50s Circle Skirt Tutorial

I am so excited about this post about 50s circle skirts on Casey's Elegant Musings! She actually scanned pages from a vintage Smart Sewing booklet with directions and ideas to make your own skirts. Thank you Casey!!!

Whats On Sale? Pettipants for Valentine's Day!

Wowza- love these pettipants. I have a couple pairs and I wear them when I know I'll be twirling or just to give me a little extra sass. The ones pictured are available at one of my favorite etsy stores called Cheapfrillz in the pettipants and panties section, along with a dozen or so more lovelies like this.

They range in price from $20-39 and the sizes are basically medium, but they stretch to go up to a waist size of 48-50" and leg size of 27-30". I would suggest using your thigh measurement to see if they would work for you. If you need a bigger (or smaller) size, you can request a custom order through Cheapfrillz etsy store. Please allow up to 6 weeks for custom work.

Proper Undergarments

There's an interesting discussion going on at Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing about what undergarments to wear under vintage and repro clothing. Check it out here. Be sure to follow the link to Couture Allure's article about foundation garments in the discussion, which includes pictures of four vintage looks and the undergarments (like the one on the left) needed to create the correct silhouettes to pull them off.

UPDATE: One of the comments on the discussion from Brabarella includes a link to a 4 part article she wrote for women who want to start wearing foundation garments but don't know where to start. Keen!

What's On Sale- Crinolines

My mind has been on crinolines and petticoats lately. I love them, but they are sometimes a pain to make, so I prefer to buy them when I find a good sale. Here are some cute ones on etsy for good prices:

auntcarriesattic
waist stretches from 16" to 32"
length from waist to ruffles is 9"
total length is 26"

$25






cheapfrillz
Waist: 26" stretching to 38"
Length: 20"
25 yards of fabric

$29

(check out the rest of the store for some more crinoline goodies!)

rubescent
Elastic waist stretches from 14" to 19"
Five layers of tulle with black satin ribbon trim and hem line
Length 30"

$29.95

Corsets and Girdles- Oh My!

As a curvy girl (and singer who likes Gilbert and Sullivan) who has used corset and girdles for various occasions, I could appreciate the cartoon above that I found on corsetiere.net. This was taken from a page on "stout" women and corsets. I was surprised to read how prevalent curvy gals were, even in the 30s when I thought everyone was tiny, tiny, tiny and flat-chested. Perhaps I am just biased because I can never find vintage clothes in my size when I go shopping...

Thanks to the Glamour Daze blog for turning me on to the corsetiere site in this post.

Pictures taken from corsetiere.net

Circle Skirts & Petticoats Tutorials

What rockabilly gal doesn't love a circle skirt? I haven't met one yet and I am no exception. Circle skirts are flattering and fun! They are easy to sew, which is made even more clear in the article given by the lady who reportedly "invented" them, Juli Lynne Charlot. The super fun blog Here's Looking Like You, Kid has a nice couple of postings on the history of circle skirts.

Want to make one? Here is a decent tutorial on the Madame X website. The Whirling Turban website also has a nice description of the different kinds of circle skirts and how they lay on your body. While you are there, be sure to check out their delicious repro dresses.


Of course, if you have a nice full circle skirt, you need a petticoat or crinoline to go with it. Otherwise how will you achieve the oh-so sassy look on the right? The woman in the pictures is Alice Lon and she worked on Lawrence Welk (one of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid). She had an article in T/V. Guide in 1956 explaining how her mother made them. Pettipond.com has recreated the article here.

Both pictures taken from pettipond.com

Something Old- Wedding Corset

Like many of you, I was given my mother's wedding dress to use as I saw fit for my wedding. I knew I wouldn't be able to use it as is because I wouldn't be able to fit into it to save my life (this is my 14 yr-old, size 6, niece modeling it) and it wasn't the style that would fit with my rockabilly theme. I decided to have it made into my wedding corset.

I mentioned in a previous post that I found a delightful seamstress to make my corset for me, so the next step was to prepare the material and see if it could be repurposed. The dress was a satin acetate with a netting overlay that also had pieces of beaded lace stitched onto it. There was a matching train that attached at the shoulders. I planned on using the acetate as the outer layer of the corset with pieces of the beaded lace as an accent.

Despite not being stored properly, the acetate was in pretty good condition and hadn't yellowed at all. The overlay and lace had yellowed, but were still in good shape (no holes, beading complete). There was a slight odor that I knew would come out with washing it. Yes, I said washing it. My mother had looked into having the dress drycleaned and it would have costed anywhere from $150-300! This would have been acceptable if I was planning on wearing the dress as is, but for material pieces- no. I did some research on cleaning methods of vintage clothing and decided to chance washing the material myself, keeping in mind that water does break down the fibers of acetate. I thought it best not to wash the dress sewn together, especially because I was only going to use the train for the acetate and 2 pieces of the beaded lace, so I took the dress apart and only washed the pieces I needed. This way, if the washing did ruin the material, I still had more to try using another method. I ended up soaking the material in oxyclean overnight and airdrying the pieces on plastic hangers.

As you can see by the pictures of my corset, the material cleaned up nicely! Emily of Rohm on etsy did a marvelous job of constructing the corset from my ideas and added the lace on the front panels.

