I have a habit of buying beautiful things that are completely unwearable. I feel like I am saving pieces of history that would otherwise be thrown away. I have vintage 1940s shoes that are too small and 1950s shoes that are too big. The dress I am wearing above is a 50s party dress. Unfortunately, there is a huge rip in the back where the fabric has weakened, numerous rust spots, a large sun damaged strip and a few other problems. It is basically unfixable, yet I can't bear to get rid of it. What makes it worse is that it fits like it was made for me. I'm going to hang it up in my sewing room so at least I can admire its beauty, even if I can't wear it.
I also have a lovely new banner thanks to Katrina of Pugly Pixel, who very generously made me two banners from which I choose my new one. She made my previous banner as well. Thanks Katrina.
The banner looks great.
ReplyDeleteI have a growing collection of 50s and 60s cocktail dresses, with very few places to wear them. I can relate.
There have been a couple of pieces that I have come across like the dress you are wearing that fit well but are in bad condition. To take care of everything but the rip, you could try dying it black and then maybe mending the rip and if the fabric is too fragile for mending, maybe put some fusible interfacing behind the rip? Just some ideas because that is an awfully cute dress and it looks wonderful on you!!
ReplyDeleteI have the disease of wanting to save everything vintage that I come across as well. I can't tell you how many times I've had to put something back on the rack and just walk out of the store to keep me from buying something because it was just too beyond repair and wouldn't be worth me paying for it in the first place.
Louise- thanks. You should just wear them anywhere. I often wear vintage cocktail dresses to uni. I dress them down by wearing a cardigan over top and flat shoes. If I didn't they would probably never be worn.
ReplyDeleteMs. B- thanks for the ideas. I think the fabric wouldn't cope with dying. The rip is where the fabric fibres have started to rot and I don't think there's any way to reverse or stop that. Even if I fixed all the problems, the fabric is so fragile that wearing it for any period of time would probably be impossible without damaging it again.
Luckily I didn't pay much for it and I'm going to use it as art and hang it on the wall of my sewing room.
Hanging it as wall art is a great idea. I have a 1940's bathing suit that is way too small for me, but way too hard to get rid of hanging on one of my walls.
ReplyDeleteArrgghhh!!!! That's TRAGIC. Seriously. What a beautiful dress and the colour is so divine. Maybe you could copy the pattern and make another out of a similar fabric and just keep the original as a beautiful, unwearable object??
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good idea. I think I even have some dress patterns that are similar and could be changed so they look more like this dress.
ReplyDeletehow tragic that it has an unmendable hole in the back, especially since it looks like a perfect fit!
ReplyDeletei'm happy you like the banners. :D
Hum... this is a beautiful dress, it would be a pity if you couldn't wear it. Is there a way of fixing the rip and the staining by putting embroidery over it?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion but I think that even if I fixed the rip and staining the fabric is so weak it would just tear again. The fibres have started to disintegrate so there's not much hope of me being able to wear it. I have it hanging up in my sewing room so I still get to admire its beauty and when I get around to it I'm going to try and sew a copy of it like Lily suggested.
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