1920s Salmon and Black Gatsby & Gangsters Frock Complete!!!

Oh my heavens.  I cannot believe how busy life has gotten and been these past 5 months.  So busy in fact that I have had an anxiety attack since last Saturday.  All the things/events/end of school stuff that are going on, are putting stress on my serotonin level and I believe I have sucked it all dry!  But not to fear!  I know why I am feeling what I am feeling and after all the things are done that need to be done, I am going to be taking a big break from all the things/stress/anxiety that come from outside sources and get back to being a wife, mother, and costumer full time!  The word "no" will be in my vocabulary quite a bit I believe!

In between the hurried pace of life, I have had the chance...nay...I have fled to the sewing machine for peace, quiet, solitude and creative space to work on my 1920s dress for the upcoming Gatsby to Gangsters event at the Old Idaho Penitentiary.  Last night I was able to put the finishing touches on the dress and I now deem it complete!  Well, except for the black bow on the front.  I am not sure how I feel about it and may very well fiddle with it before its wearing.

Sadly, Emma is very thin and doesn't wear this frock as it should be worn, so keep that in mind while looking at the pictures!

I decided to use some of the diamond shaped buttons I purchased in Port Townsend for this dress!  I only bought 8 of them.  I don't know what I was thinking as Victorian dresses require more than 8 buttons, but they were so fabulously gorgeous I had to get them!

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Beautiful button.  It's shiny here but in real life it is rather flat and quite old!

Inspiration came from this dress.  I just loved the look of the whole thing!  On my dress, I did some horizontal pleats at the "waist".  I did make pleats at the front of the skirt, but also the back of the skirt.  They swish really nicely when I walk!

hahahahah!!  This cracks me up as Emma has no legs, so the skirt looks so silly!!!

For sleeves, I wanted something that looked elegant and a little bit exotic.  So, I used the pattern below... 

Past Patterns' 2149 Ladies' One Seam Sleeves View C2.  It was so easy to make and I didn't even have to alter it!

On to the cloche!

I wanted a black straw hat to go with the fabulous antique ribbon I found and so had to make a new one from scratch.  Grrrrrrrr...this added a little bit of stress to the whole Month of Stress, but I got it completed and it's ready to wear!

I wanted the brim to be a bit wider than a short brim, but not as wide as my HUGE wide brim black and yellow cloche.

I decided that this cloche needed a buckle, so I used one of my Great Grandma Cornelia's buckles...I think it looks fantastic on the hat!

Well, now all I need to do to complete the ensemble is make a new necklace.  I will either just make a black bead one or perhaps if I find some gorgeous salmon colored beads, it will be salmon and black!!

Be blessed my friends and I wish you no stress!!!

g

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

And Here She Is!! Re-Purposed Hat!

I love it when I make something and it turns out well!  Like this little hat.  I so wanted to make a wide brimmed cloche that would look similar to original cloches.  So, I am pretty pleased with this one!  

Here is a link to the cloche that very surprisingly resembles the one I made...

http://www.ruedelapaixhats.com/items/1920s_lace_straw_wedding_cloche.aspx

(This online shop is fantastic!!!  Absolutely wonderful selection of hats!!!)

The ribbon is just for show...not a permanent one.  I hope to find a lovely vintage piece to put on it!

Pretty darn close to my eye balls!!  I can't wait to  make a dress to wear this one with!  

Putting Re-purposed Straw to Good Use!

I don't have a pattern for a 1920s era cloche, so for this hat, I decided to use the Ivory Silk Ruched cloche I made last month.  It was the perfect shape and in all actuality, I wanted this hat to be a little looser on my great big noggin.

Starting with the already started top of the hat....(I learned this a long time ago when using straw from an "already hat".  The makers of the "already hat" have generously started your hat for you!  Isn't that nice of them?  Just stop the destruction of the "already hat" when the crown is about the size of a frozen juice can lid.  Believe me, it will save you much, much, work!)...and working down, I just tucked the lower level beneath the upper level, pinning as I went.  At the bottom, I made the brim oblong to emulate my inspiration.    

Image of the "already made" top of crown!  

New cloche on "frame" of Ivory silk cloche.  Because I am not blessed to own a millinery sewing machine, I had to hand tack the straw together...

Alright...everything from the old hat was used for this new one.  I used the already covered wire for the brim so it would hold its shape!  

After machine sewing on the wire, I hand tacked a strip of the straw on top of the wire to "hide" it!