Leaving Riverton

I bought this fabric ages ago on sale from the quilting section. I then put it in my fabric stash and ignored it for about six months. When I pulled it out recently I noticed that it had the designer of the fabric and the collection it belonged to printed on the selvedge. I looked them up to see what other people had made with the fabric. It turns out that the collection that this fabric belongs to has a novel that goes with it. The novel (and the fabric) is called 'Leaving Riverton'. It is a quilting romance novel. I had no idea that such a genre even existed. It's kind of hilarious because I dislike both romance novels and quilting. The book sounds pretty crap anyway, if the Amazon reviews are anything to go by. I hope no one thinks that my dress is an homage to the novel. I just like the fabric, okay? 

I used Simplicity 4744 from 1963. I originally drafted some three quarter sleeves, but when I sewed them on they didn't look right so I scrapped them.  

I didn't use the pattern pieces for the skirt, I just cut two rectangles, sewed them together and did one inch pleats.

Shoes: Brumby's garage sale

Belt; Op shopped

Bangles: Op shopped

Dress: I made it 

Socks: Columbine

A Marguerite Gown

Remember when I did that post about the New Zealand labels on some of my vintage clothing? Well, this is one of the dresses that was made/sold in the city where I live.  

I've only worn this dress once before because the hem had come down, and I needed to mend it. It took me about 5 minutes to do, but I left it sitting in my mending pile for months. For some reason it's hard for me to get motivated to do mending. I would rather sew a whole new dress than mend one. It's ridiculous because once I actually make myself do it, it usually takes no time at all.

I love the pleating detail down the front. I also love that the stitching isn't straight. As someone who sews it's nice to see non-handmade vintage clothes with wonky stitching. It makes me feel a bit better about my sewing when it isn't perfect. I know how hard it is to get topstitching straight so I sympathise with whoever made this dress.

The Moonrise Kingdom Dress (finally)

Yes, I'm wearing my saddle shoes because Suzy is wearing a pair in the movie trailer.

 I've been pretty busy studying for my exams next week so I haven't had much of a chance to blog lately. I finally managed to take a picture of my finished Moonrise Kingdom inspired dress. It was taken inside and it's pretty lopsided but it had snowed outside.

See?

The pattern I used for the dress was Butterick 5317 from the late 60s. I made quite a few changes. I redrafted the collar, and the sleeves, drafted some cuffs, shortened it a lot, put the zip in the back and left off the faux pockets.

In the trailer for Moonrise Kingdom Suzy looks like she's wearing a rope or something tied around her waist. I tried my dress with a belt but it went all bunchy so I decided it looked better without it.

I quite like the finished product but the fabric is a pain. If you look at it wrong it creases. For some reason it was fine when I was sewing it, but then as soon as I put it on it it started wrinkling like crazy. I ironed it just before I took the photo and you can see it's already pretty wrinkled. 

Summer of '65

When I saw the trailer above for Moonrise Kingdom I wasn't that interested in the film but the dress that Suzy wears  made me pause and re-watch it several times. To be honest, I'm not a Wes Anderson fan so I won't be going to see the movie. It looks aesthtically pleasing but the self-conscious quirkiness of his films don't appeal to me. I love the dress though and am determined to make my own version.  

I think the orange version may actually be tiny orange and white checks

 She has the same design in different colours. I think I like the orange version best.
I would guess that the dress has no waist seam. It looks like she's got a piece of string or something tied around her waist.

Yellow

This one looks like some sort of textured pique type fabric

I bought this pattern off trademe because it has the right shape, although it's got princess seams which I don't think Suzy's dress does. I will have to re-draft the collar and draft some longer sleeves and cuffs. I'll leave the faux pockets and the stripe off the front and change the zip to the back (the zip is covered by the white stripe). 

I have this medium weight orange cotton that I bought at Arthur Toye in Wellington. The fabric is called Mary Quant which is pretty perfect for making a 60s style dress. If this one goes well I might have to make a yellow one and a pink one too.

She's a Mod

You know how sometimes you forget how much you love something? Like, I forgot how delicious cream cheese is and then I had some the other day and now I keep slathering it on everything. I also momentarily forgot how much I love 60s style dresses. That is, until I saw the floral fabric I posted about in my last post. It's a textured cotton pique and when I saw it at Spotlight it screamed, "Make me into a 60s dress". It was $18 a metre though and that's more than I like to spend on fabric (yeah, I'm cheap) so I didn't buy it. About a month later I was in Spotlight again browsing the sales table and there it was for $4 a metre so I happily bought it.

