Verity Vintage Studio

Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress - Visits the Farm

The Traveling Dress: Chapter One

The Traveling Dress Visits the Farm

 

Once upon a time, there was a Traveling Dress.

  

 

She had seen many decades and fashions come and go.

 

Now she was going on a real adventure. 

She was going to visit many different states, and even cross an ocean!

 

So one day when sunshine had chased the rain away and the wild asters were heralding September, her first stop was...a farm in Pennsylvania.

 

On a farm like this one, a girl hangs up laundry and picks beans and ripe red tomatoes, makes pickles and is proficient at bread and pie crusts, and likes to sit on the porch to drink iced tea in the golden summer evenings.

 

Being only a visiting dress, the Traveling Dress didn't get to experience these things.

  

But she did get to explore!

 

There were gardens...

 

...and barns...

 

...and a funny round chicken house...

 

...and flowers...

 

...and scenery.

 

You never know what's just around the corner!

 

The ducks were curious and talkative.

 

The chickens were not!

 

Buddy had to say hello...

 

...but quickly lost interest.

 

How fun to visit the farm, before the dress travels off to new adventures and strange lands!

 

 

All the Little Details

 

Thanks so very much to Joanna from Dividing Moments for starting this journey, giving us the opportunity to have so much fun, and providing the Traveling Dress!

 

The dress was lovely and a fun bright print, perfect for summer. Since it is rayon and limp, I considered wearing it with a crinoline, but I was going for a strict 1940s look, so I opted instead for a half slip that was tiered so it had some body to it.

 

The dress was a trifle snug, but fit me very well, which surprised me since my torso is so short I always have to shorten patterns between the arms and the waist. The hem didn't hang quite evenly, but I wasn't sure what caused that.

 

The hardest part, and what took the most thought, was deciding which of my dozens of vintage hats, pairs of gloves, and other accessories to wear with it! There are so many ways you can accessorize this dress, and it looks a bit different with each way of wearing it.

 

My gloves were vintage 1930s or '40s – a bit stained and not in mint condition, but still lovely. An antique shop find. I have other gloves I liked better, but with the busy print of this dress I didn't want to wear fussy gloves with it, and these were the perfect shade of off-white to go with the clutch and brooch. 

I picked up on the seashell theme with the clutch – a thrift store find...

  

...and the brooch, which I made. The neckline was a little too low for me, and in the 1940s frills were often worn at the neck or shoulder, so I crocheted the little ruffled brooch and sewed a seashell button in the center. (Here's the free pattern to crochet the brooch!)

 

The leather belt was not vintage, as far as I know. The earrings were vintage style from Cato.

 

The hat is a treasure I found in a lovely bridal-new-old-stock-vintage shop in Weiser, Idaho, while on vacation there in June. It had belonged to the mother of the lady who owned the shop. It cost more than I usually pay for vintage hats, but wide-brimmed brown hats are hard to find, and this one was in absolutely mint condition with that perfect elegant '40s style and shape. So I got it and after much trying-on-of-hats decided to wear it with this dress.

  

The vintage 1940s shoes were an Etsy find. I was particularly pleased with them since I somewhat nervously painted their heels myself to cover up some staining on the leather.

Besides, I love two-tone shoes.

  

The seamed nylons are actually modern pantyhose bought on Ebay for this purpose – costume wear.

 

For those interested, here are some closeups of my hairstyle. I wear variations of it almost every day during the summer.

 

And of course the location was in my own back yard - on our 15 acre all-natural farm in the Cumberland Valley, where we raise pastured beef, chicken, and pork.

The barn was designed by my mother and built mostly by my uncle and cousins. Isn't it lovely?

 

My little niece, in the 1940s dress her mother made for her, wanted to be in the pictures too.

Later, in the house, she was imitating her “Aunt Ditten” and found some things in the dress-up box to match me! Can't you see a budding model and vintage fashion enthusiast??

 

And of course this post wouldn't be presentable if it weren't for my oldest brother and his beautiful photography. Thank you, Dale!

 

When the fun was over, the dress was packed up and sent to the next location. I can't wait to see the creativity of everyone else in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress!

 

 

All photos of me in the dress taken by Dale Stoltzfus. All other photos mine.

Item of the Week - Retro Boatneck Lace Vest

This lovely retro style cotton tweed crocheted vest, women's size M, is on sale for half price for one week only in my Etsy shop - slashed from $32.

