The Merry Dressmaker

Blue & White Stripes, Part II: A Summer Dress From LHJ (June 1912)

2018-01-30T09:44:00.000-05:00

When searching for fashion plates and prints from the early 1910s, I discovered this gem (left) on Fashion A Hundred Years Ago and quickly added it to my visual collection for future reference and inspiration. This summer dress was published in The Ladies Home Journal June 1912 subscription and has become the second garment featured in the Blue & White Stripes series. Because so little information is available about this dress (no pattern number, no pattern block schematics, no descriptions, no nothing), this was a wonderful opportunity for me to use my fancy imagination and my love for draping to create a rendition of this dress all of my own.

I constructed the dress as a one-piece wrap with Dolman sleeves. The solid darker blue cotton fabric that I used to make the bottom portion of the skirt and sailor's collar on the bodice was so thin and woven so loosely that I had to fuse it to the light blue medium weight cotton fabric I used to make the first garment in this series, the Advance utility dress. I did not add elastic banding around the upper sleeves, but left them as they are for my comfort. I made a noble effort to recreate the decorative closures on the bodice and skirt front, but again, the darker blue fabric was too delicate and kept shredding, even when fused. You have to let the fabric tell you what it wants to do, and it told me to make covered buttons instead. In the following photographs, you'll see that the bodice and striped portion of the skirt is lined in white cotton batiste and the collar is backed in same darker blue cotton its constructed from (a magical feat of fabric manipulation).

~A noble beginning - the start of decorative closures~

~The darker blue cotton - so thin, so delicate~

The Dickey

Yes, there is a dickey that goes with this dress! I didn't have any fabric in my stash that I felt complimented the dress. If you notice in the fashion print, the model is wearing a white dickey with what could be blue flowers, printed or embroidered. I couldn't find flowers, but I found a yard of white cotton printed with tiny ship anchors - too cute to be true! Here's the dickey...

The Dress

Moi, portant la robe rayée...

Stay cozy and warm, my beautiful friends! Blessings and happy sewing!

The Jazz Age at the Cleveland Museum of Art

2018-01-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

This past October I had the pleasure of visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art to view their Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s exhibit - absolutely marvelous! Often, it seems, when American eras of excess and opulence are referenced in the scholarly discourse, the 1880s and the 1980s are the decades of choice. Let me tell you, notwithstanding the '80es and all their splendor, the 1920s brings something quite sensational, energetic, and fresh to the discussion of cultural decadence and transformation. Yes, there was 1920s Berlin, 1920s Vienna, 1920s Paris, and 1920s London - all wonderful, all great cities with a new generation pushing against and redefining old mores. But, it was the United States which became the leader in architecture, interior design, decorative art, fashion, music, and film. The American nouveau riche transformed the global marketplace and a new order emerged from the old, driven by innovation and the audacity of youth.

So, powder your arms and rouge your knees, the 1920s has crashed on the scene...

Roadsters

Piccadilly Roadster, Rolls Royce, 1925 (Manufactured in America)

Cord 812 Phaeton Roadster, Auburn Auto Co., Indiana, 1937

Decoration

Glass and brass chandelier, designer George Chevalier, 1925

Mirror and console table, designer Paul Feher, Hungarian, 1930

Gilt and lacquered wood screen, designer Armand Albert Rateua, 1922

Iron, silver, and gold screen, designer Paul Feher (Rose Ironworks, Cleveland), 1930

Beverages

Tea service, silver and ivory, d. Peter Muller-Munk, American, c. 1931

Cocktail set, silverplated brass and Vitrolite glass, designer Elsa Tennhardt, American, c. 1928

Zeppelin Airship cocktail shaker and travel bar, c. 1928

Owl cocktail shaker, silver, designer Peer Smed, American, c. 1931

The Savoy Cocktail Book, c. 1930

Fashion & Textiles

Evening wear (gowns on loan from Kent State Museum of Fashion)

Silk and silk velvet afternoon dresses, Mariano Fortuny, Italian, c. 1930

Pineapple Textile, silk jacquard, Charles Martin, c. 1923

Falcon Hunt textile, silk and metallic satin brocade, Herman Elsberge, c. 1920s

Jewels

Gold, sapphire, garnet, and enamel set, D. Meta K. Overbeck (Tiffany & Co.), American, c. 1920

Enamel, pearl, diamond, onyx, gold, and platinum compact, Mauboussin, French, c. 1925

Platinum, lapis, onyx, coral, jade, and diamond brooch, Boucheron, French, c. 1925

Bracelet, diamond, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and platinum, Lacloche Bros., French, c 1924

To view additional photographs of the Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s at the Cleveland Museum of Art, please visit my Pinterest page.

Happy New Year! Blessings and happy sewing!

Blue & White Stripes, Part I: 1940s Utility Dress & Shirt

2017-12-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

I don't know a dressmaker who doesn't collect fabric. I almost never buy fabric for a particular project, but for a future imagined project of some sort, usually born from a romantic and harebrained notion that I may create the ultimate costume from the respective textile which has captured my attention and sparked my desire to have it (It's shiny, it's wooly, it's silky, its weavy, it's on sale, etc...). You do it, too, and I'm glad you do! I'm all about enabling a passion - whether mine or yours - even if dozens (maybe hundreds) of yards of that passion are stored snugly in plastic bins for later. Always later. For these three lovely cotton fabrics (above left), later came this year, twenty-years (yes, that's 2-0) after I bought them. They've been hanging out at the bottom of my big green bin (with wheels!) since 1997, fabric I bought when my girls were eight and four-years old. These fabrics were inexpensive, of good quality, and utilitarian. I could use them for a number of projects.

Those projects were a long time coming. It began last year when I bought this pattern from an Ebay seller...

...and stored it safely with my other vintage patterns. Did I make an association between the dress on the right of the Advance pattern cover and the fabric I had stashed? No. The fabrics were long forgotten and weren't recalled until I went digging in the big green bin (with wheels!) a few months ago. "Oh!" I said, when I rediscovered them. "I have a 1940s dress pattern I can make from these." I pulled the fabrics from the bin and the pattern from my collection and set them on my work table. Wait, I thought. Doesn't Kent State Museum have a late-Victorian beach dress made from similar fabrics? They did, indeed! I pulled the picture from my photo archive. Oh, OH! I remembered that there was yet another dress using these fabrics in a 1912 spring issue of The Ladies Home Journal. Whoowee, a dressmaker's delight!

From Advance pattern #3029, here is the first of three blue and white striped garments - a utility, or work dress, from 1942.

To view construction photographs for this dress, please visit my Flickr page. Blue & White Stripes, Part II, coming soon...

Happy sewing, love, friendship, and blessings for the New Year!

Fashion of the Forties at Kent State Museum of Fashion

2017-12-11T06:38:00.000-05:00

~My grandmother, US Coast Guard, 1943~

One of my favorite eras in fashion history is the 1940s. Especially during WWII, where again, we see practical and necessary adaptions in women's clothing when the United States enters the war in 1941, and the women who manage the home-front quickly occupy the thousands of positions left vacant by the men and women who enter the armed services.

While the United States did not suffer the level of economic hardship which impacted Britain and Europe, those goods and services necessary for war and military function were rationed, including the raw goods consumed by the fashion industry. President Roosevelt ordered the War Production Board (WPB) in 1941 to assess and implement critical changes in the nations' consumption habits to better equip the war effort. Rubber was the first non-food related good to be rationed, alongside large scale organized drives for rubber recycling. The Japanese had seized the rubber plantations in the Dutch East Indies, which supplied about 90% of rubber being used in the United States.

Stanly Marcus, later to become the president of Neiman Marcus after WWII, was the head of the textile division of the WPB. He developed the yardage regulations imposed on clothing manufacturers, restricting the amount of fabric that could be used per garment. Because the military's need for fabric, especially wool and cotton, was a mandated priority over civilian clothing, those manufactures who exceeded the yardage limits set by the WPB were slapped with hefty fines or their officers imprisoned. Eventually, the military's demand for leather restricted civilians to three pairs of shoes per year, but these shoe rations were transferable to other members in a shared household. As the war wore on, more and more shoe manufactures adapted their products and began constructing shoes from heavy fabrics, cork, and wood as leather became scarcer.

