The Swish of Vintage Silk

A most wonderful swap box arrived at my house this week:



(well, two wonderful swap boxes arrived, but I'm going tell you about this one in particular).

See that long flat package? I happened to open that last and do you know what it was? This!



Three 1929 fashion sewing booklets full of gorgeous pen-and-ink dress drawings ...... with the PATTERNS!!



My friend who sent the box - a most amazing designer and yarnie from NYC - was online while I opened it, and she told me that friends of hers brought these booklets back several years ago from a trip to Spain.  They are of course in Spanish, but the language of vintage fashion is universal isn't it? I love them immoderately and think she was so, so generous to pass them on to me! Here are a few gorgeous pictures for you to enjoy:





















I do plan to make some of these and the one I'm going to make first is this (I'm thinking grey mauve silk satin and/or midnight blue):



My last adventure into 1930's fashion sewing was HERE...

Enceinte, 1912

Enceinte, from the Latin incient (to be with young) was first used to refer to a pregnant woman in 1602. In the late 1800's and very early 1900's, it was considered bad taste for women who were pregnant to be seen in public (hence the term "her confinement")as it brought to mind the act that created pregnancy.

But within just a few years this extreme delicacy ended and women were sharing patterns for fashions that would bring them comfortably through pregnancy while still allowing them to attend those social events that were acceptable.

Recently, a friend asked if I had any patterns for pregnancy that she could use in a re-enactment of the early 1900's. I found a few knitted garments, but she doesn't have time for that so I looked through the few antique sewing books I have.

The Women's Insitute of Domestic Arts and Sciences published a booklet for home sewing (or for one's live-in seamstress to use) for Maternity and Children's Garments. Here are some of the clever maternity designs fashionable in the early 1900's...















While some of these are definitely "home dresses", here are a couple of "Evening Coats" definitely meant to be seen!





All the wrapping is very clever, though I don't think it would take a woman very far through the nine months. I do love the evening coat though!

those 40's ingenues

Although vintage knitting and crochet is my passion, I do have a thing for vintage sewing patterns. I've used many of these, even making a silk wedding dress last summer from an original 1930's evening gown slip pattern.

I just can't resist picking up these vintage patterns when I find them in the charity shops and thrift stores! But I know that there are many beautiful patterns I'll never use. I plan to put them in my Etsy shop:

This charming bathing suit and oriental-style coat pattern seems to be from the 1940's.



Here's another bathing suit from 1967 - I love the low-hip bell bottoms!



These two skirt patterns are probably 40's again, or maybe very early 50's... Look at those Tiny waists!





and finally, this gown... the pattern number is listed on some vintage pattern sites as the 30's but the style of the pattern cover and the hairstyles and the style of the gown itself looks to me like late 40's or very early 50's, like 1947 - 1951. Can't you just see some 1949 high school ingenue going to her prom in this gown?



I love all of these and can so easily picture them sewn up and designed in very cute ways! But I know I'll never take the time from my knitting and knit designing to do that. I'll leave it to more clever fingers than mine!

Wedding in the Glade

This glade in the Hoyt Arboretum was a beautiful, enchanted place. It was sheltered by three large, tall trees in a triangle and a fourth tree - an old oak with spreading branches that had holly circling up its massive trunk. The ground was covered with wild flowers, and rose bushes in bloom circled around... The air was full of birds singing...

Wedding Dress part three - Finished!

It was with a sense of despair and the feeling that I would never complete this that I got up early and faced the front room as soon as it was light enough to see without the lamps. I had to make a decision about the back train and hadn't been able to get in touch with Jule yesterday to ask what she wanted.

When I went to bed last night, two decisions were rattling around like pinballs inside my brain: a big frothy train? A wide wrapping sash?

When I looked down at the dress spread out on the table, and laid out the folds of fabric that would cascade down beneath where the back sipper ends....it all came clear. I heard Michael Kors' voice on Project Runway saying "and what is that!? She looks like she's pooping fabric!" (he really did say this to a contestant once. Heidi said it first, but he said it most emphatically.).

I chose something sleeker, and much more flattering to the butt. Here is it pinned but not sewn or pressed:



The next task was to finish the straps and here I made the very first mistake that required unpicking the thread and re-doing.



You know how when you're knitting in the round and you do the first cast on and then "join, being careful not to twist"? and you check - and double check - to make sure that your join is not twisted? The same sort of thing happens when you are attaching shoulder straps. You have the front sewn in and you're slipping the edge of the back strap between the back edge and the narrow facing. You say to yourself "seam towards the shoulder. seam towards the shoulder." You double check and then sew it in and go over it three times - because there is a lot of stress on this point, since the dress hangs from the shoulders. And then you hold the dress up by the straps and you check that the strap seams are facing towards the shoulders and.........there it is. The dreaded twist. You can't exactly rip stitches out of silk. So you pick up an insanely thin silk needle and begin to un-pick the stitches one by one. Luckily on the re-do it looks fine. Love and care cover a multitude of careless sins (or inadvertent mistakes).

