Verity Vintage Studio

1950s Girl's Fall Floral Dress

Still trying to catch up with documenting my fall sewing before I start the holiday things... This week I want to show you the fall-floral dress I made for my oldest daughter for Thanksgiving! 

 

I had these two Riley Blake Designs fabrics from last year paired together for a dress for her for ages. Finally I made it happen, since right now she is growing out of all her clothes and needed new Sunday dresses anyway. 

 

I found a vintage dress pattern from my stash that would work well with adding contrast, and I love how it turned out. It has super fun inset dolman sleeves (no setting sleeves!) gathered into a sleeve band - sure wish I had an adult pattern with sleeves like this! Doing them in contrast helps emphasize the cute details of the pattern. 

 

It is loose and slips over the head, fitting at the waist with a sash, so it's very adjustable. I made it extra long too so she can wear it for a while. 

 

As you can see from the dimples, she was very pleased with it!

 

I have a hard time getting perfect corners when I do an L shaped inset seam like this, so I covered the front corners with little buttons. Decorative and practical too. 

 

I really enjoyed this pattern. It was unique, quick to make, and has lots of fabric combination options with the way the pattern pieces are done. Meanwhile she loves wearing it, and I am glad to see it finally take shape!

 

1950s Maple Leaf Thanksgiving Dress

I have been in quite a sewing mood lately, and have been whizzing through my pile of fall projects quickly before it's time to sew for Christmas. My Thanksgiving dress was my latest fall finish - and though delayed by my whole family getting sick with a nasty flu right before Thanksgiving, I did get it finished in time to wear that Sunday, which is when we ended up having our family celebration. 

 

I loved the soft aquas in the fabric line Shades of Autumn by Riley Blake Designs, and knew it would be a good novelty print for fall - plus be a good color for me, which is hard to find with fall fabrics!

 

I knew I wanted a 1950s dress in it, with some contrast in the plaid fabric. After sorting through my patterns I settled on this one from the late '50s or possibly early '60s. It was just what I wanted and even had a good contrast detail so I didn't have to draft my own. 

 

The construction was quite interesting. I actually had to follow the pattern for this one! They had me construct the entire front and entire back, then sew it together on the side seams. I'm not exactly sure why they did it that way, but I figured I might learn something new and followed it as written. 

 

I do prefer adding collar and facings while flat, but thankfully it worked out pretty well. This is the only time I've done a stand-up circle collar quite like this, and it was unusual to stitch, but I really like how it looks. 

 

The skirt band and bow I did in the plaid, drafting my own bow since I didn't have enough fabric to use the bow pattern piece. I don't usually go for metallic threads in my quilting cotton, but I liked the plaid a lot. A little shimmer makes it more holiday-ish.

 

I also added a little plaid piping on the sleeves to trim them. 

 

I knew I wanted to emphasize the gold threads in the plaid, and luckily found the perfect buttons in my gold button stash - and had exactly the right amount for the space on the dress. 

 

I had to sew the buttonholes with my regular foot, and while it's more complicated than using a buttonhole foot, it works quite well!

 

This is perhaps the first time I have successfully done a partial-lapped front opening like this, so I was very happy with that accomplishment! Usually it looks ok on the outside but is butchered on the inside. :-) 

I styled it with a 1950s hat, my gold Aerosoles heels, modern elastic belt (since my post baby waist still prefers such things...) and added midcentury gloves and suitcase for these photos.

 

I just love the soft cream and aqua colors, and the large maple leaf print. This is definitely one of my favorite fall dresses, and my only regret is that I made it late enough in the season that I likely won't wear it again this year. 

1950s Ditsy House Dress

I'm trying to catch up with my finished projects, so you get 2 blog posts this week! This time it's a house dress I made for myself with some 1930s repro quilting cotton and a 1950s pattern.

 

I haven't sewed for myself in a while, so it was fun to be back at the familiar tasks of sewing darts and matching skirt seams.

 

The print is small and busy, so I wanted something fairly simple and pulled from my stash a pattern I haven't made before. 

This straight-skirted 1950s pattern features inset pockets and a collar band. The cutaway pocket detail (which was pretty much the only pattern detail) got completely lost in the print, so after some thought I added a bit of trim.

 

The trim also pulls out the navy blue dots in the print, which I wanted to accentuate since the yellow-green flowers are not a good color for me. 

 

I hoped the trim wouldn't make it look too apron-like, but after it was finished I decided that it was the right call. 

 

I always enjoy making a pattern with sleeves cut with the bodice, since it's quicker and I don't have to set sleeves. They are also more comfortable to wear since they allow more range of motion - but I also don't like how they look as much, so it's kind of a love-hate relationship. :-) 

 

I know the buttons are spaced pretty close together for this style of dress, but when I do a button-front dress I'm always afraid of it gaping in spots, so this was my solution. 

 

Also I have to document that this is the very first time I've made buttonholes with just a regular foot on the machine, and it is very freeing to know it's possible, if slightly more complicated!

 

For some reason the print reminds me of my great-grandmother who lived with us for a time when I was a girl. I'm glad to have it off my shelf and in my closet.

 

Even if I don't make this pattern again, it was a fun sew to break through the long drought of no dressmaking and getting bored with the options that fit me in my closet, so I will enjoy pairing it with a cardigan this fall.

 

 

1950s Girl's "Dandelion Dress"

Fall project finish!

I actually made this dress several months ago, but it still needed a sash - and I didn't get around to spending 10 minutes making the sash until this week, so here it finally is. We snapped pictures on a mild November day, taking advantage of all the crispy leaves on the ground.