Of course, the fashion industry, after the rationing and hardship of WWII, took a decidedly bold and refreshing turn when the fashion houses of Europe reopened and Dior dazzled the recovering world of fashion with his New Look spring collection in February 1947. Gone were the conservative and masculine looks which had dominated female fashion during the war years and in were the voluminous skirts, tiny waists, and sexy bust-lines that would shape the female silhouette into the early 1950s. Fashion of the Forties: From WWII to the New Look at the Kent State Museum of Fashion highlights this transitional phase in women's fashion particularly, and features beautiful extant examples of service wear, civilian wear, sportswear, intimates, recycled clothing, and gowns from Dior to Charles James.

Here is a sample of a few of the garments featured in the exhibit...

Sportswear

Beige cotton corduroy skating costume, c. 1940-1945

Blue Lastex knit bathing suit (Jantzen), c. 1940s

Maroon wool knit two piece bathing suit (Halle Bros. Co.), c. 1940s

Sweater knitted from unraveled wool knitted socks, c. 1939-1945

Wool sweater with knitted airplane and parachute designs, c. 1935-1945

Accessories and Intimates

Cream silk slip with lace trim (Heavenly Lingerie by Fischer), c. 1940s

Gloves and Shoes

Intimates

Navy and white straw hat with grosgrain ribbon and silk flower, c. 1945-1949

Peach corset made from jacquard, elastic, lace, and boning, c. 1946

Silk jacquard pajamas (George Shaheen), Hawaiian, c. 1940s

Silk jacquard pajamas, Chinese (made for American market), c. 1940s

Tan plush wool felt hat with feathers (Leslie James), c. 1944-1948

Service Uniforms

American Boy and Girl Scout uniforms, c. 1940-1943

American Naval uniforms, c. 1940-1945

American Red Cross Nurse's Aid Uniform, cotton, c. 1943

Service jackets, American, c. 1940-1945

Wedding Gowns

Cream flocked satin wedding gown, American, c. 1940

Cream silk satin wedding gown, American, c. 1947

American Wedding Gowns

Fashion of the Forties: From WWII to the New Look at Kent State Museum of Fashion continues until March 4, 2018. For additional photographs of the exhibit, please visit my Pinterest page.

Blessings and happy sewing!

Got Arms?

2017-11-28T09:28:00.000-05:00

Most sewists and dressmakers do not have a dummy with arms, and it is generally because most of us have an economical and adjustable dummy model, rather than a higher quality, fixed-size professional model (and even these don't usually come with arms). So, what if you need arms for your dummy and you don't have them? You make them!

The most effective and inexpensive way to make dummy arms is to get old school and pull a playing card from the high-end department stores and boutiques, whose skilled and talented visuals staff constructs the displays that draw us in and encourage us to depart with our cash. Think soft, adjustable, and removable, just like the arms used in the males manikins pictured above left. Of course, these arms aren't glamorous or realistic looking, but they work very well to determine the general fit of a garment and for staging a costume.

Let's begin...

No. 1: You'll need a bit of fiber fill, about 1/2 yards of cotton or cotton-like fabric (I used some leftover craft felt), two wire hangers, pliers (or wire cutters), and masking or duck tape (not shown).

No. 2: Measure the length of your arm from the top of the shoulder socket to wrist, and the circumference of your wrist for later (my arm is 20" long and my wrist is 7" around). Using the pliers or cutters, snip the hangers two inches shorter than your arm length.

No. 3: Using about 1/4 yard - or half - of your fabric (from the fold of the fabric to the salvage edge), cut two long 1/8 yard strips (one for the left arm and one for the right), and tightly wrap these around the hanger wire and tape off the ends.

No. 4: With your remaining 1/4 yard of fabric, slice it into two pieces across the fold line - these will be your arms and they should both measure about 9" wide. Cut the width of the fabric to the width of your wrist, adding a 1/2 seam allowance. NOTE: If your wrist is wider than 9", you will need more fabric for this step.

No. 5: Fold the arm tubes in half length-wise and sew across the top edge on one end only, then about 3" down the side. Then, dog-ear the top corners and trim the ears; turn right side out...

No. 6: Using a good-size wad of fiber fill, begin wrapping this around the fabric covered wire. This takes a bit of finessing, but you can do it. (Does anyone else think that this looks like larvae?)

No. 7: Take a small bit of fiber fill and stuff the finished end of the arm tube; then, insert one end of the covered hanger wire. Pulling the sides of the arm tubes together (the edges should be slightly rolled under), begin to hand-stitch the tube together (I used a blanket stitch). It will take a bit of finger dexterity, but we dressmakers are know for our awesome dexterous skills...

No. 8: Once the arm tube is stitched up to the other end of the hanger wire (but no further - you should have about 2"+ of excess fabric from here), secure the side seam, then close the tube by stitching across and over to the folded side, leaving the excess fabric of the tube.

Your finished arms should look like this, with the excess fabric being the tab from which you will secure the arms to your dummy.

Simply pin them on to give your garment greater shape and definition...

Leave the bag for the cat...

Blessings and happy sewing, my friends!

The 1980s: An Age of Excess at Kent State Museum of Fashion

2017-11-13T14:50:00.001-05:00

Me (1988)

I was a teenager in the 1980s, graduated from high school in the 1980s, and had my first daughter in the 1980s. I watched MTV air in August 1981 at a friend's house (we didn't have cable television - most people didn't); I didn't care about "Who Shot JR?", but scrambled home from work on Tuesday evenings to watch Moonlighting (when Bruce Willis had hair); stood in line and waited for two hours outside of the Buzzard's Nest record store to buy Van Halen's new 1984 album; and camped out on my mom's waterbed for a day and watched all of Live Aid. The year my first daughter was born - 1989 - the Cold War ended in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell, and I sat transfixed to the television that summer as a lone man stood in protest before a tank in Tienanmen Square, Beijing. The decade that made up the 1980s was technologically innovative, politically charged, and ridiculously decadent, much like the '80s a century before.

When I discovered that Kent State Museum of Fashion was featuring an exhibit from the 1980s, I flipped my lid in excitement. The 1980s: An Age of Excess, opened last February and concludes January 7, 2018. It is a marvelous presentation of the decade's high-end fashion and includes extant garments from designers Yves Saint Laurent, Halston, Perry Ellis, Valentino, Donna Karan, Bob Mackie, Issey Miyaki, Zandra Rhodes, Pauline Trigere, and a dozen others whose fashions graced the figures of superstars, politicians, and socialites alike. Here's a preview...

Bill Blass
An American designer who began his work in New York in 1945; he was one of the first designers to license his name and product lines.

Pale pink knit sweater and satin skirt, c. 1984

Royal blue silk velvet gown with low V-back, c. 1986

Donna Karen
An American designer who began her career as a designer for Anne Klein in the 1960s. In 1985, Karan launched her own line of women's ready-to-wear and was one of the first designers to use stretch fabrics in her collections.

Evening dress made from polyamide, elastane, and wool jersey, c. 1984

Hot pink linen jacket with matching pants and halter blouse, c. 1987

Oscar de la Renta
An American designer (Yes, American - born in the Dominican Republic) trained by Cristobal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known for his evening wear, which dominated red carpet events throughout the 1980s.

Royal blue moire gazar sleeveless gown, c. 1982

Two-piece lace and velvet evening gown with faux jewels, c. 1984

Perry Ellis
An American designer who established his sportswear label in 1978. He is known for his relaxed and casual designs.

Grey and white striped jersey jacket and skirt, c. 1987

Purple sequined chiffon blouse with silk skirt, c. 1989

Yves Saint Laurent
A French designer who began his career working in Paris for Christian Dior in the late 1950s. In 1962, Saint Laurent opened his own house, and is best known for his Mondrian collection in 1965 and his Russian collection in 1976.