 

 

On the Cover!

See my beaded doily confection on the front cover of Crochet World's October 2014 issue - coming soon! Read more about it on my other blog.

August Tutorial - Sew an Easy Retro Apron from a Dishtowel

I wear an apron all the time in the kitchen, and from the grease and stains that eventually covers it, it's evident that I like to wipe my hands on it! What better apron for wiping hands on than a dishtowel, more absorbent then fabric? So I created this easy retro apron from some vintage fabric and a checked dishtowel. 

 

You'll need:

1 dishtowel

small amount of contrasting fabric

scissors

pins

iron

ruler

white washable pencil color (optional)

sewing machine

 

I chose a vibrant colorful flowered vintage fabric to contrast with the purple checked dishtowel.

 

1. Measure your waist. Add 12 in. plus seam allowance. For instance, if your waist is 30 in., you'll need a piece of fabric 43 in. long or 30 in. + 12 in. + 1/2 in. seam allowance + 1/2 in. seam allowance. 

 

You can make your waistband as wide as desired. I wanted mine wide, so I doubled the fabric over and cut it at 4 in. wide, which with seam allowance take out leaves 3 in. for the finished width. Laid out flat that would be 8 in. wide.

 

The band cut out:

 

2. To prepare the waistband, fold up the seam allowance on the long sides and iron it.

 

Then fold the ends in and iron them.

 

Fold it in half lengthwise and press.

 

The pressed waistband, ready for sewing:

 

3. Next is to prepare the dishtowel. I like to put a bit of waist shaping in mine so it doesn't look like a rectangle wrapped around my waist. The easiest way to do this is to put a single wide box pleat in the center, like this:

 

However, I think a pleat looks too bulky at the waist on me, so I chose to do 2 darts instead. To do this, I measured from the center to where I wanted the dart on each side of the center.

 

I marked that spot with the pencil, then measured over 1 1/2 in. and put another pencil mark.

 

To find the tip of the dart, place the ruler against each dot slanted toward the middle and mark that spot.

 

To sew each dart, I held the top 2 spots together and angled the seam to end at the single dot in the center.

 

Now this is how it looks:

 

4. To add the waistband, center the side of the dishtowel with the darts in the center of the waistband and pin it. The dishtowel will be between 2 layers of waistband with the raw edges folded up.

 

5. Top stitch the ends...

 

...and across the open edge, which also stitches the dishtowel in place.

 

6. Now try it on and decide how far you want the ends of the waistband to overlap.

 

7. Choose your buttons and where to place them. I put mine too close together, as I realized later. But you learn by doing!

 

8. Make your buttonholes.

 

...and sew the buttons to correspond.

 

Now it looks like this:

Of course if you don't want pockets, you can let it as is, or add rickrack, lace, or other trim or appliques or embellishments. Since the dishtowel is hemmed, that's all there is to it. I want to do another one with several rows of baby rickrack at the hem and some vintage buttons for glam.

 

9. For this one, I chose to add a pocket. Instead of the usual square or rectangle pocket, I cut out a square and then rounded the corners to make a U shaped pocket.

 

10. I hemmed the top of the pocket and turned in the other edge and basted it.

 

11. Then I cut a 2 in. piece of narrow elastic and on the wrong side of the pocket, about 1 in. from the top hem, I stitched one end of the elastic in place:

 

Then I stretched out the elastic as I stitched, which created a nice gathered look.

 

Here's how it looks on the inside:

 

12. The last step is to choose where to put it on the apron - slanted or straight, low or high. Pin it in place.

 

13. Top stitch it on the curved edge, and pick out the basting stitches.

 

Give the apron a good press, and you're done!

 

Of course there are many varieties that could be made just by using different prints of dishtowels and contrasting fabric, other styles of pockets and trims. This one I kept simple, but it's fun to wear and more fun to think up how to create varieties!

 

Practical yet pin-up Retro - just how I like it!

Till next month,

~Kristen - Verity Vintage Studio

 

Look for my new tutorials posted sometime during the first full week of every month.      Hairstyles, crafts, repurposing, vintage themed, etc.

 

 

Item of the Week - Baby Sweater Pattern PDF

This adorable pattern PDF download for a crocheted Victorian style baby cardigan is Item of the Week in my Etsy shop, half price for one week only - slashed from $3.

 

The Weekly Word - Romans

Therefore being justified by faith,

we have peace with God 

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

-Romans 5:1