Antique-Retro Threads: Plum-Purple Pocket Dress - Mid Twentieth Century

   

 I have  been thinking about adding embellishments to basic patterns lately, as I've been working on creating a rather

challenging embellishment on the straight skirt I've been sewing, using a pattern I created from my sloper. I haven't blogged about that project yet, other than a posting describing how I created the pattern.  

My own embellishment work got me thinking about this plum-purple frock,  that caught my eye at  the exhibit From Rationing to Rationing at the Museum of Vancouver. I saw it on our visit to Vancouver Canada in the fall of 2014. Yup, that's the visit, for which, I created my audio show  Embellishment Via Vancouver B.C.

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Pensamientos/Thoughts for this plum-purple pocket dress...

Fashion doesn't necessarily move as fast in real life as it does on the pages of a magazine. I recall dresses from my own childhood, in the 1960's, that harked back to many of the design elements in this dress, which is probably an end-of-the war, or just post-war creation.
* The fitted bodice is very mid-twentieth century
* Dainty collars added a popular innocent look
* No-button buttons were a simple embellishment many home sewers added. Buttons were often recycled from worn-out garments, so sewists had them around
* Short puffed sleeves stayed in style for several decades, certainly through the seventies
* Yokes also stayed popular through the late seventies
* Lots of pretty edging and trims like these, served up on plain fabric backgrounds,  are really reminiscent of the mid-century, before the mid-sixties, when dresses got much shorter and styles became all about crazy prints. Sewing up prints was in vogue, because printed fabrics were suddenly much more affordable and available.

And what about that pocket!

I created a similar pocket on my favorite black velvet bath robe, a few years back, by angling out the sides of a rounded pocket pattern. This one looks even more full. I must try fooling around with a pocket pattern to get a similar effect.

The pocket also  dips down in a heart shape in the center. And what about that beautiful embroidered velvet trim! It really tops off the pocket nicely.

* Lots of detail on the yoke was again very popular. It works because of the plain-colored background, even this peach colored lace can be over-embellished. I think that trim worked with ribbon is called insertion.
* Dark colored velvet bows at the neckline have a very mid-twentieth-century look as well. Doris Day often wore bows like this in her movies, especially black ones. Velvet bows were also popular as hair adornments. That was a signature style for Rosemarie in the Dick Van Dyke show, of course. Well into the sixties we could buy velvet bows on hair clips at the 5 and 10 cent store. I guess that would be the 5 and 10 dollar store now!

Reflecting on styles that affected fashions from my childhood, and considering embellishment elements that still work today - That's the kind of thing that keeps me ...

Enchanted By Sewing!

Ench By Sew-31: Historical Bathing Beauties

The April Enchanted By Sewing, Episode 31 Audio Show is Up !

Option I) Listen to the Audio right on the web by clicking on this link - No need to download 

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Option II)  Click on this link to iTunes  to download this and other Enchanted by Sewing shows to your mobile device (iPhone, Android, etc.) free from iTunes

Bathing and swim wear has certainly changed from the cover-em-up days!

 Have you ever sewn your own swim or bathing suit? I created a couple of bikinis way, way back in high school, but since then, frankly, I’ve been happier to buy my suits. I do however often stop off at various sewing blogs to sample bathing fashion creations that other sewists have created, and daydream a little at trying my hand at another suit one day.

I also get a kick out of hearing and reading about how bathing suits have changed over time, and thinking about what a shock people must have had to suddenly start seeing others, especially women, revealing so much of their flesh on beaches! The big changes in swim suit styling around the 1920’s seem to have been about the time when the  sport changed from ‘bathing’ to ‘swimming’ in the English speaking world. It wasn’t enough just to immerse ourselves in water outside, as we did indoors anymore. Now more people wanted to get some exercise when they went into a pool, river or ocean.

This month I’m sharing a walk around an historical bathing suit exhibit I saw at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in the fall of 2014. Won’t you let me know if this show gets you in the mood to sew your own modern day or historically inspired bathing or swimming suit, by posting below?

Babes & Bathers: History of the Swimsuit
http://vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/press/babes-bathers-exhibit-opens-maritime-museum.

Here is the promotion for the exhibit, from the web link at the museum. Please note that the show is no longer running.
‘
"In a city surrounded by water, swimsuits have always been an essential part of our wardrobe as Vancouverites. From swimming costumes to bikinis, bathing suit styles have fluctuated from the modest to the more revealing, all in a desire to make us fashionable by the water’s edge. Drawing on the private collections of celebrated fashion historian Ivan Sayers, you can now see the modest suits, revealing bikinis, and sometimes outrageous costumes that have been spotted on Vancouver beaches since the 1890s. "  http://www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com/

Terminado! Sewing a Simple Denim Skirt Is Good Medicine

Things that make me proud of this simple elastic waist denim skirt?