Velvet evening jacket and matching skirt, floral brooch, c. 1980

Metallic brocade jacket, silk shirt and skirt, with matching scarf, c. 1984

Kent State Museum of Fashion has an extensive costume collection from the 1980s; the museum opened in 1982 and several of the garments featured in the current exhibit are those worn by celebrity guests who attended the museum's opening gala. If you love the fashion of the 1980s, you must experience this exhibit.

For additional photos of The 1980s: An Age of Excess, please visit my Pinterest page. Blessings and happy sewing!

Coral Demin Jacket: Butterick 6390

2017-10-30T03:00:00.000-04:00

I picked up Butterick pattern #6390 (Patterns by Gertie) a few months ago and made myself a coral denim jacket using the pattern. I would have posted about it sooner, but my cats were in my sewing area (Bad!) rough-housing when they dumped my main machine on the cement floor and it shattered. The jacket was finished except for the button holes, but with my machine no longer usable, I had to wait to finish the jacket until I purchased a new machine. Anyway, the jacket came out cute. I'm thinking about making myself another one in green...

For construction photos of this project, please visit my Flickr page. Blessings and happy sewing!

Fringe Elements at the Kent State Museum of Fashion

2017-10-16T08:38:00.000-04:00

July was a busy museum month for me - I spent a lot of time up at Kent State taking in their new exhibits. Fringe Elements opened on July 28, 2017 and I was there opening day. The exhibit celebrates one of the most fashionable and used forms of basic ornamentation, reaching across eras and cultures, timeless in its use and presentation because of its movement and drama - fringe. Here are some highlights from the exhibit:

Self-Fringe
This form of fringe is a natural extension of a garment, and not only acts as a decoration, but as a wick, forming a natural barrier to moisture.


Purple suede vest (English), c. 1960s

Matching purple suede pants (English), c. 1960s

Plain Indian leather dress with heavy beading, c. 1880-1900

Dress beading and fringe detail

Integral Fringe
For textiles which are woven, the fringe is a natural extension of the warp threads beyond the weft; they are often finished off by knotting the extensions.

Braided black shawl, Colombian, c. 1960-1976

Shawl fringe detail

Ivory silk crepe and silk fringe dress, American, c. 1930s

Bodice fringe detail

Woven dress (designer Proenza Schouler), c. 2015

Dress fringe detail

Beaded Fringe
Beads provide weight, sound, and a reflective surface for drama.

American handbags, c. 1910s

Blue wool Dolman cape, Chinese, c. 1883

Beaded fringe detail

Black silk Georgette evening dress, c. 1920

Silver beads and sequin fringe detail

Pink silk evening dress (Yves St. Laurent), c. 1969

Glass bead and sequin fringe detail

Tassels and Fly Fringe
The most elaborate of the fringe styles, tassels and fly fringe are often formed or suspended from intricately woven lattices or net. While the tassel has been in use for thousands of years, fly fringe was developed in the 1700s and structured from little tufts of fabric or yarn incorporated into the fringe.

Beige wool Dolman cape with fly fringe, American, c. 1878

Fly fringe detail

Black silk velvet vest with silk tassels, Eastern European, c. 1900s

Tasseled fringe detail

White silk dress with chenille fringe and silk tassels, American, c. 1860s

Chenille fringe and silk tassel detail

Fringe Elements continues to show at the Kent State Museum through July 1, 2018. What I've featured here is just a fraction of the garments and types of fringe on display spanning across eras and cultures. Do visit!

For more photographs from the Fringe Elements exhibit, please visit my Pinterest page. Blessings and happy sewing!

Dovima the Divine

2017-09-27T21:23:00.001-04:00

~Kate Moss (Calvin Klein)~

Since the invention of photography, the fashion model has helped to shape and advance Western culture's idea of feminine beauty. These models continue to reveal powerful aspects of their respective generation of women and society's perception of femininity, sensuality, and sexuality - a woman's mystique. The model is not just the canvas or manikin which designers have used to reveal the future trends in fashion, she embodies, represents, and creates the desired female silhouette of a unique era and the evolving ideas about women and what it has meant - what is means - to be female.

~Peggy Moffitt~

Current trends in the fashion model industry include exotic, international darlings stomping the runway, curvaceous, full-figured beauties featured in printed spreads, and models creating their own entertainment and product empires, like Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum. In the 1990s, model Kate Moss became the center of an industry health controversy and crisis when heroin chic stormed the fashion world and size triple-0 embodied the idealized female silhouette. The Glamourpuss, or million dollar baby, emerged in the 1980s with models like Christie Brinkley, Naomi Campbell, and Elle McPherson, and replaced the Hollywood starlet as the symbol of beauty and wealth. The 1970s introduced the fit and toned athletic models, like Cheryl Tiegs and Bev Johnson, spread over the pages of Sports Illustrated and Vogue magazines, sporting sun-kissed skin, baby-pink lips, and free-flowing trusses of hair. These healthy-looking and physically fit models were a welcome replacement for models like Twiggy and Penelope Tree, who exemplified the emaciated look of the 1960s, or the sharp androgynous look of models like Peggy Moffitt.

But it was in the 1950s when the supermodel began her climb to the standards in fashion and popular culture which we are so familiar with today. Jean Patchett, the sisters Suzy Parker and Dorian Leigh, Lisa Fonssagrives, and Carmen Dell'Orefice - all sensational beauties whose images captured the fabulous post-war age of Western peace, stability, and growing wealth.

~Dovima (Funny Face, 1957)~

But, no one was Dovima.

Born December 11, 1927 in Queens, New York, Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba was the oldest child of Stanley and Margaret Juba.[1]Although she had a brother, Stan, who was two years her junior, Dorothy recalled a very lonely childhood where she always felt like “the child who never belonged.”[2] In 1937, she contracted rheumatic fever and spent the next seven years confined to her parents’ New York apartment and taught by tutors. Perhaps it was a childhood of isolation and loneliness that compelled Dorothy to marry the boy a few floors up, Jack Golden, at 18. If she desired freedom from her over-protective mother and a new life outside of her childhood home, the marriage to Golden offered her no hope for either – he simply moved in with her and her parents.[3]

In 1949, still married to Jack Golden and still living with her parents, Dorothy lost her position as an assistant artist in a Manhattan advertising agency. She decided to meet up with a friend that afternoon for lunch, and while waiting for her luncheon date outside of a building on 42^nd Street, Dorothy was approached by a female magazine staffer from Vogue who asked her if she had ever modeled before. Persuaded by the woman to follow her upstairs to the Vogue studios for a few head-shots, Dorothy reluctantly missed her lunch, but left the magazine that afternoon with a check for $17.50 (approximately $180.00 in today’s money) – she filled in for a model who called in sick.[4]The following afternoon, Dorothy was back at Vogue studios being photographed by Irving Penn. When the session was over he asked her name and she replied, “Dovima, just Dovima,” the name of the alter-ego she has created for herself as child, a combination of the first two letters from each of her three given names.[5]

~Dovima (Hattie Carnegie, 1952)~

Weighing 115 pounds and standing five-feet eight-inches tall, Dovima never considered herself beautiful, but a “gangly, skinny thing.”[6]Despite her self-image, she became a modeling sensation almost immediately. A year after her first photo shoot with Penn, Dovima was the highest paid model in the world, commanding thirty dollars an hour, where top Parisian models were topping out at twenty-five.[7]She became the subject and muse of renowned fashion photographer, Richard Avedon, who described her as “the last of the great elegant, aristocratic beauties…the most remarkable and unconventional beauty of her time.”[8]Dovima was anything but the girl next door.

