NYE Outfit: Vintage Finery!

Several months ago, my cool aunt (who is also making my wedding cakes!) scored a sweet find at an estate sale: a vintage dress, in almost perfect shape, for like $2.  (FYI: it's always nice to have someone who knows my tastes looking out for me!).  When I went to visit in November, she brought the dress out of the closet.  I eyed it cautiously for a few minutes because it looked too small for me around the middle.  The dress, however, was a lovely shade of pink and looked exactly like something I should own.

In spite of my worries, I tried it on, and even though it was very fitted, I could tell it fit properly.  This was, after all, a dress from the era of more fitted dresses and more confining undergarments.  I made a few small adjustments to the dress (removed some fading velvet bows and fixed a torn sleeve).  I thought about wearing it to Christmas (but opted instead for my red silk Christmas skirt), but ultimately decided that New Year's Eve would be the perfect venue for this lovely dress.

I was also given some lovely vintage jewelry from Lance's grandma (some that I will wear at the wedding!), so I wore that as well.  While thrifting the afternoon of NYE, I found a great pair of shoes (for cheap!) that I wore.  The best find of all during the thrifting excursion, however, was a lace clutch with matching gloves:

So pretty, and yet so cheap!  If only they were white, I could wear them with my wedding dress.  I will find other reasons to wear them, never fear.

I felt a bit costumed, but you know what?  I felt awesome.  There is definitely something to be said about wearing clothes that fit well and make you feel good in them.

Vintage-tastic!

Project Wedding Dress

Oh, hi there.  Remember me?  Yeah, I tried to blog a bit more then fell off the face of the earth.  However, I am back because I want to tell you all about the pretty wedding dress I'm making. The pictures will be a bit deceiving because I won't share the finished product until after February 5th, but you can see some of the process up until then.

So: this summer, after Lance proposed and I accepted, and after I tried on a few dresses and decided that most things related to commercial weddings made me twitch and itch a little (I think I'm allergic), I decided to make my own dress.  This Vogue pattern (originally from 1954!) caught my eye and stuck with me.

So very vintage! With a scooped neck, a full skirt, and a low back!  These features drew me toward it.  I bought the pattern, then began the practice dress (to make sure the final version would fit before I attempted it).  Finals occurred, followed by the holidays (and another wedding to attend), so I finally got around to working on after Christmas.  And...it turned out so well:

Well, it would look better if you could see me in it, but you can get the general idea.

So, now that the practice dress is (mostly) done (sans buttons and hemming), I decided to make several modifications to the pattern.  There are buttons on the front, but I am moving those to the back.  I'm also adding lace.  I'm also making the whole dress out of a second-hand dress given to me, so I'm incorporating fun beading into the skirt (that I don't have to do!).  Here's the dress I chopped up for parts:

And a close-up of the skirt/beading:

Gotta love recycling!

I'll go into more detail about the modifications I made (and how I did it), but I'm feeling reasonably confident in my sewing skills as of late.  Luckily, I do have an awesome seamstress to help me hem it because that's my sewing weakness: my hems always look like a home-ec project whereas the rest of the dress usually looks really great.  Guess I'll be working on that skill next!

Next wedding project (after the dress is completed): wedding vests for the boys.

A Wedding Outfit

There's a parable in the Bible about wedding clothes: I don't quite remember how it goes*, but one of the main ideas is that you don't show up to weddings in old, nasty clothes--you go to a wedding wearing appropriate wedding garments.

I have always felt that one should show up at weddings in a Very Nice Outfit, especially when it's two of my good friends getting married and even more when I've been asked to be involved by making and standing by the guest book, as well as invited to the family/wedding party-only events.  So, I decided to make my Very Nice Outfit on my own.

A couple of months ago, I had purchased a beautiful orange and white silk twill because, well, it was beautiful and silky.  I had vague notions of a dress.  After searching through my patterns, I found a fun strapless dress, so I decided to tackle it, even though I was less than confident in my sewing skills.

The dress had boning, which was scary at first, but turned out to be fairly straightforward.  And I had to rip pieces out of the bodice a couple of times because I sewed them in the wrong way.  There was a moment of panic when I thought the bodice might be too snug on my waist.  But then it all came together and looked pretty good.

It's not perfect: a lacked a zipper foot, so the zipper is less than well placed.  I messed up a few other things, but overall, the dress was fun, and it was mine.  And the shrug I knit to go with it was quick to make, fun, and went really well with the dress, especially given that it was a little chilly at times during the wedding.

I think that this will not be my final attempt at homemade dresses.  I definitely learned a lot from making it, and I look forward to trying my hand out on some other items soon.

*I could look it up, but I am lazy this morning.