* Got it done!
* Draped the pattern myself!
* Love the figure flattering fit!

BTW there are side seam slits too, from the knee part way up the outside of my leg. Haven't tried it on a bike yet, but I think that will work will. The slits make slipping in an out of a car quite easy.

I made the skirt originally to go with my denim bustier, but you know I'm a sewist with a plan (SWAP). This garment goes really well with several of my basic shirts and is a great wardrobe builder

I got more pleasure finishing this simple denim skirt than any sewing project I can remember. As I mentioned in my most recent podcast, Mind of the Maker, I'm having some health challenges that are putting a bit of a crimp in my recreational sewing time. Completing this project, slowly but surely, did a lot for my sense of mental as well as physical well being.

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Web Resources

Audio Podcast Enchanted By Sewing Episode 20: Mind of the Maker http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2014/05/ench-by-sew-020-mind-of-maker.html

Waistlines:Inspired by the Classics - Time Travel to the Italian Renaissance

The Combat of Love and Chastity

If I'd been an all around, well educated, know-it all Renaissance women, an uomo universale  (the modern term is a polymath), I bet I'd have been dreaming in Greek - in my Greek-inspired, just-below-the-bustline waistlines that is!

The Renaissance , or rebirth, was about fifteenth and sixteenth century Italians dreaming about being reborn - as imaginary Greeks. Men and women of this era (at least those who could afford the luxury of being well educated) prided themselves on their breadth of knowledge in the arts and sciences - music, conversation, mathematics, machines, equipment, painting, architecture, books, languages, and what else..... or yeah, the art of warfare.

I'm pretty sure that if I travelled back through time to sometime in the sixteenth century, I'd have been particularly caught up in the excitement over the creation of new technology. And it seems to me that the creation of a telescope would have provided me with much of the same pleasure as my modern times enthusiasm for software development.

But I wouldn't have been crouching over my design table all day long. After all  I would have been an uomo universale, 
a woman capable of engaging in and demonstrating many accomplishments.

Whilst singing and playing my viola or lute (always with a fine air of

Woman Playing the Viola, Solario

sprezzatura),  bandying over the significance of the positions of the constellations with a fellow courtier ("But look at Mars through my new telescope Andrea!"), and planning the next poetic verse in my current composition, I'm pretty sure  I'd also have been hard at work on another mental composition, a gown inspired, of course, by my supposed Grecian roots*. I might have already been wearing something that took me back to those times past,   something with a twisted shoulder element perhaps, like the one in Solario's painting of a musician.

Chaste Women in a Landscape

While I was fiddling, singing and discoursing among my fellows,  I would have been contemplating the creation of a dress with a substantial dose of color. My classical interests would go for something with simple, fluid lines. No fussy necklines or over embellishment for my gown. It would speak for itself in the way it flowed from a high waistline set just below the bust, creating long lines of naturally occurring seamless folds over the body,  in hues of russet or red. In cooler weather I might pair it with a cloak of deep forest green.

Whether it was dress design or a new ability to view the heavens, I'd have been stretching my interests just as far afield back in the sixteenth century, as I do today. 

You know, it's time travel like this that keeps me...

Enchanted by Sewing!

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Thank you for sponsoring the regular work of this sewing journal site, and the Enchanted by Sewing Podcast when you buy products linked from this page!

"Prince of Foxes", set in the Italian Renaissance, is one of my all time favorite movies. It's based on a classic Samuel Shellabarger novel of the same name.  The movie is adventurous and romantic. The costumes are historically accurate and gorgeous.

* Of course women's position in Greek society didn't tend towards the well educated. These gals tended to be more like domestic appurtenances with no equal standing alongside the boys. A well-educated, monied Renaissance women could hope for a lot more when it came to society, education and an attitude of respect from her menfolk.

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Resources

Uomo Universale/The Polymath

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath
http://alexpetrov.com/memes/hum/renaissance-man.html

Vintage Threads: Myrna Loy Made the Clothes

Some women identify with Mariyn Monroe, others with Judy Garland. My favorite vintage film star is Myrna Loy, and my favorite images of Miss Loy are as Nora Charles in The Thin Man.

Wouldn't this be your favorite go-to outfit if you were Mrs. Charles? No woman has every looked as pulled together as Nora in this plaid bias-cut skirt, feather-endowed beret and bow combination.  And the shapely black companion jacket pulls it all together. I'd hazard a guess that the plaid is a mixture  of black and red threads on a white background. 

A modern sewist could pull off  the creation of a very similar  ensemble (she might want to ditch the bow tie and feather, to avoid looking a bit too precious) but she could never really put it together like Nora Charles did.

Some folks say that clothes make the woman, but in the case of this great lady, Myrna Loy made the clothes.