Isn't that sweetheart shape to the top of the corset to die for?

The curves are gorgeous and it gives a marvelous base for my aunt and me to shape my wedding dress bodice on. It hardly feels like I have it on at all!


(crossposted to The Pink Bride)

Crinolines

A crinoline is a must-have for any rockabilly kitten and here are some etsy shops that I frequent often that carry them at a decent price.


Cheapfrillz
Prices run from $20-50 mostly and this shop carries a good steady stream of adorable stuff, including pettipants! When I want a crinoline, I check here first. This cute turquoise crinoline is a mere $28.







VictoriasVintage4U
This shop has a couple of crinolines right now of different styles, including this black and pink trim gem from the 50s for $39. Hurry, because I have my eye on this one...







One last point on crinolines- don't be afraid to get a square-dance crinoline and cut a layer out to make it lay better with a rockabilly skirt or dress. If you are careful, you can actually use the bit you've cut away to make another crinoline by attaching it to a new yoke (which is basically a rectangle of similar fabric turned over at the top for a piece of elastic). Take the time to inspect the crinoline before you cut- I ruined one by just hacking into it and realizing that it wasn't constructed the way I thought.

The Dress

I have always been in love with Audrey Hepburn's wedding dress in Funny Face. I knew I couldn't afford a modern reproduction of it and the chances of me finding a vintage dress in my size is nil- I am a curvy girl that hasn't been a size 6 since middle school.

I am lucky enough to be a seamstress so I decided to make my dress. I am also lucky enough to have an aunt who went to fashion school and owned her own bridal shop in LA before she moved back to WI and I quickly drafted her help.



The first thing I did was to get online and find pictures of dresses and patterns from the 50s that I liked for inspiration, besides Audrey's dress that is. My original idea was to buy the material and resize a vintage pattern to make the dress from scratch. As I was searching, I found a vintage prom dress on e-bay that I fell in L-O-V-E with (on the right). It wasn't even close to my size, but the skirt could have been detached from the bodice and either reattached to a new one in my size or kept as a skirt and I would make a shirt to go with it. I could then reattach after the wedding so the dress could live on it it's original form.

Alas and alack, I lost the bid by $10. After much gnashing of teeth, I realized that although I didn't win my dream dress, I could possibly use other vintage dresses to refashion my dress and save a ton of money on materials, as well as be green. I found three gorgeous dresses (all beautifully beaded) at a thrift store in Wheeling, IL (my fiancee's hometown) called Little Mexico. For less than $100 I got the dresses, as well as some other wedding items like a veil and ring pillow. SCORE!!!

The first step was to meet with my aunt, show her the dresses I found and sketch out the idea for the dress. I knew I wanted the full skirt and really liked the look of a drop waist. I wasn't too picky about the sleeves or neckline, but I knew that a sweetheart neckline is flattering for my figure. I did find a pattern ($1.50) that was close to what I wanted that we will be using as inspiration for the dress, the only change being a sweetheart neckline-

We decided to have me try the thrift store dresses on to see if there was anything about them that we could keep or if we would have to take them completely apart. None of them were my size, but I was able to slip them over my head and leave them unzipped to get a basic idea. This was the smartest thing we could do as once I had them "on" my original opinions on each dress changed and we ended up picking one dress with a scoop neckline to use for the bodice and another to use for the skirt. By doing this we would be able to use parts of the skirt from the"bodice dress" to add in side panels to make the bodice fit me. We also decided to have the front pieces of the bodice extend down into the skirt because the beading was so beautiful and went down the entire front. We may change this as we get farther into construction because it may be too awkward to have the one straight piece in the front of the skirt with the rest of the skirt gathered into a drop waist seamline. More on that later...


The full beading also meant we would be keeping the sleeveless cut of the gown and creating a faux sweetheart neckline by pinching the front of the scoop neckline with a gather. Because the dress will be sleeveless I decided to also make a bolero jacket in a 50s style. Back on e-bay I found a pattern I liked which cost $7 with shipping. It will have to be resized, but I love the high neck. I will be using leftover material from the thrift store dresses to make it, probably part of the skirt of the "bodice dress."

Sorry I have no pictures of the thrift store dresses to give you a better idea of what I mean as I explain everything, but I am trying to keep any visuals of the materials a secret from my fiancee. I will be posting a ton of of pics after the wedding, I promise.

The construction of the dress will start once I have my wedding corset in hand. Once again I am repurposing and using my mother's wedding dress for the outer layer of the corset. I didn't want the stress of making it myself, especially because I have never made a corset with a busk front, so I am having a custom corset made by the super talented Rohm on etsy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she lives within driving distance of me and went to college with a close friend of mine who highly recommended her work. I could tell from meeting with her that she had skillz and I can't wait to get my corset from her!

Another integral part of my dress is the crinoline. I decided to go with a traditional white dress, but my netherpinnings will be lipstick red. I ordered a 22"long soft chiffon crinoline with matching pettipants from Glamour Boutique online. Both items together cost $61 (free shipping). The only drawback of ordering from this site is that it takes 14-18 weeks to get the crinolines from the manufacturer due to the custom sizing available. Order with PLENTY of time. Luckily I have other crinolines to use for hemming my dress until the real one comes.

My next post will be on my dress accessories, including my custom veil...