However, Dovima’s title as the world’s top fashion model was far from glamorous and charmed. Two years into her modeling career she and Jack Golden divorced. He struggled to accept her fame and drank to excess.[9]Dovima remarried shortly after her divorce from Golden to Alan Murry, an official with the United States Department of Immigration. By then, Dovima was making $75,000 a year, and the couple lived in her palatial 7^th Avenue apartment in Manhattan. In 1958, the couple welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Alice.[10]But from the onset, their marriage relationship was abusive. Fellow model and friend, Carmen Dell’Orefice, said, “I’d find [Dovima] on my doorstep black and blue and I’d take her in…she chose men that beat her.”[11]After discovering that Murry had mismanaged and squandered her money, Dovima divorced her husband in 1963, a year after she had officially retired from the modeling industry. With Alice, Dovima moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, but Murry had her charged with kidnapping, and she lost custody and was denied visitation with her young daughter.[12]

~Dovima (Harper's Bazaar, 1950)~

The acting parts offered to Dovima were few and small, with little recognition, and she was forced to return to New York City in the late-1960s. In 1974, she was living in a run-down apartment and working as a sales clerk at Ohrbach’s department store on West 34^th Street. Destitute and sick with pneumonia, an old friend from her former modeling days encouraged her to leave the city and move to Ft. Lauderdale with her parents.[13]There, she met West Hollingsworth, her third husband and love of her life. They were together for twelve years before he died in February 1986.[14]When John DeGroot, journalist for the Orlando Sentinel, interviewed Dovima later that same year in August, she was working as a hostess at Two Guys Pizza in Ft. Lauderdale. She died four years later, at age 63, on May 31, 1990, from lung cancer.

~Dovima (Nelly Don, 1955)~

Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba, the Irish-Polish American girl who dreamed of becoming a painter, shot to the stars as the world’s top fashion model of the 1950s. Dovima the Divine, she graced the covers of more than 500 magazines, raked in $75 an hour at the height of her career, and epitomized the sophisticated and patrician beauty so coveted by the fashion industry of her time. Vogue photographer, Richard Avedon, said, “The ideal of beauty then was the opposite of what it is now. It stood for an extension of the aristocratic view of women as ideals, of women as dreams, of women as almost surreal objects. Dovima fit that in her proportions.”[15] Her grace and beauty were, indeed, transcendent.

[1] Edwards, Owen. “Fashion Faux Pas,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2005.
[2] DeGroot, John. “Still Life as the World’s Top Model, Her Life Was Like a Hollywood Script. Now Dovima Is Waiting For Her Happy Ending,” Orlando Sentinel, August 17, 1986.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Edwards, “Fashion Faux Pas.”
[5]DeGroot, “Still Life as the World’s Top Model.”
[6] “Dovima the Divine.” Errant Aesthete: Essentials for the Cocktail Swilling Savant. WordPress, September 23, 2009.
[7] Edwards, “Fashion Faux Pas.”
[8] Edwards, “Fashion Faux Pas”; “Dovima the Divine.”
[9] DeGroot, “Still Life as the World’s Top Model.”
[10] “Milestones.” Time Magazine Vol. LXXII No. 2 (July 14, 1958).
[11] “Dovima Bio.” http://www.blondeen.tvheaven.com/dovimasite/dovimabio1.html (Accessed September 21, 2013).
[12] DeGroot, “Still Life as the World’s Top Model.”
[13] Ibid.
[14]Ibid.
[15] “Dovima the Divine.”

All Wrapped Up: OSU Historic Costume & Textile Collection

2017-08-30T15:43:00.000-04:00

This past April, I had the pleasure of visiting Ohio State University's Historic Costume & Textile Museum in Columbus, Ohio (my bustling home town) and chatting with the museum's curator, Gayle Strege. The exhibit was All Wrapped Up: 200 Years of Fashionable Outerwear, with nearly seventy examples of extant garments across the ages and on display. Here are a few of those garments...

The Bomber Jacket
The bomber jacket was introduced near the close of WWI and meant to keep pilots warm in the open cockpits of early airplanes. The leather bomber (or flight jacket) became standard issue for the Army Air Corps in 1930 and featured a knitted/ribbed waistband and sleeve cuffs to sustain body heat, and two patch pockets for the hands. The lamb-skin lined bombers were introduced in 1934 and became standard issue for pilots during WWII.

Evening Wraps and Coats
Evening wraps and coats reached their most fashionable and opulent time during America's Gilded and Jazz Ages, when displays of excess were at their height, flashy fashion was a measure of one's wealth, and Hollywood glamor was at its zenith. The Great Depression had a sobering effect on fashion, and practical fabrics - those for warmth and durability - were favored over those of luxury and expense. While examples of evening outerwear from WWII and later survive, as the country moved on, the trend toward evening outwear continued to move toward practical and more causal designs.

Short Coats
Short coats are about function, and shape and style are often dictated by the clothing worn underneath. Simply, voluminous skits, layered petticoats, and hoops and crinolines could make wearing a full-length coat weighty and cumbersome. Short coats not only allowed for greater freedom of movement, they were less expensive and became a more practical outerwear option as mass transportation and the automobile changed human mobility forever.

To view more photographs from my visit to the OSU Historic Costume and Textile Museum, please visit my Pinterest page by clicking here. I hope that these beautiful examples of historical outwear inspire your creative endeavors.

Blessings and happy sewing!

2017 Women's Quilt Show: Wenona Reese Exhibit

2017-04-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

~Wenona Louise Reese (top left)~

Back in November (2016), I received an email from Linda Morgan, coordinator of Wright State University's Women's Quilt Show, regarding a collection of 1920s gowns that a friend of hers, Ann Diller, had inherited from an uncle who had recently passed away. Enclosed in the email were photographs of several of the gowns and the question, "Would you be willing to examine the gowns and tell Ann something about them?"

Am I willing...? *squeeee!*

Linda wanted to display the gowns in a special exhibit for the 2017 show, showcasing them alongside a few of my reproduction era costumes in a progression of women's garments from the late 1890s through the 1920s - a chronological display of women's fashion constructed by women.

When I met Ann at her home the week before Thanksgiving, she had the gowns laid out across her living and music room. I was so taken by the display, I didn't know quite where to begin. I suppose I could have thrown myself right in the middle of it all in hysterical joy, but my better sense told me to cap my enthusiasm and ask Ann about the history of the gowns, who owned them, and how she came about them.

~Wenona, possibly at OU?~

They belonged to her grandmother, Wenona Louise Reese. Born in 1900, Wenona and her brother, James, were raised by a wealthy aunt and uncle in Winchester, Ohio (about 30 miles east of Cincinnati). Wenona graduated from Ohio University (OU) in 1925 with a Bachelor's in Music Education, and in 1927 she married Neil Thomas, and engineering professor at her alma mater.

Ann told me that her grandmother was quite the social butterfly, and loved music and dancing. Add to this Wenona's exceptional fashion sense (judging by the exquisite and lux display of gowns draped across Ann's formal rooms) and one can imagine her flashing and dramatic presence at social engagements and soirées. In fact, Ohio University's Athena described Wenona as "...one of those tall stately girls who look just right at all times." Clearly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I realized, regarding my host. Looking at Ann was like seeing a apparition of her grandmother. The physical resemblance between the two women is uncanny, and like Wenona, Ann is 6' tall, statuesque, and graceful. I asked her if she had tried on any of her grandmother's gowns and in fact she had, and they fit. No surprise - it made me smile.

When Wenona died in the early 1960s, her son, Mert, inherited the gowns and over the years he and his wife used them in their church musicals. When Mert died in 2016, Wenona's clothing collection was divided between Ann and a cousin. Many of the gowns were well-worn and when I met up with Ann that November morning, her main concern was how to preserve, possibly restore, what remained of them. I spent several delightful hours in her company as we went from gown to gown, combing over their details, discussing the textiles, designs, construction techniques, and simply marveling over their beauty. Several of the garments were too fragile to display at the show, like Wenona's black silk velvet receiving robe - the ivory silk lining was shattered and greatly damaged, but beautiful all the same.

From the twenty or more garments which came down to Ann, she chose eight to display at this year's Women's' Quilt show:

Dress #1: Constructed from black silk crepe, accented in navy and ivory cotton braiding and tassels; cotton lace jabot. Slipover style sheath dress.

