All posts filed under: 20th Century

Another dress for Windy Lindy

I’ve found a way to satisfy my desire to make a whole new dress for Windy Lindy 2010. I’m helping Madame Ornata make one. Madame Ornata doesn’t swing dance, but she does dance, and she loves to dress up. So I convinced her to come to Windy Lindy. It turns out that she had a half cut out version of the notorious Vintage Vogue 2241, an original 1931 design. Now, 2241 is notorious for being difficult to adjust, fussy to put together, making no logical sense as a dress or a pattern, and (worst of all) looking like a sack when you do figure it out, unless you happen to have the approximate figure of a snake. The pattern looks like this: Now, Madame Ornata’s figure is deliciously un-snake-like, she doesn’t like to show off her back, and she needs to be able to dance in the dress without it falling off her shoulders. So the dress as it is was a no-go. But she already had the skirt cut out in the most fabulous …

What shall I wear to Windy Lindy 2010?

Published by The Dreamstress

Last year I got your input on a costume for the big Wellington swing event. And you have seen the Dorothy costume from the year before. So of course I need your input this year too! This year the theme is ‘Puttin on the Ritz’. Woohoo! Right up my alley! Unfortunately, I’ve decided that 1) I should be good and finish all the projects I have started already rather than making something new, and 2) I already own enough fabulous 1930s-esque evening gowns anyway. Blast. I really, really wanted an excuse to make Ginger Roger’s Night and Day dress: So, as I’m giving up this excuse in favour of practicality, which of my (gorgeous, but not quite as gorgeous as that dress) 1930s evening dresses should I wear? Any of these can be dolled up with fab accessories and fabric flowers up the wazoo. Yes, it’s my wedding dress. And yes, I firmly believe I should wear my wedding dress as often as possible. I could add garlands of fabric flowers ’round the neck and …

My wedding dress: the fabric

Published by The Dreamstress

I went wedding dress fabric shopping in the spring and summer of 2005. It was not a good season for bridal fabric. Or even for bridesmaid fabric. Everything was deadly boring. I looked, and looked, and looked. I looked in Wellington. I looked online. I looked in San Francisco. I looked in Oakland. I looked in Palo Alto. New York City was my last resort. So, when I wasn’t visiting museums and taking photos of flowers*, I scoured the fabric district. I’d seen a piece of stonewashed silk charmeuse in Oakland, and I was in love with the fabric (not the colour though – it was bright coral). But there was no stonewashed silk to be found, and the only things that I found that I liked even half as much were over $60 a yard – too much to pay. Finally, digging in a huge pile of rolls in a little tiny designer ends fabric store , I found the holy grain – a roll of palest ivory stonewashed silk charmeuse. It was a …