A Look back at my Victorian Past Part 2 – Angela’s Dress

I love this dress, so much so that I am considering making one myself – I do have a plethora of emerald/forest green velveteen to use.  The one thing that holds me back is that it wasn’t the easiest pattern I have ever worked with.  Having said that I learnt a lot.

You may be asking why Ange didn’t make her own damn dress.  Well you must remember that this was some years ago and Ange was still my young apprentice at that time.  She certainly helped a lot, and probably could have managed a Truly Victorian pattern without to much issue but this is Ageless Patterns (#1478) and even for me who never really follows pattern instructions it was really hard.  We had much resizing, reshaping, and Ange even suffered a 7 day lemon detox and super tight laced corset in order to get into it.  It was a team effort because truly one person could not have suffered the frustration alone – no matter how beautiful the final product is.

I should explain that people did not have much choice in their Victorian costumes.  I did all the research bought all the patterns and assigned to each person based on what I thought would suit them best.  What they did have a say in was materials because they bought and paid for all of that.  However from the moment I saw this dress in black and white line drawing I just felt it was a deep green dress with cream inserts.  Lucky for me Ange agreed and that was what we went looking for.

She ended up with some sort of man made fabric, like a taffeta but a really cheap one.  From memory it cost about $4/m which was lucky cause that train required a lot of fabric.  The underskirt and front bodice were a cream fabric, something like a crepe I think with a stretch lace overlay.  A stretch lace that still sometime haunts the corners of my worst sewing nightmares.  The bodice was finished off with some hanging beads for some added bling.

Like I said in Part 1 – Ageless patterns are not made to be easy, they have not been resized to adhere to modern figure standards and the instructions are close to non existent.  This dress being simple, at least came with everything I needed to achieve a close to image look without to much sewing training.  In the end we not only resized pieces but also added in another two panels in the centre front.  To give you an idea of how out of modern proportion this pattern is the bust after resizing down/up would fit 36-38 inches whist the waist was 26 inches.  Yes this pattern is made to fit the proportions of a barbie doll.

As I mentioned the stretch lace was a nightmare but did add a certain bling to the final product so it was probably worthwhile in the end though “stretch lace” as a general term was added to the ever growing list of banned material.  At least the scalloped edge meant that I did not have to hem it.  All other material was fine to work with and the bodice pieces were also flatlined with the denim, again this was lucky because it meant that even if Ange didn’t technically fill out the bodice once corseted to the level needed for the waist – she at least looked like she did, since the denim held its shape.

Like I said once complete this was one of my most favourite of the Victorian costumes and I really should give it another go sometime and see if my  resizing ability has improved.

The Mighty 50's Avengers

This is a catch up post - I made these dresses (with help) last Easter for a role playing convention in Sydney.

The basic costume idea was to create a visual of the avengers using a pattern of a 1950's dress.  The pattern chosen, Butterick 5603, is a reprint from I think the early to mid 50's though the butterick website is not being very helpful and I am in no way inclined to leave my bed and check the envelope.  It is universally flattering, with 3 choices of neckline and the easy fit and flare shape.  As you can tell by the picture this was quite important as we are a mutli-shaped bunch.

In terms of the pattern I have no complaints, I had made it previously (which I will cover if only to put up pictures later.)  We ended up using all 3 of the necklines though only I chose the boat-neck.

So to make this quick I will go through each "avenger" and the things done.

(left to right)

Hawk Eye
This dress was interesting, what the wearer didn't tell me was that she was pregnant and not yet ready to announce so when the first fitting was done it was a little tight on the waistline.  I had to fix it by unpicking from under bust to flare and sew with a 1cm seam allowance at that part.  The dress was done in colour blocking and has a hawkeye symbol on the front.... well most of one - She was responsible for that and she only got the two circles and missed the cross hairs.

Ironman
We used colour blocking on this too a little around the waist and then did bias neckline and the hem.  The wearer borrowed a chest piece to complete the outfit.

Captain America
This one was a doozy - we had to shorten the waistline to fit the wearer and then break it into stripes which then had to be cut in the correct colours and pieced back together again in the right order.  On top of that the stars required no only cutting out but applique to attached them... They go all the way around the hem and there is one on center back and front (the back was a mistake but not a bad one).  Lucky for me I didn't do the applique - Ironman did

Hulk (ange)
Purple and acid green looked awesome together.  This one also has the same crossfront as Ironman.  It is green bodice then purple skirt to which we added green goddets.  In hindsight I think I should have diamond pieced the bodice to the skirt but time was a factor.

Thor (me)
Obviously I have a lot of extra effort for my dress - and lucky for me I had Ironman to do the applique of the front swirls.  I also did a hem of light grey that has a piping of maroon.  Originally the caplet etc was to be red but we found that the bright red just didn't work with the grey so I went and got more maroon.  The caplet comes from a 1940's pattern but I think worked well in this setting.

All of them were made for under $20 using poplin I picked up at $2/m in Cabramatta, sure it isn't the best quality but a costume is a costume and the price was so right.