Dress #2: Constructed from peach silk crepe; this garment is one of the better preserved (despite its wrinkling) - there's no evident damage or color fading; slip over.

Dress #3: Black silk velvet sheath style dress lined in a fine black cotton; black cotton sash at the hip accented in a rhinestone star brooch; sleeves, cuffs, and side cut-outs constructed from sheer pleated cotton; slip-over. (This is my favorite dress from the collection; in mint condition - the photos did not capture its elegance and beauty.)

Dress #4: Evening gown constructed from pink silk netting, unlined. Peach and silver sequins made of celluloid, glass beads; eye and hook side closures. Note that a good portion of the sequins have been lost over the years and once covered the dress.

Dress #5: Evening gown constructed from rose silk crepe, lined in sheer rose cotton; Norse/Scandinavian motif created from jet beads and white paste rhinestones (most of which are missing). The weight of bodice is remarkable; the jet beading continues to the back; complex inner lining and side closure with metal snaps and eye and hooks.

Dress #6: One of two garments displayed from the early 1930s in Wenona's collection, this evening gown is constructed from a light pink silk satin and accented on the bodice with silk flowers; silk sash at the waist, closes at the side by several metal snaps. Note the classic hip panel detail from this era - beautiful!

Dress #7: The epitome of 1930s glamour, this evening gown is constructed from a light olive silk damask. Closes in back with several eye and hooks and seven covered buttons. Note the neckline and back detail of the gown.

Imagine, and this is only a few of the beautiful garments from Ann's grandmother's extraordinary wardrobe! Happy Spring, blessings and happy sewing!

~2017 Women's Quilt Show~

Downton Abbey at the Taft Museum

2016-09-20T22:03:00.001-04:00

In late August, I had the pleasure of viewing the Downton Abbey Exhibit at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati. I'm so used to looking at and examining extant garments that I was quite taken by how tall the garments were - I forgot for a moment that I was looking at clothing meant for actors rather than historical persons (there are a couple of extant pieces in the exhibit, but most were created by the show's costumers using vintage and antique fabrics). A magnificent exhibit, to say the least. I won't prattle on - I'll let the garments speak for themselves.

Cora Crawley's Costumes

Mary Crawley's Costumes

Violet Crawley's Costumes

Sir Richard Carlisle and Robert Crawley's Costumes

Martha Levinson's Costumes

Thomas Barrow's Livery

Virginia Woolf's Evening Gown

Matthew Crawley's Service Uniform

For more photos of the Downton Abbey Exhibit at the Taft Museum of Art, please visit my Pinterest page. Blessings and happy sewing!

A Change in Pace...

2016-09-09T00:41:00.001-04:00

~Enjoying my lunch hour in the sun~

In January, I took on a Nine-To-Five at a prestigious local men's haberdashery (whose name and location I am not allowed to disclose on my personal blog, Facebook, or any other social media outlet, according to company policy - they think I'm joking when I tell them that one day I will come to work in a bustle...) as a "service provider" (aka "sales associate"). I really like my job and the people I work with, and while I was not hired as a tailor, my expertise behind the needle has come in quite handy when recommending fabrics, suit designs, pinning up a customer when the master tailor is assisting another client, etc., etc. Of course, my personal sewing time has been significantly reduced, but I'm still at it, although projects will roll off the machine a little slower.

So, what have I been up to, aside from spending a large portion of my day in hosery, heals, and professional dress, enabling men to part with their wages on fine wool suits, silk ties, and leather Bluchers? Let me tell you...

Downsizing

I was standing in my attic right after Christmas putting away all the holiday decorations when it struck me how much stuff I owned. Do I REALLY need all of these decorations? And, it started from there. Starting at the tippy-top of my house and working down to the old cinder-block walls of my basement, I tore my house apart getting rid of everything from ancient plastic Halloween pumpkins, to dishes, to small appliances, to books, to fabric, to patterns...

~Sorting through the piles~

~Boxes and boxes of patterns to go~

~Apollo, napping on the job~

Caring for Kittehs...

~Maxy Girl~

Ahh, you know me and my love for felines. Last summer (2015), a new stray appeared in the neighborhood, and by the looks of her - she's a full breed Thai Manx, she was dumped (What is wrong with people?). We came to call her Max (the neighbors and me, we give all the strays names) and it took me months of coaxing and wooing to get her to trust me. She was starving and missing an eye (it was infected and bleeding), and honestly, I knew she wouldn't last through the winter if I couldn't get her medical treatment. Sure enough, Max became my buddy, and after a couple of rounds of antibiotics and good nutrition, she was in good health...and then promptly became pregnant.

On May 16, Maxy Girl gave birth to five kittens on my sun porch, all of them solid black and only one born with a tail. They are the sweetest babies, like their mommy! They are so snuggly and love belly rubs - I could have kept them all!

~Precious babies!~

From left to right, we have Luigi, Poppy, Deuce (he was the second one born and the only one with a tail), Little Girl, and Wee Baby Seamus (it's required that you say his full name). Collectively, they are called Monkey Butts, even Deuce (guilty by association, poor fellow). Maxy is doing very well and was recently spayed - she's such a sweetheart.

Finishing A UFO

This quilt. It took me three years to hand sew together 400 blocks and top stitch the whole thing. I wanted to know what it was like to do it. Now I know and I'll never do it again. I finished it two weeks ago and the hubs says, "I thought you'd never finish that thing!" Either did I. But I did it, and I have a new found respect and admiration for the women who hand-piece quilts. These were BIG blocks (6" x 6"), not the tiny 1-1/2" hexagons like my great-grandmother's quilt (gives me anxiety just thinking about how long it took her to put it all together, assuming she did it herself). It feels great to have the quilt finished - yeesss!

Blessings and happy sewing! Oooo, and guess what? The Downton Abbey costume exhibit is finishing up its run in Cincinnati, and guess who went? I'll be posting pictures very soon - so excited to share!

McCall's 6053 (1914)

2016-02-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

McCall's 6053 is a reproduction pattern offered by Past Patterns. When I bought it a couple years ago, Saundra told me that it was a problem pattern and that if I had issues with the construction to give her call. I began making this dress about six months ago and became so frustrated with the directions that I had to put the project to the side. The problem? Aside from the enumerable dots and dashes spattered all over the pattern pieces to denote this pleat here, there, and everywhere, I discovered too late into the project that pattern piece "U" (the side pieces of the over-tunic) needed to be widened by several inches in width to meet the 32-34" waist measurement. If I were to create the pleats following the dots and dashes on the over-tunic pattern pieces and cut the skirt sections using the pattern/fabric layout, the waist of the over-tunic would be about 3" too small. Never mind the bodice, under-tunic, and over-tunic attachment and pleating alignment issues with the short-sleeve version of this dress. Why not just eighty-six the directions? Because when writing a review on this historical dress pattern, I wanted to give an honest assessment on its quality and level of skill. However, in the end - after fussing and fighting way too long with this insufferable pattern - I threw out the directions and let my dressmaking sensibilities and skills take over.

I have finished the short-sleeved version of this dress (pictured below) and I'm currently working the long-sleeved version. When using this pattern, I strongly recommend that a toile is made first in order to work your way through the bugs of its construction, especially when making the short-sleeved version of the dress (note the differences in the bodice construction and pleat placement between the two versions).

For construction photos of this dress, please visit my Flicker page. Blessings and happy sewing!

High Style at CAM

2015-12-30T15:25:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful way to conclude 2015 by sharing photographs from my visit to the Cincinnati Art Museum's High Style exhibit, on loan from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection until January 24, 2016 - the exhibit is FREE. The focus of the collection follows the timeline of high design from the late-1890s to the late-1980s, and features key American, French, and Italian designers and couture houses.

