A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

I think it's hardly fair to call this a sewing project; there were two short seams to be sewn on the machine that totaled maybe a yard! But I haven't seen any reviews online of this pattern yet, so this is me being helpful. I used the new release Simplicity 8452 pattern - what I have dubbed the "envelope blouse." Why? Well, the back seams reminded me of an envelope!

This is the dress I made to wear to the WW2 weekend back in early June, that I didn't end up wearing because it was too cool! Well, the weather hasn't had a problem with being too cool for anything lately, so I've worn this dress a few times, and finally thought to get pics to document it today! I spent the afternoon at the Philadelphia art museum, which is a perfectly period location for a 1940 dress, so I thought I'd be clever and get photos of it today.

At long last, completely finished. I've been wearing the skirt and overskirt without the bodice for, what, almost a year? In my defense, it's been worn at all hot-weather events, and despite it being all cotton, it's really not a very light-weight cotton. This bodice will be too warm to wear if it's much over 80F, which is why I made the Ugly Shirtwaist in the first place! So even if the bodice had been done, I wouldn't have had a chance to wear it yet. I look fairly miserable (very Victorian of me!) but I'm actually happy with the outfit.

Still not a new outfit, but documentation of all outings is required, no? And I trimmed a new and very stupid-looking hat. This was a picnic on the lawn of the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion in Philadelphia; I couldn't tell you what the house looked like inside as it wasn't open for tours, but it has a very nice outside! Obviously demonstrated well by Yours Truly hiding in the shrubbery. Look, I can work for the White House! (Sorry, political joke.)

Playing costume catch-up with a couple of events! This one was the Mid-Atlantic WWII weekend in Reading in early June. World War II is a little later than we usually do (and personally I really don't like early 40s fashion), but it wasn't much sewing for anybody, and a nice well-attended event that wasn't too far away. I made most of a sundress from a Vintage Vogue 1940 pattern - the key word being "most." I tried it on the night before and it was too big. D'oh! Totally fixable, but not the night before an event I had to get up very early for. So I wore a very old striped cotton dress from a 1947 Vintage Vogue pattern (good thing I have a penchant for vintage in Real Life!) and called it Close Enough.

I'm going to try to be a little better at posting my "vintage" sewing here as well as the costumes; at least they're posts, however brief and less-interesting than proper costumes they might be! (I tend to "dress vintage" in everyday life so this type of sewing doesn't seem as interesting to me as, say, an 1860s ballgown might be. Still, it is sewing, and generally takes much less time than costume! So, might as well post about it, right?) And I put "vintage" in quotes because I wear very little real vintage; that is, clothing actually made in the 40s/50s/etc. I know the community tends to use the term interchangeably, but it bugs my inner pedant ("my dresses aren't actually vintage , I made that one last week!"). Calling them anything else is cumbersome, though, so on to the vintage, with or without quotes! This one is from a Vintage Vogue pattern , V8789, view A. The fabric is a lightweight linen/cotton blend, printed wit...

Or; A Dress-Not-In-A-Day! Two weekends ago, the usual suspects and I put on a dressmaking demo at the Indian King Tavern, where I'm a docent. We advertised it, very falsely, as a Dress In A Day...well, we did try! But we're none of us professionals, we're not so good at talking to the public while continuing to sew, and we were only there for about 5.5 hours. So it ended up being a 2/3-of-a-Dress-in-a-Day! All hand-sewn, with the best 18thc technique we could muster! Robin of SewLoud was our dummy victim model, as she very helpfully volunteered her dress-length of lavender silk for the event. She's got a dress writeup on her blog that I've linked to if you want to read a bit more and see more finished photos!