1956 Vintage Evening Gown and Coat

  

Continuing with my fascination with vintage fashion, this picture of a 1956 gown and coat was my inspiration for my latest project.  

Diana Prince is wearing my version of the gown made from silk tissue taffeta from Minidolls, another great source for doll sewing fabric and supplies.  I'm not 100% happy with the bodice draping but the fit came out good.  

The coat is made from a silk jacquard from French Fashions and lined in silk habotai from SilkFabric on Etsy.  For the coat I used a pattern from Matisse because the neckline was so beautiful even if there are about a thousand tiny darts.  I left off the waist darts and the cuffs, created facings for it, and made it full length.  I think it turned out stunning.  

A little beaded evening clutch was made out of the coat material.  I bought the necklace from a seller on Ebay, https://www.ebay.com/usr/lovelygirlstore2010. It came with matching earrings but I used my own.  I bought four fancy necklace sets from this seller and they're all so gorgeous, I don't know how she sells them for such a reasonable price.  

I tried something different this time now that I know to fold up this blasted photo cube.  I stuck a T pin in the doll's head (had to use pliers-they have very thick skulls which then led me to wonder how they manage to kill zombies on The Walking Dead with just a knife) and tied invisible thread to it which I then clipped to a dowel suspended from the roof of the cube.  The pin and thread had to be removed in Paint.net but that wasn't too hard.  It beats picking her up off the floor a dozen times.  

 

Vintage Inspiration

 

Lately I've enjoyed looking around the internet at all the vintage patterns that are available for the humans among us and this one appealed to me.  I think it's from 1956.  So I tried to recreate it.  

I really struggled with making the pattern, specifically getting the bodice to fit but after many muslins, I finally got it.  The fabric is raw silk from Cocomaran on Etsy and I love it.  It's like a soft shantung and comes in about 70 colors.  The bag is made from faux leather.  

The jacket turned out pretty well I would have liked the collar to be a little lower and more shawl-like.  But I'm learning with every piece I attempt. 

 This was first time taking pics with my new camera.  I broke down and bought a Canon EOS Rebel T7, a beginner level SLR with a learning curve that I could manage.  I remembered that somewhere out in the garage I thought I had a 30"x30" photo tent and, amazingly (you should see the sorry state of my garage), I found it.  I used the same lights that I used to use for taking pics of my jewelry.  The only hitch was that I had to watch three different YouTube videos to figure out to twist that thing up again and get it back in it's bag.  Some YouTubers are heroes!  

Sequins--Love and Hate

I love the unnatural shade of red hair on this Tyler but someone please put me out of my misery if I ever decide to sew with sequined fabric again. I didn't realize until I watched some YouTube videos that you have to cut all the sequins out of the seam allowances. That alone took hours and gave me blisters on my thumb, not to mention creating a pattern that fit.

But it turned out not too bad. The bracelet is made from sew-on rhinestones and seed beads. My original idea to make it with two rows of rhinestones worked in theory but in real life my eyes couldn't handle it.

Wondering is she needs a fur stole to go with it.  

Lilac and Lace

I love all shades of purple so it's no surprise that I found three different fabrics in my stash, a fine wool suiting from French Fashions, some silk habotai, and a sparkly lace, that all worked together to create this outfit.  It consists of a high waisted skirt, a silk bustier, and a lace blouse that was inspired by a picture from an online catalog.  And because silver is my favorite metal, silver accessories, of course. 

 I took these pictures outside with my phone battling the wind, the heat, and the mosquitos while waiting for my new camera to arrive.  But at least the colors are accurate.

 

A New Tonner Hat Pattern For You

 I drafted a new hat pattern with two different brims, and the best part is I saved a picture as a PDF so you should be able to print it out.  

For this one I widened the flatter brim to 1 1/2".  Make the brims any width you want.  Flip them up or flip them down.  The cream hat is made with polyester material and it works fine.  The turquoise hat I made with silk and I did have some glue seep through the top of the hat in places so I have to be less generous with the glue and spread it thinner when using thinner fabric.  

So, of course, I had to make some outfits to go with the hats.  This is a 40's inspired dress made with a fat quarter that I had picked up at Joann.  It's hard to see the metallic threads running through it.  The bag and belt are faux leather.  

The sundress is from a piece of beaded floral silk that I found on sale at Mood Fabrics.  The belt is lambskin.  

This is a picture of the pattern but there is no easy way to upload PDFs to Blogger.  So I have uploaded the pattern to Google Docs and, hopefully, this link will take you there.  If not, let me know, and I'll go back to square one.  My suggestion is to make the inner crown piece first and make sure the top fits just inside of it.  You may need to trim just a smidge off the circle of the top depending on your fabric.  Instructions for constructing the hats are in an earlier post.  

Hat Patterns

Michelle OBama Inspiration

 

I had this pretty piece of silk brocade from French Fashions that inspired me to try to recreate a dress that Michelle Obama wore.