Logan's Run: The Jessica Dress

A Jessica dress in 20 easy steps. 

Step 1: Trace muslin onto fabric, adjust accordingly.

Step 2: Fray-check the heck out of everything. 

Step 3: Sew shoulder seams together. Check neck line.

Step 4: Apologize to blog readers for ugly no makeup face and wet hair. 

Step 5: Decide you hate neck line and that the fray-check itches like woah. Have miner freak out. Do what any person would do in this situation and run crying to Mother. She takes approximately 0.2 seconds to solve all neck line issues. She also suggests sewing in a facing to the collar. 

Step 6: Tell your mother she is awesome. Rip out shoulder seams. Install facing. 

Step 7: More fray-check.

Step 8: Resew shoulder seams with a larger seam allowance. Press flat. More fray-check.

Step 9: Test new neck line. Approve. Do happy dance.

Step 10: Sew and press side seams. 

Step 11: Figure out where elastic waist will go. 

Step 12: Sew on casing (not shown)

Step 13: Grab the GREATEST sewing tool EVER and thread elastic through waistband in 6 seconds. 

Step 14: even out elastic and scrunching.

Step 15: Close casing, sew down elastic so it doesn't move around on you.

Step 16: Compare costume to original. Approve of costume.

Step 17: Take costume for a test drive and decide on hem length.

Step 18: Install pretty lace hem tape. 

Step 19: Sew Blind Hem by hand for the first time since Highschool. Decide it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be.

Step 20: Pat yourself on the back.

Vinspiration Tuesday Goodness and some ARRRG

Vinspiration Tuesday is here again! And today is 1930s Day! In color! There absolutely was color photography in the 1930s. It was primitive and outrageously expensive at the time, but it did exist. The photos I'm sharing today are mostly from Print Ads. I borrowed the images from George Eastman House's online collection. They are all by Nicholas Muray, a great american advertising photographer. These are some of his earlier works. He later goes on to take some AMAZING photographs in the 1940s which I may do a Vinspiration Tuesday on later, but what we're all interested in today is the 1930s fashion! So away we go.

Starting off today we have an image that's just perfect for summer. Yes, yes, smoking in the picture. Just ignore the cigarette. It's the 1930s alright?  Instead enjoy her adorable swim cap. Do you think those leaves and petals are made out of rubber like the cap? Probably. I am also gushing over her cute yellow knit swim suit. I haven't run across many 1930s swim suit photos or patterns so I'm not completely sure what this would look like out of the water, but it's just darling in this photo! The photo was taken in 1936.

Another Camel Ad. Apparently it's from Camel Cigarett's "Magic Campaign, Fun to See - More Fun to Know, 1931" Not quite sure what is going on here other than the fact that there are belly dancers dancing in a box full of broken glass? What? Well, much more interesting than the dancers are the frocks! I love Miss Red Floral Print on the far right with her smart red cardigan. A close second favorite is Miss Green Frock in the back towards the left. She has a fabulous belted minty green print dress with scarf accent. Yummy. And the hats! Wow, those hats just make me swoon all over. Pink hat in the front is my absolute favorite lady's hat, but Miss Haughty Red Scarf to the right has a darling tan hat with dark band. Beau would look fantastic in the men's hat to the far right there, between Miss Red and Miss Haughty.

This one I picked especially for the Vintage Baroness. How fashionable is this lady? Be still my beating heart! The image's name is "Lucky Strike Girl 1936." (Sensing a theme with these photos yet? I told you the process was expensive and rare.) This dress might be one of the most fabulous 30s outfits of all time. I'm head over heels for the flowy blouse with red triangular detail. Her matching hat and gloves are to die for! I wondered to myself if her outfit might be couture, but after looking at the image further I think she's just highly fashionable... times 3. 

And now we enter the land of "what the heck are you wearing, Joan?" She looks like she should be leaving for marching band practice. Still I suppose that Joan Crawford was a very fashionable lady in 1939 so she must have known what she was doing. Her outfit is another great example of cyclic fashion. Don't you think this would look right at home in a 1970s magazine? Or even a 1980s one with those shoulder pads. So you can probably all look forward to wearing this look in the future.

This is a photo of Bertha Case taken in 1932. I'm not sure if this is the Bertha Case, American artist or just someone named Bertha Case. I was only able to find one photo of the Bertha Case on the internet to compare this with, but that photo had been taken in the 1910s and it was hard to tell. I'm leaning towards this actually being her because it is a color print from the 1930s. I am very much enjoying her elegant gloves with the scalloped edging and her hat. Bows nowadays seem to make hats very childish, but this hat is nothing but tasteful. 