I used Burda #104, after seeing this fabulous version. It has bell sleeves which I love. It came together relatively easily, apart from my sewing machine having a hissy fit. Luckily, I have two, so I used my 1950s Elna instead.

I made a couple of changes to the pattern. I couldn't be bothered doing a closure so I cut the back lower so that I could slip it over my head. I made the skirt flare out slightly more.
I'm really happy with the way it turned out and it's made me obsessed with sewing some more 60s style dresses.

P.S. I'm going to Wellington for a few days next week, does anyone have any vintage or op shopping recommendations?

Lilac Wine

I bought this early 60s dress from Dashfield Vintage a while ago to make myself feel better about all my tests and essays. I don't own anything lilac because pastel colours don't suit me but I loved the gathered neckline.

Image from Dashfield Vintage

It's a little bit big, but nothing a belt won't fix. The print is of leaves, which is a slight departure from my usual flowers.

One more exam to go and then I'm free, for a little while anyway.

Check the Technique: Bound Buttonholes, Baby!

I was going to buy some organza to do my bound buttonholes on Monday but then this happened...again.



Cue three days being stuck in the house. It wasn't like that just in Christchurch either. It seemed like pretty much the whole country got snowed in. Even subtropical Auckland (way up north) got a tiny smattering. I finally got to the fabric store by the end of the week, so I spent yesterday practicing my bound buttonholes and then doing the real ones on the bodice of my dress.


Bound buttonholes have always seemed to me like some sort of scary monster that only expert sewers tackle. I think the most terrifying thing is that you have to cut into the fabric before you know if they're going to work. If you screw them up you've ruined your whole garment. I was determined when I started Simplicity 5098 that I would finally do some. The pattern suggested doing bound buttonholes and I thought they would look neater because the button detail is a focal point of the dress. Also, because they are rarely seen on ready to wear clothes these days, they always seem vintage-y to me.

I used this tutorial from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing. I've seen many different techniques for doing bound buttonholes but I definitely think this is the best. I think it gives you a lot more control and consistent results.

The tutorial says to use silk organza but, let's face it, I wouldn't even know where to buy that in Christchurch. The few fabric stores that would possibly sell it were destroyed in the quake and even a small piece would probably be way more than I am willing/able to spend. I just bought some cheap (about $5/m) polyester organza from Spotlight and it worked just fine.

These are a couple of my practice ones.

Not so Good

Better

The first one wasn't that great because I used pins instead of basting. If you're going to try it I would definitely recommend basting everything.

These are the real ones.



I'm not quite sure why my camera made the fabric look lighter around the buttonholes but it isn't like that in person. They're not perfect but I'm pretty pleased with them. You can see the purple organza I used in the corners slightly but it's only noticeable if you look closely. It doesn't actually matter if they're not perfectly uniform because once the buttons are done up you can't even see the buttonholes.


Verdict: Not as difficult as I thought they'd be and definitely worth the effort. I see myself making lots of clothes with bound buttonholes in the future.

Purple haze all in my brain

It's finally getting cool enough to start breaking out my coat collection. This is one of my favourites. It's a crimplene dream with purple and white stripes. I'm pretty sure it's 60s. It has a Mod sort of feel to it. I found it in a tiny op-shop on the West Coast for $5. I bought the purple tights last week so decided to channel my inner Violet Beauregarde today.

I've been so busy at uni I haven't had much time to do any sewing lately but hopefully I'll be able to show you something by the end of the week.

She wore blue velvet

I bought this blue velvet 60s dress off Trademe before Christmas. It took a couple of weeks to arrive and when it did I was away for Christmas. This meant it sat for two weeks scrunched up in a courier bag. It was really creased down the front when I opened it but I managed to get quite a few of the creases out by hanging the dress up in the bathroom when I had a shower. There is still a big crease down the front though. I'm not sure how to get it out because I don't have a clothes steamer. I guess I'll have to take it to a dry cleaner but I'm scared they might ruin it if they don't have a lot of experience with vintage clothes.