Hemming came next - all hand-rolled hems. I did get out my 1900s sewing machine that has a narrow rolled hem attachment, but when I experimented on a scrap of silk, the tight narrow hem was so stiff, like a cord, that it made what would be the hem edge stand out in a circle like a crinoline! So it was hand sewing for all the hems - the back edges, catching in the top of the zipper, the neckline edge, making a wide curve, and the yards and yards of skirt hem:



It took 6.5 hours solid of hemming just for the skirt alone. While I hemmed, I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old version), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Johnny Depp version), Robin Hood (the Uma Thurman version), and a few assorted British sit-coms. Good stuff.

As for the sash, I'm going to wait. I'll make the waist part tomorrow, but bring all the rest of the silk with me, in case it's needed:



Now I am really and truly finished. All that remains is the fitting and the subsequent shaping and hemming of the arm-curves. That part has to fit exactly, or else make use of lots of double-sided tape!

FRONT:



BACK (showing hem):



Tomorrow I pack it all up and then board a plane for next week-end's wedding. I'm so excited! Jule, I hope you like this and I'll see you soon!

Wedding Dress, part two

WARNING - This post is VERY Picture-heavy! If you have a slow connection, it might take forever to load...

Day two on the sewing front... yesterday evening I stopped after basting the pieces together. I found out this morning that the bias cut had caused one of the godets to hang lower than the other. There was nothing wrong with the cut, I just needed to take the basting out, let both pieces hang naturally and baste them together again. They fit perfectly after that:



Now it was finally time to sew!



See the pretty silk thread winding on it's bobbin? I like to use silk thread with silk, although some people say to use cotton so the seams are sturdy. I like the lightness of the silk thread, especially with a bias gown.



Sometimes I just don't have the right tool for the job and have to improvise. Here I am using the spool-holder of a weaving shuttle to turn the tiny thin straps right side out:



Do you like mysteries? What's This????



Surprise! It's a zipper! An invisible zipper!



The godets are sewn in - what a lot of skirt!



Back downstairs now, to place and baste the bodice to the skirt and back upstairs to sew it:



Then...the really scary part!

Here I am with the center cut of the bodice. This is what will form that lovely wide shoulder-bone-to-shoulder-bone V neckline... I placed my handmade tissue pattern, with the cut marked, back over the bodice and basted the cut line with ling running stitches. Then, I gently pulled the tissue away, leaving the stitches in place on the silk...





(cue the theme music from JAWS)... here come the scissors! Oh noes!



The cut is made - 6.5 inched from the hollow of the throat. There's no turning back now!



The next step was to place the straps against the bodice to drape it and figure out how it would actually come together. It's starting to look more like a real gown now...

All of the hems must be hand rolled - the neckline, the arm and back edges, and the wide, wide, wide, wide hem. I couldn't get back far enough to take a picture of the entire hem at once, because with the front, the two back sides, the two godets, and the back train it is about six yards around...





I think I will hem this on the plane! (it's a long flight)

Tomorrow: finishing the bodice and neckline, designing and setting the train godet, and starting the drapey waist sash...

Wedding Dress, part one

It began with an idea... a vision of a 1930's silk, bias cut gown....



It took 2 hours on this dark, rainy Thursday morning to design and draft the bodice pattern...



and then to place and cut it on the bias...



But the gown front was even more complicated and required a newly drawn pattern of it's own. Also on the bias, it needed extra wide seams and an extra inch of ease on either side to make up for the bias downward drape...it has a slightly raised curved top edge, a shaped waist and a wide flared skirt.



The back was next... and it was mid afternoon. I used the back piece of an actual 1930's gown for this, but with adaptations: an extra 10 inches of length, including a curved back train, and more flare in the skirt, and a seam up the back.





The side godets needed lengthening too. By this time Jule had called and since a friend was over helping her move, she was able to get to some accurate full length measurements (sigh of relief...).



Godets are cut, with an extra wide circular hem...



It's important with bias cut silk, to press the material right after cutting. This helps prevent further stretching of the bias and it 'sets' the drape somewhat. The silk pressed beautifully and slipped through my fingers like jade tinted water.



Finally, I had it all together: the bodice, the bias front, the two side backs, the two side godets, the thin shoulder straps, and a set aside back godet with train...

My final step today from four until the sun went down at 8 pm and all light faded from the bow window in the front room, was to baste all the pieces together by hand to make sure it all eased in together just right!



I was tired! Tomorrow I sew. Wish me luck!

Last night I finished blocking the Lucky Guy tie. Blocking really gave it a nice polished look and drape. I love it!





I love the bright green zig zag down the front. I can't decide if it looks like argyle or a snake!