One of the aspects of this exhibit that I greatly appreciate is the inclusion of many women designers, who, before the late 1950s, dominated the fashion industry, especially in the United States, and whose designs were pivotal to the evolution of fashion. We all know Chanel (unless you live on Mars, but even then...), but do you know designers Elsa Schiaparelli, Vera Maxwell, Madeleine Vionnet, Sally Victor, Claire McCardell, or Alix Grès? If not, you'd certainly recognize their sensational fashions! However, media recognition of these fabulous women designers throughout the history of modern fashion has been wanting, and in favor of men designers, like Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Charles Worth, and Charles James, etc., etc. For the ardent student and historian of fashion alike, it is necessary to know these women designers and their revolutionary contributions to the fashion industry.

Elsa Schiaparelli (Italian designer, 1890-1973):

~Ivory crepe-back silk satin printed gown and parasol (1937)~

~Blue cotton dress with seed packet appliqués (1939)~

~Gilt metal necklace with green and red plastic enameled leaves (1938)~

~Clear rhodoid necklace with metallic painted pressed mental ornaments (1938)~

~Green and black silk faille gown with gold metallic weave (1937)~

Alix Grès (French designer, 1903-1993):

~White silk jersey evening gown (1937)~

~Taupe silk paper taffeta evening gown (1969)~

Charles James (American designer, 1906-1978):

~Clover gown - pink and ivory faille, cooper shantung, and black lace (1953)~

~Ribbon gown - rayon wool satin, and pastel silk faille, taffeta, and satin (1946)~

~Ribbon gown muslin toile~

Couture Houses:

~Black silk charmeuse evening gown by House of Drecoll (French 1912)~

~Day dress and evening dress by House of Doucet (French c. 1903-1910)~

~Glazed printed cotton evening gown by House of Worth (American 1938)~

~Pink silk satin ensemble by House of Fontana (Italian 1954)~

Shoe Designers:

~Metallic kidskin pumps by Steven Arpad (French 1939)~

~Steven Arpad shoe and boot prototypes (French 1938-1939)~

~Steven Arpad shoe prototypes (French 1938-1939)~

~Trunk and shoes by Pierre Yantorny (French 1914-1919)~

Get a load of that steamer truck of shoes - Wowwie! For more photographs of the High Style exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum, please visit my Pinterest page. Wishing you a safe, peaceful, and happy New Year!

Blessings and happy sewing!

A Top Hat for a Witchy Gown

2015-11-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

~Me, posing in my witchy gown (2012)~

Remember this costume, I made it in 2012? I finally had the opportunity to wear it over Halloween weekend to a friend's party - yippy! I didn't want to wear my feathered witch's hat (pictured); it just didn't fit the costume and it felt a bit cliche-ish. I had on hand a man's black felt top hat and immediately decided this was the way to go!

Unfortunately, when the top hat idea struck me and all the decision making came down (colors, fabrics, ribbon, glitter, feathers - what to do, WHAT TO DO?!), it was three hours before the party on Friday night. I sped to Michael's Crafts, walked briskly through the front doors, and entered Christmas. NO! No, no! Surely, there was an isle somewhere marked "Clearance" loaded with Halloween stuff? No. There were four bins, violently rifled through, next to the checkout lanes. I happily took what I could get! With lightening speed and gobs of hot glue, a witchy top hat magically came to be...

Happy November, my wonderful friends! Blessings and happy sewing!

Flapper Style at Kent State Museum of Fashion

2015-10-13T17:57:00.002-04:00

This past Sunday I spent the afternoon at Kent State Museum of Fashion viewing (ogling, swooning and drooling over) their newest exhibit, Flapper Style: 1920s Fashion. It opened on September 25 and runs until Sunday, September 4, 2016. From evening dresses to day dresses, bridal wear to swim wear, the variations of style during this era are well represented in the exhibit. When I first entered the gallery, I was so taken by it all - the glamor, the brilliance, the colors, the fabrics - I didn't know where to begin, I had to gather myself! Have a peek...

~Evening dress made from black faille silk and black net~

~Pink and lame silk brocade cape~

~Red and tan velvet hat~

~Emerald silk chiffon evening dress with beaded silk satin, pearl and diamond embroidery~

~Orange silk, gold brocade, and pleated lame day dress~

~Beaded evening bag in gold, silver, and navy; gold metal chain and frame~

For more photos of this fabulous exhibit, please visit my Pinterest page. Blessings and happy ogling!

Let's Play Catch Up!

2015-09-21T18:04:00.001-04:00

September is moving along like a rocket and dragging me right along with it! Whoosh! Let me catch you up to speed (busy, bUsY, BUSY)!

You know that Tiffany-blue cocktail dress with the white sequin mesh overlay I made for a client back in May? I was commissioned to make another, this one for a fuller-figured young woman:

Labor Day weekend, I took my youngest daughter and niece to Bristol Ren Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin (smack between Chicago and Milwaukee, if you've never been there). There were many firsts on this trip: It was our first time at Bristol; it was our first time as patrons to a show; it was our first time paying to get in a Faire; it was our first time dressing and undressing in a Faire parking lot; and it was our first time buying handcrafted goods rather than bartering for wares. Because the Beautiful Hubs, the kids, and I were merchants at Faire, we never had these experiences - I'm so glad we finally did!

~On our way!~

~Hello, Chicago!~

~Helping Roxane into her corset~

~Me, Jo, and Maive~

~Cathy generously spritzing me and Roxy with a wonderful peppermint spray!~

There were costumes to make for our Bristol visit, and as any Ren merchant and devoted Renny patron knows, cotton is your friend! It hovered around 90F all Labor Day weekend. Smokin'! Don't hate 'cause I'm a wimpy northerner with hot chocolate running through my veins. Anyway, isn't it supposed to be, like, -10F in Wisconsin this time of year? *gigglesnort*

The girls told me what they wanted, they picked out their material, and I made our costumes light and easy (for construction photos, please visit my Flicker page).

~Gettin'r done!~

We girls spent our last full day of vacation in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Art Museum. My daughter is an Art History major and she wanted to see the museum's Van Gogh to Pollock exhibit. The museum itself is a work of art and it sits right on Lake Michigan - beautiful, beautiful! We had a wonderful day, and I loved Milwaukee. There will be another visit and there will be some serious beer tasting. After all, Milwaukee is the beer capital of the world!

~Milwaukee Bay, Lake Michigan~

~Milwaukee Museum of Art~

~The skywalk over N. Museum & N. Lincoln Memorial Drives~

~One of the museum's gallery corridors~

~Museum's atrium~

Current projects include altering a department store cocktail dress (it needs to be taken in at the bust, the shoulder straps adjusted, the zipper sewn in correctly, and the chiffon overskirts re-aligned across the derrière) and finishing a dress from the mid-1910s that I started about a month ago but put it to the side to work on other projects...

Can you believe the first day of Fall is two days away? Countdown - forty days until Halloween!

Blessing, my dear friends, and happy sewing!

Making Quick Work of It

2015-08-12T11:03:00.003-04:00

I've known about a family wedding date for months. I procrastinated on buying a dress. I browsed the department stores on occasion, but with little enthusiasm and knowing what to expect: garish gowns and dresses made from poor quality materials and blinged-up with plastic jewels like cheap party favors. Or, or! Maxy dresses and skirts, mid-thigh, skin-tight ribbon dresses, and neon colored prom gowns exploding with layers of tulle and chiffon.

Maybe I shouldn't be so fussy...

This last Friday (the wedding was Sunday) I went out with the hubs to pick out his dress clothes and we were done in 15 minutes. FIFTEEN minutes! It took me an hour to find a strapless bra (and still no dress)!

LIFE LESSON No. 102,364: "Just make the damn dress."

Riding home from the mall with my husband's shopping bags nestled between my feet, my mind was working furiously, sorting through my mental file of fabrics, flipping through images of various dress shapes, and constructing a simple and flattering silhouette in the fitting-room of my mind. The moment the hubs pulled into the garage, it was mad dash to my stash!

I pulled a poly-cotton black lace and a baby blue poly crepe

La Robe

Not bad for making quick work of it (Whew!). To view the construction photos for this dress, please click here. Blessings and happy sewing!