Vintage Threads: Retro Cow Gal Denim is Thoroughly Up to Date

63 years after filming, these gals duds are still in style

With some fashions we have to wait for a return to retro. But when it comes to denim duds, their style vibe just keeps on working.

Irene Dunn's jean-jacket and Ann Doran's vest and shirt combination are as classic today as they were back in 1950 when Never a Dull Moment was filmed. The topstitching on Miss Dunn's jacket is particularly inspirational for modern sewists. You can see it up close when you click on the illustration.

Just add some pumped up pouty lips, loose flowing hair,
and a come-hither expression.
Then... as soon as our waistbands move back up from their currently
below the waist position - likely to happen any day-
these nicely fitted jeans, with belt and classic plaid shirt will put
this picture right back in style.

Part 8: Sewing Chronicles of Lady Lizbeth, Secret Diary of a Time Traveling Maide

Gold on black,

Silver and wine.

 Thy clothes show the world

Ye can afford fine.

 Pithy sayings of Lady Margaret Hobey

Part 8: Clothes make the Maide

Since my readers are sewers, you’ll want to hear what I wore my first night down to supper. Did you wonder what I was going to do for clothes, beyond the outfit William had snatched up for me from the day-in-a-life dress up zone in the British Galleries? (That's right when he was supposedly looking for his cell phone, that weasel!) The real Lady Elizabeth’s trunk had been sent on ahead of her. That was before her uncle’s state of health had kept her from starting out as soon as she’d intended.  No one in the Hobey's household, other than the aforementioned weasel, had gotten a chance to read the letter from the other Liz’s auntie, conveying this rather pertinent piece of information. Ole Will had seen to that.

Luckily for me, Lady E.’s clothes fit me. Wouldn’t it have been tricky to explain otherwise?

So here's the scoop. First off, let me remind you that that the currently (current in 1581 that is) in style dropped-waist look, is carried off by means of a busk-point, in my case that's a nasty hard piece of bone, whittled into a kind of v-shape, that’s inserted into the front of my stays. This instrument of torture gives me that glamorous long pointy Elizabethan torso-look and it also makes sitting down a whole new experience. I'm sure you know, that the stays are laced over the chemise and the under petticoat. They stays also push all my womanliness into nearly full view, providing me with that bosom-on-a-platter look you see in all the portraits. There's also a farthangale. Cecily was surprised that I made any complaint about that, because apparently it’s the minimalist's version. Don’t even get me started on the joys of dealing with a farthingale. Are you wondering how long it took me to learn how to walk around in just my undergarments?

Over all this I somehow, with a lot of help from the maideservant Hannah, managed to struggle into a deliciously smocked soft yellow linen kirtle undergown. As far as I was concerned, that would have been enough. But then we got on to the outer bits, a deep green woolen bodice and matching bell shaped skirt, that opened down the front to display the rows of yellow smocking. About that time the whole process was starting to seem worth it.

Did I mention that there was blackwork embroidery on the sleeve and neck edges of the chemise? It just peeked out (rather fetchingly I thought) at the edges of the sleeves and the neckline of the green bodice. Oh, I didn’t tell you about the sleeves, did I? They were tied on to my kirtle (of course who wouldn’t want her sleeves tied on?) and were heavily embroidered with a couch stitch in black wool thread.- an all over intertwined arabesque design. 

The whole thing was yummy. I figured now I’d just run a brush through my curls and get on down to eat, that's assuming I could squeeze food into my stomach under those stays. Cecily had more plans for me however. I looked down at the fragile lacey item Hannah was starting to stitch onto the back neckline of my bodice.

“But the Queen’s 'Statutes of Apparel' forbids anyone not of noble birth from wearing lace or ruffs. I uh – well that is to say we never wear anything like that at home.”

“But we’re gentry, dear. It’s only a collar, not a full ruff. And besides that, it’s drawn-thread work, not proper bobbin lace like the nobility wears. 

I was starting to see just why the sumptuary laws had been a failure. The new merchant class could afford to be conspicuous consumers and no old-school noble types were really going to get in their way. There’s always a way around the rules aren’t there?

The household boosted a Venetian mirror on the landing just outside our chamber. Despite the fact that it made it hard to turn my head, I found the stiff lacey collar quite pretty. It frames my face nicely and would make anybody look like she’s got more neck than she does. Hannah brushed my hair back and secured it in a black threadwork caul embellished with little seed pearls and tied in place with a fillet of green ribbon. Cecily volunteered to pluck all those nasty hairs away from the top of my brow herself. It would look so much lovelier, but I said no thanks. Though she’s clearly too sweet and polite to let on, I can just imagine what Cecily thinks about me. A good thing I can put on my dogpatch attitude, blaming my total lack of fashion sense on my remote island upbringing.

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