And lastly the beautiful Marlene Dietrich in her wispy evening gown circa 1935. Marlene was just so gorgeous, truely one of the timeless beauties. She always looked a little miffed in her photos, but that was her style. Not my favorite dress of today for sure, but it's certainly interesting and dare I say- racy? I wish I knew what the fabric of that dress was. It reminds me a bit of chalk lines on a paper bag. Anyone else have any ideas?

So there's your Vinspiration for the week and now for the Ruby Shorts and rest of Nancy's life update...

Sooooooo, it is one thing after another around here. Today as I was snapping some pictures of my newly completed right Pink Ruby leg my Point-and-Click camera decided to call it quits. My first thought? Needs new battery, so I popped the battery out and plugged the camera into the wall. This worked for like a second, then the camera took some weird grainy liney pictures and decided to DIE on me. I can't even get it to suck its lense back in...

So instead of showing you my nifty button holes (thanks to my awesome automatic button-hole attachment) you get these grainy cellphone pictures. Enjoy... if you can.

Yes, that is my bathroom. Yes those are my cleaning supplies. Yes those are my panties for all the world wide web to see.

I also had some photos of the nice fit I've somehow managed to achieve despite all the troubles people have been having with the Rubys, but you don't get those. They're on the dead camera. And yes, I am wearing a shirt, I pulled it up to take the photos.

So one leg down, the other should go together fairly quickly now that I know what to expect. I don't think anyone from this sew-a-long (SAL?) has actually finished their shorts.The Rubys are definitely a beast, but I hope well worth it. BurdaStyle seems to like to take the simplest directions and twist them around so it seems insanely difficult. These shorts really are not too bad, once you can translate the pattern. I know Purple Rubys will be a breeze now that I know what the pattern means to say. Lisette has an ongoing translation over at her blog Vintage or Bust.

Weekend update

So this is as far as I got this weekend on the Ruby shorts.

Made some darts and hemmed the pocket. Still have no clue what Ruby wants its pocket seam allowances to be. I went with 3/8 as that seemed to make the pocket the right size. I think on Purple Ruby Shorts #2 I'm going to omit the back pocket. It's cute, but it is detracting from that 40s vintage vibe. Of course, Purple Ruby's fabric colors are already detracting from its vintage vibe. Purple Rubys I think will have much more of a 70-80s look, while Pink Ruby's will have a nice 1940s or 1950s feel to them. I'm already planning to pair Pink Rubys with a white button down blouse, a large brimmed hat and some white vintage sandals. I need to swing by the goodwill and my favorite consignment store before I pick any shoes up on the internet, but these are at the top of my list.

Currently they are $20.00 on etsy. I've been dying for some white vintage shoes since I saw this post by the Vintage Baroness. I, of course, was not willing to pay for any of the shoes she posted despite how glorious they were. I was, however, very inspired and went in search of something a little more reasonable. To me dressing Vintage is about having a vintage look that evokes a certain time period, but is not necessarily accurate.  I suppose you could say I lean towards the Rockabilly side of vintage fashion in that way.

Luckily for me, fashion is cyclic. What was once in style will be again and again and again. The sandals are probably from the 1960s or 1970s. The maker is Corelli. The heel is just perfect for the vintage 40s look. It wasn't very common to see different colored heels at the time. You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to find a pair of white peep toes with a solid white heel these days, but if the white heel isn't important to you etsy has a lot of white 30s and 40s looking strappy shoes from the 1970s and 80s under $20.00.

I'm also on the lookout for a sweet 40s red lipstick shade to go with the look. Besame has some great Vintage Reproduction lip colors. I'm leaning towards Merlot for my 40s look.

What do you think? The 1940s look is characterized with a flat foundation, light eyes, a dark liner over the eye (cat-eye optional), a thin highlight under the eye and a dark lip. I'm worried Merlot might be a little too dark for my pale skin, but maybe not. Here's a cosmetics ad from 1947.

Blue Red is pretty dark as you can see. Besame's Classic Enchanting Lipstick even comes in a vintage styled lipstick tube. How cute! The designer of their lipstick collects vintage lipstick tubes and designed their packaging accordingly.  Besame Classic Enchanting Lipsticks come in a large variety of colors, are quite thick, are highly pigmented and are about as close to the lipstick of the 1940s as you are going to get. The tubes sell for $15.00.

Ruby Shorts update: Welt pocket

So, made my first welt pocket ever today. The results were "meh." I'm going to go ahead and pass the buck here and blame it on the Ruby instructions. I had trouble understanding them as I was going through the process despite the fact that I'd read them five or six times beforehand. It wasn't until after I finished the pocket that I finally understood what the directions were saying, so I figure now that I know what they meant to say Ruby Shorts #2 in fabulous purple should have a better looking welt pocket.  

