1930s outfit, I am quite thrilled with how easily this went together. Where there are questions about things, Lauren has added WH (Wearing History) notes to help with modern day understandings. The fit is perfect (I used the size 40 bust for the top and the size 38 bust for the skirt) but ya, the fit is excellent! I made this blouse using the Tea at Two and that pattern too was most excellent! If I could, I would own every Wearing History pattern because they are just that fabulous!!
Thank you so much Lauren for making this pattern possible for ladies like me who are not a size 32 bust! You are such a patterning rock star!!!
I hope you all have a most wonderful week and I'll chat with you later!
I know what you're probably thinking. Brown? Really? You couldn't have gone with a prettier, party color? Well, no. Why? Because of the EPIC antique, silk chiffon embroidered lace that I have had in my stash for years! Then about three years ago when I fell head over heals in love with Phryne Fisher, I purchased all manner of fabrics thinking I would make a huge Phryne wardrobe. I purchased some coppery/brown poly chiffon and crape from the Casa line at JoAnn's that mysteriously matched perfectly the antique lace! They sat together in my "someday project" pile in the costume and fabric room in the garage until one day last year I was looking through Pinterest and found the perfect inspiration! It's a wedding dress, but I thought it would be awesome as a party dress. I had also seen other "party dresses" in the same fashion so thought, hey! That is what the brown dress will become!
It has been a while since I have sat at the sewing machine because of a thrown out back, sickness, anxiety/depression and a general "I just want to lay in bed and binge watch Netflix while eating carbs" feeling. January and its lack of sun and abundance of snow usually causes this in me, so I decided yesterday to just make myself start on the project.
Because I am me and I adore antique and vintage underwear and their reproductions, I'm taking this opportunity to do some really correct 1916-1919 underwear. I have made a 1916 black and ivory striped petticoat that I made to go under my wool Wearing History jacket pattern jacket and stripe skirt, and then I just recently finished the yellow long line corset, but wanted a more true to era chemise, corset cover and another petticoat in ivory and lace to match the chemise and corset cover. Yesterday I started on the envelope chemise using Wearing History's pattern (picture below), and I just have the top hem and straps to finish and that is complete! I would have finished it yesterday but I wanted to copy an element on an extant envelope chemise from my collection and that made the front too short, so the front panel had to be re-done. After the chemise is complete, the corset cover will be tackled!
The fabulous silk chiffon embroidered lace that is at the center of the party dress idea!
It is crazy how closely the colors match!
The hat for the party dress will be made of wire, covered in chiffon and the lace and King George will decorate it! He was gifted to me by my lovely friend, Tracy Gomez!
The wedding dress from the above magazine page is the inspiration for the dress. Isn't it gorgeous!?
The start and almost finish of the chemise. I found this chemise (first image on the page, second chemise from the left) that had really sweet tucks at the top and lace edging at the bottom. I altered the Wearing History pattern to account for the tucks and just need to finish the top with a hem and lace and make button holes and attach buttons at the bottom and it will be complete!
I hope you are all having a wonderful 3rd week of January and are busy working on your next project!
Whoot Whoot! It snowed today!! Lots!! It's all melted now, but it stayed around long enough for my fabulous Mama to take some photos of me at the Boise Train Depot! I had wanted to wait until it snowed for the photo shoot of my 1916 red wool outfit (made using Wearing History's 1910s Jacket pattern) as I thought it would be the perfect backdrop and contrast for the red and black and ivory. We were already going to The Bishop's House for one of their Victorian Parlours, so we just left early and stopped at the depot on the way! I'm so happy we did!!
I can't express just how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pattern for this jacket! AND the jacket itself! It is so beyond fabulous, and in this case warm! And fun to wear! This year's fashion is so very fun! Not over the top, crazy fluffy, but still girly!
I really like the pleated collar on this jacket.
The snow was PERFECT snowball making texture!! OHMYGOSH! I wish my boys had been here...I would have dominated a snowball fight!!!
Rock and Fire!!!
You can see my fun black and ivory stripe petticoat in this picture! It is such a fun petti!
Hahahaha!! It's hard to pose in a snowball throwing pose, so I slow-mo threw it at Mom...it landed right under her skirt! hahahahahaa!!!
I love everything about this jacket. I am so needing to make about 10 more!
Lamp Post picture!!
I had to take some pictures of Mom. She didn't want any taken, but I got my way! The blue of her dress contrasted perfectly with the snow!
My beautiful Mama in her brand new tiara! Isn't it awesome!!
Now to The Bishop's House! We had a really lovely time!