A big thank you goes out to my girls all pictured for their help and also to my friend Gav for the hammer.

The Boxy Dress

Hef has already told you about her version of the boxy dress here. Well this is my version, technically my post should have been first since I made mine first but, you can’t have everything.

This dress was from a Butterick reproduction pattern 4792. When I first started sewing I purchased it along with a whole bunch of other Butterick reproduction patterns when spotlight was having a half price sale. I liked it because it was retro 50’s, which was the era I was concentrating on, and also really liked the backwards halter of the top. In the drawing it looked like it may be a challenge, but it was also something different, something that made this dress unique to all the other reproduction dresses.

Admittedly this was when I had first started sewing and I didn’t realise the world of actual vintage patterns was waiting for me on etsy, or that there were other patterns out there which would suit me better, but more on that later.

I purchased some awesome orange floral cotton. The orange on it was very vibrant and so I thought it would make a great summer dress. Unfortunately the white of the cotton was not as opaque as I would have liked so I decided to line the dress in white cotton, so as to not have the orange showing through from the self lining the pattern asked for.

To do that I had to slice the bodice pieces which are designed to fold over and line themselves. Although it was a small change it added to the challenge of this dress for a very new sewer and I was amazed when I was able to do it and it all turned out right.

I had seen this dress made up before, and it looked boxy but I thought that was perhaps just how it had turned out that time. Unfortunately it was not just that girl, on my frame it did not hold any shape, and so it was dubbed the box dress. The only shape I could get out of it was if I pulled the belt quite tight, which makes it slightly less boxy but still not the beautiful nipped waist look of the drawing.

I like the skirt part on it. You can lift it all the way up and it looks like bat wings. It is soooo large! (you will see from the photos of me I like to hold my skirt up and show how large they are, hef likens it to a peacock). I think it’s supposed to have less, or at least is supposed to be gathered in specific spots, but I didn’t do that. I gathered all the way round and it seemed to be ok, like I said I was very new to sewing at this point.

I still like it, but the backwards halter top seems to make my shoulders look really prominent and it does not pull in enough for a waist. I mean I don’t have a waist anyway.

When we were doing the photos for this blog I accidently put it around the wrong way and wow it look sooo much better! The boobs were put into the back which was the only issue, that and well I was wearing a dress backwards. I’m tempted to make it that way for good, but to do that I’d have to do something with the boobs. Take a look at the pictures and let me know your thoughts/ideas. Would turning it backwards permanently make it work or do you have other suggestions on how to save this box dress.

The internet Dress

This dress is called the internet dress because I downloaded the pattern off the internet. Just because I am nice, here is the link.

It was the first dress I made all by myself. I had worked on stuff with Heather a lot but wanted to make something that was wearable without aid, so I worked on this one from start to finish alone. I chose the brown and pink polka dots because I wanted black and pink and they didn’t have any (has anyone else noticed how hard this combo is to find?). The dress was from a historical society and most importantly it was free.

The first attempt was good. It was sewn on a larger stitch than I would use now so it made it less hardy than the other ones I have. It was also made before I knew about my waist being high. In fact, it is the reason I know that my waist is higher than normal peoples. This version sits quite low for me but the subsequent version has the adjustment on it.

The dress has a bow on the back which I thought looked a bit blech, so I left it out. Also I was not really good enough to try and create it. I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I sewed it a second time and left the bow out of that because of the not liking factor.

So the problems with this dress is that the section that goes under the bust and hits the waist is too long and so it bunches in a funny way. The zipper makes it funny also. I could probably unpick and fix it now but I don’t care too much. I ended up making a belt to compensate it which works fine even though the pattern has no belt.

The second attempt was made with a bright pink floral cotton. This time I spent AGES fitting that small section to my body. It fits quite well now. I put some pink ribbon around the top and hem as a little bit of decoration. It is a great picnic dress. This one does not need a belt. The skirt is not 100% straight on the bodice which makes it look a little odd but I was still getting into the swing of the tricks of the trade at the time.

I have since made a THIRD version of this dress, which included some pattern changes, including changing the zipper to be at the side, dropping the neckline and changing the way the skirt panels were done to accommodate the new side zip. It was done for Heathers Birthday last year where 3 of us went as 1950’s Hogwarts pupils. I got told I should wear mine out as normal clothes but I don’t know about that. The picture of this dress (and the other two house dresses) can be found here.

That 70's Dress

We call this the 70’s dress. It’s my first (and currently only) 1970s dress that I have done. I got the material fairly cheap at a sale it sat in the box for a while and until my mum gave me a heap of patterns (including this one) and I decided that the material that screamed 70’s to me would be great paired with maxi that she gave me.

I cut my peices so that the border pattern would appear at the bottom and also on the straps. I tried to match the pattern as best as I could when I was cutting and sewing and I think I did a pretty good job.