Above is the welt (or piping as the Ruby pattern calls it, or pleated pocket if you prefer-- Whatever floats your boat) before I sewed the pocket flaps on the back. My basting stitches are are still there, though they weren't really holding anything because I didn't fold the welts back far enough. Oopsie. As you can see I've got some serious puckering going on. I figured out why later. When I cut through the fabric to open a hole for the pocket I should not have pushed the little triangles it leaves on the horizontal sides of the welt in. That should be done last, I did it first. So, I feel like if I don't have to mess around with those things while trying to align my piping next time things will be much smoother.. 

Pocket flaps sewn on, no problem here. 

Inside of the pocket. Looks good. No problems there. 

And the final welt. It's mediocre at best. There's a little too much pucker on the right hand side for my taste, but I suppose it's not horrid for my first welt pocket ever. I'm debating on trashing this piece and skipping the welt all together on the pink Rubys. I have enough fabric to cut myself another front panel. I probably won't though. I want to see how the welt will lay when I actually have the shorts on. If the pocket lays funny I'll know not to add one to the purple Rubys. And I don't really mind the pocket  the way it is since it's small, plus I think little imperfections give it that homemade touch. 

You might also note I finally got around to making a new header graphic for my blog. Looks much better than the fake title I had up there before.  

Small set back, but I'll live.

One small set back with dress production. I miss read my pattern and am making something that is WAY too big for me. One size up? More like 3. I'm a 32 bust, this thing is a 38. How did I interpret 38 as a 32? Don't ask...

But I wiped that egg off my face and went off to find another pattern. Luckily the world is full of vintage dresses, so fear not. I hopped on ebay and found these!!! I won them for a ridiculously low price... but wow! Gosh, I love every pattern in this lot! I don't have a large picture of all of these because I only just won the patterns today and they have not been shipped yet, but some of the pictures I was able to pull from the vintage pattern wiki and some of them are from the ebay page.

Butterick 8367 Magic to Make party/day dress. This will definitely need a crinoline, but I've been meaning to pick one up anyways. I think the sleeveless view C is my favorite here. It's more to my taste, but the puff sleeves on A & B are also super super cute even if they are a little young for me. The envelope on this one is way torn up, but the seller assures me all the pieces are intact.



Butterick 8078. The soft shirt dress. Mine has a 34 bust. This would be great in a lightweight cotton for spring, or jersey anyone? Have I mentioned that I love jersey? View B is a definite must make for me. Love the collar and those great sleeves. The sleeves sold this one for me. A is a little bit crazy with the fabric pattern, but the longer sleeves are nice too.



Advance 6260. This one is going to be way too big for me. Bust 44, so a definite resale or trade. If anyone is interested in it, it's a super cute shirt waist dress. Gosh, just look at those scalloped sleeves. Wish it was a little smaller, but I'm too lazy to re-draft this one in my size.



Simplicity 1260. Published in 1955. This picture is from the wiki. My pattern is size 14 and bust is a 32, which is totally spot on my size! I'll be making a muslin of this in case I need to make this a little more boob friendly. And it's obviously worth it to make a muslin in this. I mean, look at how happy these girls are to be wearing this dress? It's like euphoria in an envelope. I love the removable dicky and the great bodice shaping. I bought this whole set for this one pattern, so I'm definitely going to have this dress one way or another!



Simplicity 1553. Mine's a 34 bust. This is my first night gown pattern and it is so so cute. I swear my Aunt Donna had this exact night gown. I've even got a picture from Christmas morning 1973 to prove it. Wish I had a pajama party to wear something like this to. Satin would be so nice, or sweet lace. Silk would be nice too, just not in my budget. I actually think these are pretty sexy and I've seen similar styles in Belk. Plus it comes with a panty pattern. Awesome! Always wanted to make my own panties.



Butterick 6109. Mine's a 32 bust and again a perfect fit for me! In the auction I actually thought this woman was wearing gingham. She's actually got a cute polka dot pattern. I don't normally try to match fabrics to pattern envelopes, but this sweet red fabric is fantastic and I'm now officaly on a mission to find something similiar. Definitely prefer the scoop neck to the collared neck design here.



And finally Butterick 7461. A lovely robe to go with my new night gown perhaps? It says it's quick and easy. Which should mean easy pattern editing if necessary. I think the little construction diagram in the lower left corner is pretty cute. I love how fitted this robe is. Totally unlike today's robes. I'm totally dreaming of terrycloth or chenille here. Something about a fitted bathrobe seems nice, but depending on how the pattern works out I'll probably end up going with wool. I like the short robe better than the long, so I'll probably end up with that one.



Overall very excited about my purchases. I've got another bid on some more of this lady's patterns so if that works out for me I'll be posting about those as well. I can't wait until these arrive so I can get sew sew sewing.