All posts filed under: 20th Century

Early 1950s fashions and fabrics in Japan, Part I of 5

When I bought Murisaki the dress form, something exciting happened. The proprietor of the Asia Gallery said “Oh, you might like these as well” and showed me these: Ooooooh….. And then he gave them to me. For free! Squee! (They like me. I buy a lot of stuff). Now, my Japanese is limited to what I remember of high school Japanese after a dozen+ years. So what I know about these is based on what I can tell from the images. At first I thought it was a dress catalogue, and a packet with one commercial pattern and a homemade pattern for tabi socks. Then I looked at it closely and realised that the pattern has ALL the dresses – every single child and adult dress shown in the catalogue – all drawn over each other ready for you to break your brain over as you sort them out. Based on the style of the dresses I’d say the patterns are from 1951/52. There are dozens, and dozens of them, and even illustrations of fabrics. …

Tutorial: How to make the ‘Deco Echo’ blouse

Published by The Dreamstress

As promised, and per popular demand, a tutorial on my Deco Echo blouse! First, a caveat. This blouse best suits a figure with a small bust and less than 10″ bust/waist difference. If you have larger bust, you could try adding length and side-bust darts. It would also help to taper the side panels in at the bottom, and to add a opening (either buttons up the CB, or a side fastening with snaps or hooks). Fabric: I used the panels of silk crepe from the susomawashi (the lower lining) of a kimono for my blouse. I recommend lightweight silk or cotton fabrics. Silk crepes are particularly nice because of their drape. The blouse is made from 5 rectangles – two large ones, two narrow ones, and one really long and narrow one for the waist tie. To make a blouse to fit a 34″ bust you will need: 2x 21″ x 13.5″ (l x w) rectangles – these will be your front and back panels. 2x 10.75″ x 6.5″ (l x w) rectangles – …

The ‘Deco Echo’ blouse

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m madly sewing something new and exciting, and working on the tutorial for this blouse, so instead of spending a lot of time on writing a post for today, I’m concentrating on those, and instead you are getting (a slightly better and updated) version of my post for the Sew Weekly on my ‘Deco Echo’ blouse (I want to have a version on my blog…just in case): ______________ Planning my wardrobe for Art Deco Weekend in Napier, top of my list of things I really wanted to make was a pair or beach pajama pants made from fantastic Art Deco inspired fabric. Problem. The fabric is maroon and dark teal on white. And maroon and dark teal are not colours I usually buy — it’s just so hard to find fabrics in them that don’t look cheap (why is that that some colours always look cheap in most fabrics?). I don’t own any maroon and dark teal fabrics! What on earth was I going to do for a top? I completely turned over my stash, …