All posts tagged: 1930s

Elise’s gift: the white cape-stole

Last week I showed you the most exciting of the garments that Elise gave me. This week I’m being mean and showing you the simplest, least-exciting garment. Well, it may be simple, but sometimes the simplest things are the best. I think this little cape-stole is adorable. The cape is very cleverly made. It’s made from two pieces of fabric, with part of the back extending further, and the other part curving up around the neck. The extension is gathered to the neck-part to add back fullness: The lining is cut in exactly the same shape as the outside, and also gathered at the upper back seam. I think it is late ’30s, but I’m not entirely sure. It’s such a classic style it could really be from any timeperiod. While it is charming and dressy, I suspect this would have been a very cheap garment when it was made. It’s made from a very short pile fabric which is somewhere between a faux fur and a synthetic velvet, and lined in an inexpensive synthetic …

Sweet & sour ‘Summer Berries’ shorts

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I told you about the Sew Weekly and showed off my first offering: the Little Black Dress-Clip Dress. The Sew Weekly theme for this week was ‘buttons’. I thought about doing something fancy with bound buttonholes, but I end up doing that sort of thing all the time, so there was no reason, and I don’t particularly need anything fancy and tailored and fussy in my wardrobe right now. What I do need is simple summery things, and stuff I can do swing dancing in when it’s hot. Solution: make a pair of vintage-inspired button front shorts. I’m calling these the ‘Summer Berries’ shorts. I’d originally meant for them to be quite nautical with white buttons, but when I went through my fabric stash I didn’t have anything that really worked, and the only thing that stood out to me as exciting at the fabric store were some raspberry pink buttons. So now I have bright blueberry blue shorts with raspberry pink buttons. And I’m eating a blackberry real-fruit ice cream as I …

A nautical playsuit

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember the darling little halter-neck playsuit from last week? Well, when I sent the toile for it to S. she noticed how much it looked like a sailor suit in white, and liked it so much that she asked me to make her a second playsuit, this one with a nautical theme. I suggested mixing things up a bit, and using a different bodice for the top half of the playsuit, specifically this little cutie from my pattern collection: We settled on blue fabric with a detachable white collar with red trim, and cute blue buttons with ‘X’es on them that remind me of compasses. The bodice top married to the shorts from the original playsuit well, all I had to do was adjust for a back fastening rather than a side fasteningso that she could get in and out of it. To play-up the nautical inspiration I added little white piping at the front pleats. Like the floral playsuit, this one has a skirt to button over it. I made this skirt a little …