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.  

 

Cocktail Attire and Why I Need a New Camera

A piece of distressed silk fabric from Frenchfashions.net fashioned into a dress and bolero jacket.  I used to be able to get good jewelry pictures with  my old Canon Powershot and a light tent setup but I can't even get a clear picture with it now, even with a tripod.  So I've been using the camera on my Samsung 10 phone.  For some reason, it won't do purples indoors.  They come out garish, too red or too blue. So lately I've been taking pics outdoors on a cloudy day.  Aside from the wind and the mosquitos,  I live in Michigan so this won't work forever.  I did a lot of research on DSLR cameras for beginners and broke down and ordered a Canon Eos Rebel T7.  Hope the learning curve isn't too steep.   

I tried some embroidery this time with sequins, beads, and rhinestones on the collar, belt and clutch.  The sparkle is hard to capture.  

For the bag I did use a pattern by DBDoll on Etsy and added the beading to the strap.  
 

No Sew (almost) Hats

 

When I used to make miniature hats decades ago, I used an iron on material for shades called Tranlam.  That doesn't seem to exist anymore so I've been using something called Fuse-A-Shade, although I think any nonwoven iron-on interfacing with some body to it from your local fabric store would work.  The only thing I sew is the outside of the brim because two layers of interfacing makes them too stiff to play with.  If you want to stick to a simple pillbox, you won't need a sewing machine at all.  

I have traced my pattern pieces onto the interfacing and cut them out.  Iron them to the wrong side of the fabric leaving at least 1/2" between the pieces.  (Pay attention to which side has the glue on it if you don't want to mess up your iron.)  I have two tops, two crowns, and only one brim piece.  The other brim piece will be plain fabric.  Cut around all the pieces 1/4" outside of the interfacing.  Note:  The outside crown piece needs to be about 1/4" longer than the inside piece.  

I have notched the seam allowance of one of the hat tops and glued it to the inside.  You really need a tacky glue for this.  I used Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue.  After clipping or notching,  I have glued under three edges of the crown pieces, leaving one short edge unglued.  

Here I've glued the inside top to the outside top piece.  I've overlapped the finished edge of the inner crown piece over the unfinished end and glued.  Little clips are handy.  

Next I notch the seam allowance of the top not too close to the inside of the top and glue it to the outside of the inner crown.  At this point you could just glue the outer crown piece around the hat and call it a pillbox but if you want a brim, you're going to have to sew two seams.  

Wrong sides together sew a lining to the outside edge of the interfaced brim piece.  Notch the edge, turn and press.  Open it out and sew the center back seam.  Press this seam open.  (Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.)

Clip the inner edge and slip it over the crown so that the crown interfacing and brim interfacing are aligned.  I use a toothpick (I would use my glue syringe but I can't find it) and place some dots of glue under the clipped edge of the brim to hold it in place.  

The only thing left to do is glue the outer crown in place overlapping the finished edge over the raw edge and have fun decorating your hat.  

Somewhere I saved a PDF of my hat pattern with three different brims but it seems to be hiding on my computer.  In the meantime, Missy's Imaginings has transposed a people pattern into doll sizes that should work for this technique.  You would need to use the pieces labeled for buckram for your interfacing pieces.  I would double check that those pieces fit well together and remember to make your outer crown piece about 1/4" longer.  https://missysimaginingsdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/hats-for-bjds.pdf

Have a great holiday weekend.