I have this habit of buying vintage for a bargain (because pieces are damaged, ill-fitting, etc.) and taking forever to getting around to making repairs and thus wearing said items.  But I’ve made the commitment to change this bad habit into a good one and I’m working my way through my to do pile. This is the first post of my vintage dress parade and I’ll detail the fixes and tweaks I’ve made for each one.  I’ll try to remember to include “before” shots next time, hee hee.

The above late 1930s or early ’40s dress was quite the steal as it was falling apart in various places, had a motley crew of ugly buttons and was an unflattering mid-calf length.  My fixes:

• Changed the buttons to clear glass ones with faceted edges; I figured this would work well both in the light-colored printed (and flocked!) fabric as well as the navy blue organdy.  (My camera died before I could get any close up shots.)
• Added bust darts for a better fit.
• Trimmed the flutter sleeves for a little bit more modern look.  (I felt like I would fly away before I narrowed them down!)
• Hemmed the skirt by a few inches.  Each tier in the skirt was a little bit wider (taller?) than the proceeding one, from waist to hem.  Instead of hemming just the bottom tier (and messing up the sequence) or hemming each tier (too much work!), I hemmed the second navy blue tier to match the width of the first one.  This way there is still some order/design to the width of the tiers.
• Used the piece I trimmed off the skirt and turned it into a sash (original belt was missing).  I can see here that the sash could stand to be shortened (that’s the beauty of taking photos of your projects – you see things you might miss in the mirror!).
• Made other minor repairs like loose seams, wonky tiers, etc.

Next: I love wearing this ’50s dress.  I found it soon after seeing (500) Days of Summer and thought it looked like something Zooey’s character might wear.  I bought a pale grey-blue crinoline just for this dress.  I’m also wearing the same pale blue slip I’m wearing under the dress above.  I considered going dark but then you wouldn’t be able to see the print on the sheer fabric very well.  Anyway, here’s what I did:

• Removed the sleeves: this dress had half sleeves with quick and dirty hems that were not so great.  Since I don’t like fixing/sewing sleeves I just took them off and finished the openings by simply folding under the edges (which doesn’t always work due to the curves but luckily it did in this case).
• Let the waist out: the wearer before me had a tiny waist and had taken it in in several spots around the ruched waist panel.
• Hemmed the skirt. (I will almost always do this!)
• Repaired little holes and opened seams.
• (I thought about pinning on that dark blue rose that I’m holding at the waist along with a ribbon sash but the flower is a bit dark and I think the dress looks nice unadorned.)

Hope you enjoyed this little dress tour!

(By the way, thanks for the Lucy love from the last post – it made her blush!)

Speaking of being tired, I’m feeling a little under the weather.  Besides lack of sleep, it must have something to do with the constant supply of chocolate chip and yellow cake, plus rum and sugar cane coke (in other words, sugar!) this past weekend.  Oh well.  My husband took me out for dinner since I didn’t feel like cooking and I had a nice, large bowl of tubu chigae which is spicy Korean tofu soup.  Despite my lack of desire to cook, I managed to make a trip to the grocery store after work when I was feeling ambitious in terms of what’s for dinner this week: grilled steak and arugula, French onion soup, roasted vegetables.  Oh, maybe some mushroom chicken too.   At the very least I can pop the vegies in the oven in the morning since they are not too much effort.

Anyway, on to sewing. Casey posted some wonderful vintage pieces she hopes to work on; my favorite being the 1930s jumper.  I love jumpers!  There is something very sweet and girlish about them, yet decidedly practical too.  I was inspired to look through my pattern stash and find some jumper patterns that I might want to work on.  I won’t commit at the moment, since you know how that goes!  I think it’s better if I practically finish something before I announce its inception on this blog, therefore we can all be pleasantly surprised by the finished product.

The pattern above is 1950s and the full-skirted version is pretty fabulous.  I’ve decided that I look good in this silhouette.  I wonder, though, if I could possibly have enough fabric?

I love this early 1940s jumper, on the right:

The blouse is pretty sweet too!

This early ’80s style reminds me of something my mom might have made and worn.  I even like that floral print.  It would be especially nostalgic in a fine wale corduroy.

I’m throwing in this non-jumper pattern because it’s another thing I find inspiring right now:

Oh my goodness, can you imagine me traipsing around L.A., sporting a bonnet??  But, really, too cute, yes?  Which one is your favorite?