Swimwear as Outerwear

Ages ago I said that I wanted to make a playsuit/romper/jumpsuit/whatever you want to call them (personally, I'm not a fan of any of those names).

I had this vintage seersucker from the Two Squirrels shop that was begging to be made into some sort of one piece suit type thing.  

I used vintage McCalls 5829, a bathing suit pattern. It was pretty straightforward to sew. Initially, I made it a bit tight. I guess, because it's a bathing suit pattern, there isn't  much ease in it. You wouldn't want much if you were going to wear it in the water, of course, because it would go all saggy. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased about the invention of lycra because I can't imagine it being very comfortable to swim in something made of heavy cotton. Since I wasn't going to be doing any swimming in it, I let the seams out a bit so I could actually breathe while wearing it.

I didn't have enough fabric to match the print but I'm not too worried since you rarely find RTW clothes with the print matched these days.

Grumpy is my default face

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago when it was far warmer. I'm back to wearing cardigans and thick tights now. I don't mind though, Autumn is my favourite season. 

Scarf: Op shopped

Sunglasses: Vintage shop

Belt: Op shopped

Tights: Farmers

Shoes: Golden Ponies

Pansies bloomed all night

I bought this hat pattern in one of Vogue's online sales. It's a reproduction of a pattern from around 1950. The pattern envelope is styled  hideously. I don't know why they do this. It's like there's some sort of conspiracy to make people not want to buy their patterns. I mean, the hats don't even look remotely 50s. They look more 1980s. Anyway, I thought Hat A and B had potential if you looked past the pattern envelope.

The frame is made with bias covered wire and piping cord. This took me quite a while because I couldn't understand the instructions. I just ended up making it up as I went along.

 I then covered the frame in fabric. At this point I was pretty sure it was going to turn out horrible.

I didn't want to make flowers from ribbon or organza like the pattern instructed so I bought these fake flowers. After pinning them to the frame I decided they were too big.

Because I'm some kind of masochist, I pulled apart the flowers and made new ones out of the petals. This took me many episodes of BSG to complete.

Side view

I then hand sewed all the flowers to the hat frame. Pretty much the whole hat is hand sewn except for the bias that covers the wire which was sewn by machine.

I tried to take photos with my tripod but you couldn't really see the hat so mirror shots it is.

You can wear it either way around. Hat A and B on the pattern envelope are the same foundation but Hat B is worn the other way around and has different flowers. I think I like it the way around it is in the first photo.

Even though it took me ages to do and was kind of frustrating, I really love this hat. I'm proud of all the hand sewing too. It's not that neat but this is probably the most hand sewing I've ever done on a project.

Also, thanks for your comments about my hair in the last post. I've decided I like it now. I think it just takes a while to get used to a haircut.

Pink and green sailboats

Even though I don't like pink, cream doesn't suit me and boats make me seasick, I still bought this cotton print and made a dress out of it. I drafted the bodice from a few different patterns because I didn't have the exact one that I wanted. The skirt is just a circle skirt.

I got distracted by a bird

The cream was pretty hard to photograph. As you can see, the colour doesn't suit me but I don't care, I like the print. It looks better with a cardigan.
 

I also took the scissors to my hair. I'm not convinced that I like it but it's my own fault and it'll grow back. 

Cardigan: Op shopped

Shoes: Op shopped

Belt: Off another dress

Bangles: Etsy and ebay 

Tights: Supermarket probably

Dress: I made it

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 basket, a couple of bags, and a hat

I don't know why I look sad

It seems I am incapable of seeing any sort of cane, straw or wooden bag without buying it. I suppose it's not really a big problem when most of the six or so I have were under $10. My most recent purchase was this wooden clutch bag from the Sumner Street Fair last weekend. I think they were popular in the 70s. 

The only bad thing is that you can see what's inside it so I'll have to try and stop my usual practice of shoving receipts, tissues and other random rubbish into my bag.  

Vintage dress: Trademe
Belt/ribbon: Craft shop
Vintage shoes: Op shopped
Tights: Primark
Hat: Vintage store in Saltaire
Bag: Sumner Street Fair

Also from the Sumner Street Fair is this old hairdryer case. It still had the hairdryer inside but I've taken it out so I can use it as a bag. I don't know what I'm going to do with the hairdryer though. I already have two other 60s hairdryers because they come in such cool cases. I op shopped the hat sitting on top recently. I think I might have a hat buying problem as well.  

The colour is darker and nicer than in the photo

This basket was op shopped at the same time as the hat. I'll probably use it as a handbag because it's a really good shape.  It's sort of deep but not too big.

Eva Dress Pattern Contest

I entered the dress I blogged about in the previous post in the Eva Dress Pattern Competition. You can find my entry here if you'd like to vote for me. I think there's only a couple of hours of voting left.

Eva Dress D40-5087

Even though I haven't been posting much, I've been sewing a lot. I have about 10 sewing projects that I haven't got around to blogging about. I thought I'd start with something I finished a couple of days ago. It's also my entry into the EvaDress Pattern Contest.

The pattern is EvaDress D40-5087, an afternoon dress from 1940. I'm not entirely sure what an afternoon dress is but regardless I wore this the whole day anyway.  

Trying not to squint just looks like I'm glaring

I liked the colour of the middle dress on the pattern envelope so I used a green wax print cotton. The pattern instructions were minimal (as most 40s patterns seem to be), but once I deciphered the diagrams it was pretty straightforward.  

You can see the gathering, shoulder yoke and puff sleeves a bit better in this picture. The instructions call for stiffening in the sleeves to make them stand up but I didn't use any because the wax print cotton stays up on its own. I'm not usually a massive fan of puff sleeves but I love these ones. Maybe it's because they are quite high, they look less little girl and more bomb girl.

I really like this dress. I'm already planning on making a more winter appropriate version with three quarter sleeves. 

Wonky seams

These stockings always seem to provoke a reaction from people. I usually get asked at least once when I wear them whether they are tattooed on.

Shoes: Brumby
Stockings: Online somewhere, I can't remember exactly where
Scarf: Op shopped
Belt: Op shopped
Dress: I made it