The skirt went together quickly and then the top as usual had to be brought up a bit for my high waist (I adjust most patterns up by about 1 inch to accommodate this). The pattern calls for facind but I lined the whole bodice and top band in white poplin so as to not have the dots going through the fabric. I also lined the straps over the shoulders in white. In hindsight maybe I should have lined the skirt because it’s a wee bit see through but if I wear a slip under and no one is the wiser. I gathered the front of the bodice and lining separately.

Once the bodice came together I needed a way to connect the straps to the back. I thought it could be press studs but, after trying that it pulled funny and didn’t work. So I went looking for some buttons. I found these awesome buttons that are little white daisys with yellow centre and go perfect with the rest of the dress. I love the little touch and think it finishes off the dress perfectly. So I put in button holes (a painstaking 4 step buttonhole process) and then it was all ready to wear.

The front sometimes seems a little loose especially when I bend over I am conscious not to flash people. I would probably make the under arms tighter to make my bust tighter. This could be a 70s thing cause Hef complained about the same thing with her 70s dress.

My Quilt

I am finally done!! It took me at least a year but it’s done! It looks awesome too.

I slept under it the other night. Iit was quite cold in the morning and a little chilly (Even though I used the thick wadding) so it has been named a mid-season quilt. It was not as cold this morning and it was very much fine to sleep under, especially with the body heat of my cat on top of me.

The last parts were very difficult. I cut the pieces all out; then sewed them together, then sewed the top to the bottom and turned it inside out with the wadding in the middle. Then I sewed down each line. There were 13 lines in total each way.

The first few lines were good as they were close to the edge but the middle ones kept slipping and such. I ended up laying it all out and then pinning all layers together to stop it from slipping and once I did that it was easier. It was a good 15 minutes per row and this got more as I got to the centre. With small sew and then adjusting the quilt. I was sorry that I didn’t have the quilting machine because the quilt had to bunch up in that little crevice in the machine so when I did the middle one there was ½ a quilt in there and it was crazy. After ½ an hour of sewing I was puffed from dragging the quilt through the machine.

Once I did all the first lines the second lines were much breezier because the across lines held the quilt in place while I sewed the up and down lines. The up and down lines in the middle were probably about 5 minutes per line but the quilt was still being pulled through the small crevice so it was still a workout.

Looks great on my bed!



MMM Snuggly.

My quilt

If you sew as much as I do you may end up with scraps. Scraps that are too large to just throw away, but too small to really do much with. So about a year ago after I had collected a few scraps and I was reading up about the 30s depression and how they used to use every little bit of material for things I came accross the idea to make a quilt.

Now I am not a quilt maker or a patterned quilt maker of any kind. But I can cut 6 inch squares with a 6 inch square ruller a rolling cutter and a cutting mat. So that's what I did. I started using the scraps of mainly cotton to make squares. I made 100 squares and then sewed them all together in rows and made a big square.

My main plan was to make a quilt that was big enough to go on a queen bed. So I had to cut another 110 squares. I am now VERY small in the scraps department and have a large quilt. Currently I am now sewing it still together, I have an old queen bed flat sheet that I will sew for the bottom and wadding I bought for the middle. I also have a quilting foot that my mother gave me. Heapha also gave me some of her scraps which made it in there!

I am hoping to finish this winter and have currently put all projects on hold till I can get it done. It's quite time consuming.

When I was thinking about it one time I also thought how cool it would be to have matching pillowcases!! But that will be a next side project.

I also realised I now had a bunch of material crap that I could possibly use for braided mats like they also did in the 30s but that is also a side project.
Pictures of my quilt to come.

Ange xoxo

a bit about me

Hello I am Ange. I, Like Hef, like vintage stuff and sewing.

So let me tell you of the beginning of this. In the beginning there was costumes. This was what Hef started sewing because buying them is very expensive it's much better to make costumes if they are going to be individual. So she would supply all her friends with costumes also and she would want other people to sew their own rightly so, and so I started sewing. Costumes was very much Hef's passion and I was like sure if you want to teach me then I don't mind.

Then one day we went to a party and Hef wore her vintage dress she had just bought from the vintage fair. It was a 40s woolen dress that made her hourglass figure that she has stand out amazingly. She had her hair in victory rolls and I went "Wow. Want." So I started researching.

I found a free pattern online for a 50s dress and started using all the sewing knowledge she had given me to make the dress. I didn't let her know just incase I failed terribly. I also wanted to see if I had the knowledge to do it all on my own. I did! and that was my first dress.

Since then Hef and I have joined forces and have a whole tonne of patterns between us as well as dresses. We have also branched out from 30s to 70s. My loves are more 50s and 70s and sometimes 60s as well but sometimes you'll find a nice dress in another era and it will be good.

I now have a good stash of material and I want to make a coat and gloves and a scarf cause we are in winter and all.

My latest is a 50s dress that is in the making is a winter long sleeve green in a stretch that looks a little like linnen. It will have a cape over the top in a grey wool lined in the green and I want to make a scarf and gloves out of the grey.

I also have plans for a black coat which I have started tracing.

Pictures to come.

So that's me and my history.