JUST MAKE THE DRESS!

Buying Antique & Vintage Patterns on Ebay

2015-08-11T17:53:00.000-04:00

When Ebay was founded and opened its cyber doors on the internet in the mid-1990s, it transformed the antique and collectors market forever, irrevocably changing how we purchase, trade, and sell consumer goods and services. It broke down regional barriers and exposed consumers and merchants alike to a world-wide marketplace accessible from the comfort and ease of our PCs, tablets, and smart-phones. Many common items, novelties, and oddities found instant popularity among delighted buyers, while other items, once considered exceptional or unique, were discovered to be widely available, and their high value, based upon their perceived rarity, immediately depreciated to the dismay of their sellers. Not only did Ebay become an overnight consumer-driven sensation, this virtual shopping bazaar became the gauge in which to estimate the value of all things sellable, great and small. Unfortunately, with the convenience of Ebay's open, diverse, and fluid virtual marketplace, there has developed a greater vulnerability to seller/buyer deception, price gouging, bid extraction, misrepresentation of merchandise, forgery, and theft. The antique and vintage sewing pattern market is no exception.

I started collecting antique and vintage patterns several years ago when I began guest lecturing at Wright State University about the history of the American dressmaker. I used the patterns as props and for personal study to demonstrate and better understand the evolution of the paper clothing pattern, clothing construction, construction technology, and the eras of changing and recycled fashion aesthetics. In 2013, I began collecting digital images of patterns and their schematics, creating a small personal database of about fifteen thousand patterns over a 70-year history, organized by manufacture and date; this system allows me to generally understand which pattern manufacture did what when, who copied whom, and who introduced what to consumers. It sounds like a migraine in the works, but truly, it is has been an enlightening and intriguing endeavor!

Auerbach's, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1909

Fun Fact: While the United States was not the first nation to manufacture or offer paper patterns to consumers, it was the first to standardize and mass market the paper pattern outside of women's periodicals, creating a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to thrive. Every western nation selling and developing paper patterns today is following the American industry model established more than a century ago. Go, Stars and Stripes!

The greater majority of my antique and vintage pattern purchases have been from Ebay sellers, and as a rule, these sellers are generally honest, mindful, and helpful individuals (as are most Ebay sellers). While I am certainly not the most prolific antique and vintage pattern buyer on the circuit, I am well-known among the sellers and I browse their inventory daily. There are noticeable trends and selling techniques I would like to share to help you navigate the antique and vintage pattern resale market, giving you an opportunity to purchase items in good faith and to avoid erroneous sellers and selling scams.

TRUTH: "It's only worth as much as someone's willing to pay for it..."

This is the driving force behind consumer demand, no matter what the product or service, no matter how common or rare the item, no matter the shape, size, or color - it doesn't matter. Consumer value for non-essential goods and services is subjective and relative to desire, including antique and vintage clothing patterns. Simply because a seller declares that an item is rare, exceptional, unique, or one-of-a-kind, and that we must Buy it now! because there is Only 1 left in stock! doesn't mean that it is so and it doesn't mean that we should.

FOR EXAMPLE:

A fair price, indeed! But...

...not so VERY RARE, after all!

Q: What are antique and vintage patterns going for these days? A: There is no set standard for this market niche and prices often vary greatly from one seller to the next; what you pay is determined by the weight of your purse and your willingness to purchase.


My goodness, one for $20 or one for $100 - the agony of choice!

Great Scott, the price variation is astonishing!

TRUTH: Most extant antique and vintage patterns are rare, but exceptional? No, not usually.

Rarity doesn't give a pattern an immediate or intrinsic value. Interestingly, there are about 400,000 patterns for sale on Ebay at any given time, and more than 70,000 of these are antique and vintage. It is important to remember that commercial pattern companies have always designed their patterns for the sewer with a basic skill set. Pattern companies keep to a few basic block designs. Without exception you can find - in any season of any year - clothing designs and patterns offered by each commercial pattern company based on the same or similar pattern blocks across the board. Where the patterns are exceptional is not usually with the pattern itself, but in the packaging and the cover art.

Autumn 1934 - Pictorial Review 7514, McCall 8087, Vogue 6527

Evening wear 1941 - Simplicity 3865, Durbarry 2637B, McCall 4290

April 1921 - McCall 2040, Pictorial Review 9332, Ladies' Home Journal 3208

There are design variations for the purpose of aesthetics, and particular companies, like Vogue, began to introduce patterns with advanced blocking and construction techniques around the 1930s. But generally, the antique and vintage commercial patterns available for resale, like the retail commercial patterns sold today, are basic in design and construction and are meant for ease of use.

CURRENT TRENDS in the antique and pattern resale market...

In the last two years, commercial patterns from the 1920s, particularly for women's clothing, have become difficult to find - there are not many being offered for sale. There are pattern inserts in various fashion magazines from this period, such as Le Petit Echo de la Mode and Le Revue, but these usually consist of a pattern page that needs traced and scaled. Despite their decreasing availability in the resale market, patterns from the '20s are generally offered by sellers at very reasonable prices, averaging around $15-$20. Men's and children's patterns from this period do not generally sell well and can be bought for a song; it is not uncommon to find them on Ebay in inexpensive lots and purchased for an average of $3-$8 a pattern.

Antique patterns from the mid-1910s and earlier, are a little more abundant on Ebay, but usually they are sold as inserts in women's fashion periodicals and need to be traced and scaled, or graded if a loose paper pattern. As expected, they are more expensive, averaging $20-$30. Exceptional antique patterns, like the one pictured below, do sell quickly and for a considerable sum, but then again, these are exceptional.

The hottest vintage patterns on Ebay are those from the 1930s. They are selling well, averaging around $20-$35, and in some cases, like the pattern pictured below (top), for quite a sum more. Menswear and children's patterns in this decade are also big sellers and average about the same in price as the women's patterns. But, mens pajamas and undergarment patterns are generally inexpensive and average around $7-$15.

~Less than $12 after shipping and handling~

Patterns from the 1940s remain a favorite among buyers, and on the rise to popularity are vintage patterns from the 1980s. For the '40s, the most common patterns available are those produced during the war; these patterns are usually "basic" in design and reflect the restrictions placed on garment yardage and fabric waste by the War Production Board in 1942. It wasn't until the late '40s that fashion really took an upswing and women's clothing patterns followed suit. The most popular patterns from this era are women's uniforms, women's trousers, evening gowns, and suits.

Patterns from the 1980s aren't big sellers (yet), but patterns from Burda and Vogue are becoming increasing popular in the vintage resale market, especially Vogue's Individualist line (my favorite are those patterns designed by Issey Miyake). These designer patterns sell for an average of $15-$30. Interestingly, undergarment patterns from most clothing eras are not popular items in the pattern resale market, but 1980s lingerie (teddies, body suits, high-cut panties, etc.) is the exception and sells for an average of $10-$30 depending on the type of garment.

McCall (1944)

Vogue (1984)

WARNING: It is wise to be weary of a seller whose patterns have an incredible spike in high bidders and then multiple bidder retractions. This may indicate that something is amiss. It is NOT typical for vintage patterns to finish auction on such a high bid like the two McCall dress patterns pictured below - these auctions are suspect.

FOR EXAMPLE:

10 bidders, 30 bids, and the 6 highest bids retracted...hummm.

15 bidders, 30 bids, and the 4 highest bids retracted - deja-vu?

And then, there are sellers who are over-enthusiastic with their starting bids. Usually, after re-listing the same pattern 20-times over, they realize they need to drop the starting bid dramatically before the pattern will sell, or allow a buyer to make a reasonable offer.

No.

Whuh? NO!

With 70,000+ antique and vintage patterns to purchase on Ebay, there are good deals everywhere, and sometimes there are surprising discoveries...

FOR EXAMPLE:

This 1954 vintage Vogue reprint recently went OOP...

...but you can bid on an original!

AND...

