The Dreamstress

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and are looking forward to a New Year full of hope and happiness!

I had a lovely holiday with Mr D’s family: a lovely relaxed Christmas lunch with the unexpected treat of fresh-smoked trout, followed by an afternoon of playing with the aunt and uncle’s gorgeous kitties, browsing their amazing book collection, and modelling some fabulous ’60s and ’70s frocks that they had found at an op shop, to figure out what size they were.  There was one early ’60s dress that looked like it came straight off the set of Mad Men, and had I only been shaped like the redheaded actress from that show, I would have fit it properly!

I received a lovely thoughtful selection of gifts: my family and friends know me well!

Mr D got me The Cut of Women’s Clothes (YAY!  Now I can stop borrowing it from the library constantly!  I had it out so often he was convinced I owned a copy!) and the drool-worthy Vintage Paris Couture!  And he got me Raising Steam: the newest Terry Pratchett novel.  Keeping with the book theme, a dear friend got me the DK Fashion book, which is such a fabulous overview.

My in laws visited Honiton in England this year, and bought me a metre of antique handmade Honiton lace from the museum there.  So gorgeous!

 

And finally, small but sweet: my version of perfume.  Real vanilla pods.  Happiness in a little tube!

In return, I made lots of handmade gifts: two shirts for my mother, a shirt for my MIL, two shirts and some little bags for Mr D, a shirt and a skirt for my sister.  I’ve been busy.

So, time to take some time off…

For the next few days I’m going to be off touring the wilderness with my sister the chef, who is back in the New Zealand for a visit.  The blog is going to be on autopilot, but there will be posts – cute Felicity-ness, and collection tours,  and a Rate the Dress, and the announcement of the HSF Challenge #7, all on schedule.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to respond to comments immediately, but I will get to them when I get back, so please do say hi (and hey, I know perfectly well you guys are capable of having an amazing discussion without me!).

And when I get back I’ll be telling you about lots more sewing that I’ve done, and dressing up and taking pictures, and my road trip, and a round-up of my 2013, and a look back at HSF ’13, and goals for 2014, and wilderness touring pictures, and SO MUCH MORE.

It’s going to be awesome!

One of the things I really love about sewing is how few patterns there actually are: in modern sewing, all you need is a bodice block, a skirt block, and a trouser block, and you can make just about anything!

The same holds true for historical sewing: one 1770s dress pattern can be adapted for a whole range of looks: the under-bodice to a pet-en-l’aire or robe a la francaise, the bodice to a robe a la anglaise or pierrot jacket etc. etc.

I’ve been playing with the idea of a single, adaptable patterns for different eras, particularly the 1920s and 30s, for a while now.  The 20s and 30s inspired a huge variety of dress looks, but if you really look at most ’20s and early ’30s dresses, they use the same basic template, and create all the variety through elaborate seaming and interesting fabrics.

My Gran’s Garden dress, 1924 Hula Goddess Dress, 1930s Sea at Sunset evening gown, Spotty Nautical dress, Little Bit of Red dress, and  the Frumpy Dress were all made from the same basic pattern, just with variations in the neckline, sleeves and skirt designs.

My upcoming  ‘1920s & ’30s Gatsby and Garden Party Frocks‘ is going to teach students to play with the idea on their own.

With one pattern they will be able to take any of these different necklines:

And marry them to each of theses skirts:

 

And more!

Add in different fabric choices, and you can create perfectly vintage, or slightly modernised, versions of each of these ’20s and early 1930s gowns:

Plus, I’ve got a whole pinterest board full of similar inspiration!

My pattern can also be used if the jumping off point is a 1920s ‘inspired’ dress like this one, though you have to remember that this dress (and the hundreds of other similar ones) is a simple tube of stretch fabric with elaborate machine embroidery or beading:

So in using it as a jumping off point you’re going to have to keep in mind how much of effect of the dress relies on the decoration, and how much of that will you be able to recreate?  This dress is re-create-able, in a nice cotton lace, with V seams at the hem, and fringing hidden under the seams: if you just applied the fringing without seaming, the effect would be quite bulky and costume-y.

I’ve just finished another version of the Gran’s Garden dress – can’t wait to show you that!

I’m also really interested to see what the students take as their inspiration, and what they create from that!  I tend to go for the sweet 1920s and ’30s looks, and occasionally things that are a bit glamourous, but I the sexy looks don’t appeal to me personally , so I rather hope some students do want to go all va va voom!