$12.54 after shipping and handling? YAASSS!

THE SHORT OF THE LONG...

An antique and vintage pattern is only worth as much as you are willing to pay for it. Do not feel that you have to pay a greater price than you are comfortable with.
There's no appraisal standard for antique and vintage commercial patterns - their value is subjective, they are widely available, and they are confined to a small niche market.
Commercial clothing patterns, whether today's or yesterday's, are for the sewer with a basic skill set; for ease of use, clothing patterns are constructed from a few simple blocks and are largely ordinary in design; their uniqueness is usually in their packaging and cover art.
Because most commercial pattern companies sell the same or similar seasonal fashion designs as their competitors, if a buyer cannot find a particular pattern from one company, she will most likely find the same or similar pattern from another.
The hot selling vintage patterns are from the 1930s; the 1940s remain popular; the 1980s are gaining ground.
While most sellers are professional, courteous, and fair, there are a few bad apples. BEWARE of sellers who make exaggerated claims and charge ridiculous prices (including shipping and handling) for their items.
RESEARCH! Check out Etsy, Artfire, and other selling venues, there are deals and surprises everywhere!
ASK! Sellers are there to assist you with making a mindful purchasing decision by answering your questions. If the seller is not clear whether all the pattern pieces are present, whether the pattern is a copy or an original, etc., etc., INQUIRE.

I want you to LOVE what you buy, I want you to feel comfortable with your purchase, and I want you to be treated fairly as a consumer. Blessings and happy sewing!

A Pair of One-Hour, No Pattern Pillowcases

2015-06-22T17:15:00.001-04:00

...because when you can't find what you want in a retail store or online (aside from bolts of fabulous fabric), you've gotta make them!

In this instance, the project was superhero pillowcases. Oh, there are superhero pillowcases out there - lots! But, like in the case of Walmart, whose pillow cases were $20 a set and constructed from 100% polyester, the cost and materials weren't jiving with my thrifty sense or preference for natural fabrics.

My Supplies:

-2 yards of 44" wide, 100% cotton superhero themed fabric ($9.99 a yard; I had a 60% off coupon = $7.99 for both yards before sales tax).
-1-6 yards spool of 3/8" wide blue grosgrain ribbon ($1.99)
-Gutterman blue cotton thread ($3.79)

1). I made two queen size pillowcases (20"x 30") with 4" ribboned cuffs. I cut each case at 31" and each cuff at 4-1/2" long. I did not cut for the width of the pillowcases, but I'll explain why in Step 6.

2). With the RIGHT SIDE of the cuff against the WRONG SIDE of the pillowcase (making sure that the salvages match), I sewed the two together at the top edge.

3). I measured out a length of ribbon about 1" longer than the width of the pillowcase from salvage to salvage (about 45") to sew along the top edge of the cuff on the RIGHT SIDE. Notice, I have the ribbon offset by 1/4" from the cuff's edge...

4). Then, I turned the ribboned edge under and gave the whole top of the pillowcase a good pressing...

5). Next, I turned the pressed cuff over to the RIGHT SIDE of the pillowcase, pressed the top seam, then stitched the cuff to the pillowcase (about 1/16" in from the cuff's edge)...

6) I folded the pillowcase together with RIGHT SIDES facing and sewed the side and bottom seams, taking care that the cuff and ribbon edging were lined up well. Because this particular novelty fabric had a 1" salvage, rather than cut for the width of the pillowcase (20"), I stitched the side seam at 1/2" from the salvage's inner edge, making a 1-1/2 seam, which I trimmed off when I serged the seam - I did this to skip the extra measuring and cutting at the beginning to save time. The pillowcase's dimensions finished out at 21"x 30" - extra room for an extra fluffy pillow!

7). Finally, I flipped the pillowcases right-side out and gave the lot a final pressing. Viola!

Super cool! And what's more is that they are constructed from a fine thread count, 100% cotton fabric rather than 100% polyester or a poly-blend. Final cost: $14.77 after sales tax. WIN!

Blessings and happy sewing!

Wayne County Museum Regency Gown Project

2015-06-11T16:36:00.001-04:00

Back in March 2014, I had the pleasure of visiting the Wayne County Museum in Richmond, Indiana, to view an extant Regency round gown patterned (No. 31) by Saundra Ros Altman, owner of Past Patterns. The garment is quite extraordinary. I was struck by how well it is preserved and I was most impressed by its weight, the fabric being substantial and of a tightly woven cotton/linen blend. I took many detailed photographs of the original gown, especially of the construction and various stitching methods used. Finally, after more than a year, I've had the opportunity to construct my own gown using Saundra's pattern and my personal photographs as a guide for experimentation. I'd like to note, for those who are unfamiliar with this theatrical pattern, it is very popular among reenactors and I've seen many lovely variations on this gown. You may view one such example here (the very last garment pictured).

My gown is constructed from a burgundy and floral printed cotton, lined in burgundy linen, and tied in front by cotton cording:

While the greater part of the bodice is hand-sewn, the skirt and sleeves of the gown are machine sewn and over-locked - it's a dressmaking hybrid, to be sure. I will be making this gown again and constructing it all by hand from a heavy bone-colored linen that is comparable in weight to the fabric of the original gown. I would like to do a bit of simple embroidery in white around the hem, cuffs, and neckline. I'm not an embroiderer, but I'm up for the learning challenge. I'd like to experiment with the sleeves of the gown, perhaps create a style that is a bit more decorative. Also, for the second time around, I'll be gathering the back of the gown rather than pleating it to create a fuller effect from behind. I do enjoy the creative process!

Blessings and happy sewing!

American Designer Geoffrey Beene at KSFM

2015-05-28T06:56:00.001-04:00

If you aren't familiar with American clothing designer, Geoffrey Beene, please acquaint yourself! Noted as one of "America's true design pioneers," Beene captured the New York world of fashion in the early-1960s by combining the luxury of haute-couture with inexpensive and comfortable fabrics, like denim and cotton knits. I became enamored with Beene's fashion designs and aesthetics in the late 1980s, and I followed his work until just before his death in 2004. Today, his fashion house primarily designs for prêt-à-porter men's wear, but 100% of the company's net profits go to charity - a wonderful legacy for the Rebel American Designer, who was not only a great artist, but a great philanthropist.

Pictured are the fashions representative of 50 years of Geoffrey Beene designs.

White satin cocktail dress trimmed in sienna velvet ribbons (1964):

Black and white wool houndstooth coat and skirt, white silk twill dress, knitted red bodice, and black satin ribbon tie (1972):

Red and black day ensemble constructed from wool jersey, black silk, black organza, and black cotton lace, silver bias, and red and black satin ribbon. (Winter 1984):

Camel wool day dress with dark brown leather breast belt (Winter 1991):

Black silk jersey evening dress with floating lilac and blue triangular linen panels (Summer 2001):

The Geoffrey Beene: American Ingenuity exhibit continues until August 30, 2015. Of course, my photos do little justice to show the beauty of Beene's designs - I encourage a visit to Kent State!

Blessings and happy sewing!

Inside Out at KSFM: A Pictorial Tease

2015-05-26T08:20:00.002-04:00

I had a great start to the Memorial Day Weekend! I took a trip to Kent State to view their new exhibit: Inside Out, Revealing Clothing's Hidden Secrets. The exhibit shows until February 14, 2016 (What a groovy Valentine's Day trip!); here is a little tease to encourage your own visit!

Wide view of the Higbee Gallery:

Gold silk Jacquard and blue velvet ensemble - silk fringe, ivory cotton petticoat (not pictured), starched cotton, buckram, and lace skirt (American 1880s):

Man's silk satin suit, embroidered in silk, lined in linen (English 1780s):

White cotton gauze gown, cotton embroidery, cotton appliqués (English 1815-1820):

Wishing you creative inspiration, blessings, and happy sewing!

Pictures, Yay!

2015-05-15T15:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday! As promised, some costume pictures - whoohoo!

Have a wonderful weekend, blessings and happy sewing!