 

I loved the pattern I used for my oldest daughter's Easter dress this year, and wanted to use it again before she outgrows it. This time I did the top section of the skirt in the contrast color too, and love the color blocking!

 

These two fabrics go so well together. They are from a cute quilting line last year called On the Wind, by Riley Blake Designs. I loved the dancing dandelion print, and though there were a lot of options for contrast, for some reason the yellow argyle spoke to me to be paired with it.

 

Since I had made this pattern before, it was a quick project. I omitted the trim, so all the interest is just in the fabric. As before, I changed it to button all the way down the back.

 

I also added the tie sash on top instead of the side belts, and of course a little patch pocket since this child adores all the pockets.

 

She is growing so fast and is hard on her clothes, since she loves to be active outside as much as possible - so it was high time to get this off my stack and into her closet!

 

(I know I've been showing a lot of girl clothes and quilt projects lately, but there are definitely some more fun vintage dresses for me coming up! I'm in a sewing mood right now, and completing a bunch of things as fast as I can, so stay tuned! :-)

Country Kitchen Accessories - Prairie Sisters Homestead Blog Tour for Poppie Cotton

Fabric speaks to me. 

When I received my sample bundle of Prairie Sisters Homestead fabric by Poppie Cotton, I put it on my shelf with a plan to make a couple of woven pot holders out of it at least. More recently I had an idea for an apron made from 2.5" strip precuts. But when I went to cut out my projects last week, I ended up suddenly needing to also make a patchwork apron and some patchy potholders too!

 

So I went to town with all the cute kitchen items, as you can see. 

We are in the process of moving house this month, and one of the things I wanted to do is upgrade all my disliked or yucky potholders. I bake a lot, and am a big proponent of things being both pretty AND practical - so why give drawer space to pot holders I don't like when I can replace them with cute ones? They may eventually also get yucky and need to be tossed, but they are so easy and fun to make, and will be fun to use in the meantime.

 

I made two basic 16 patch potholders with 2" squares, following color schemes instead of going all scrappy like I originally thought. The yellow I arranged a little; the blue I just did random. 

And does it ever match to perfection the vintage tablecloth I just got my mom for her birthday!

 

The 3rd potholder in the mint color way I decided on impulse to do a fussy cut square in the center - some of these prints are PERFECT for fussy cutting! - and do the smaller mint patches around the edge.

 

I layered them all with a double layer of cotton quilt batting so they would be extra thick, and quilted them all differently. I love each of them, and enjoy seeing them side by side so you can see what a difference a little arrangement and quilting can do to a basic design. 

 

Also you have to love the coordinating chicken backings, and gingham bindings!

 

I did in fact do a woven hot pad too, though! I had seen a tutorial ages ago from Art Gallery Fabrics and have been wanting to try it ever since. Finally did it, and it's super cute! Also very little actual sewing.

 

I want to make another now and play around more with the color placement. But this one I'm very pleased with. Reminds me of apple pie. 

 

The pink apron was my "jelly roll apron" idea, made with 2.5" strips where the end was sewn like a Dresden plate to make points, and all of them joined side by side. I originally got the idea from a photo of a 1940s pattern for an apron with lots of flared gores and pointed ends, so this was my non-pattern version. 

 

I tapered the tops to make it a little more fitted and shaped, and chose the strawberry fabric for a waistband and ties. 

 

For my yellow apron, I did something quite different. I cut 4 yellow FQ in half and sewed a half of each into a large patchwork rectangle, which I then gathered into a waistband. (Yellow just seemed to be the right color for August sewing - but now I kind of wish I'd made a blue one too.)

 

Add a fussy cut pocket and ties, and a little bit of lace trim - and it's just the cutest! My mom and sister just about swiped this one from me. :-) 

 

Incidentally, it matches my mom's gorgeous yellow 1950s stove like a dream. 

 

I really enjoy working with fat quarter cuts. While they are intended for quilts, and certainly handy for that, it's also fun to work within the constraints of an 18 x 22" piece of fabric to see what all I can come up with, without extra yardage. And all of these pretty new kitchen things make me so happy as I prepare for upgrading to a new kitchen soon!

 

Check out the other bloggers on this tour to see all their makes with this sweet new fabric line:

Monday, August 7	theredfeedsack.blogspot.com
Wednesday, August 9	Vanessa Ward
Friday, August 11	Website: http://blueribbondesigns.com
Monday, August 14	www.cardinalcreekquilting.com
Wednesday, August 16	https://amerooniedesigns.com/
Friday August 18	http://prettybyhand.com/
Monday, August 21	https://verityvintagestudio.typepad.com/my-blog/
Wednesday, August 23	@elliebugmakes
Friday, August 25	http://neverlandstitches.blogspot.com/

 

1950s Birthday Girl Dress

The week my oldest daughter was turning 4, I pulled out some girl size patterns and asked her which one she would like for a birthday dress. She picked the one with pockets, of course! And when I let her choose some fabric, she gravitated instantly towards the purple floral - which did not surprise me. :-)

 

This floral is one of my very favorite prints from the recent Bee Vintage line by Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs. The good news is that it is one of their basics, which means that it will be available for a much longer period of time than usual, and they will keep it in stock!

 

This is a pretty standard 1950s girl dress, with a basic shirt-dress style made interesting by a yoke and those cute pockets. I cut down on the skirt width a bit, believe it or not. There were 4 entire widths of fabric in that tiny skirt!

 

Some lavender rickrack was the perfect edge for the contrast yoke, which I had the ideal fabric for in my stash. 

 

The little gathered pockets are the cutest. And she loves them so much, I will probably have to put pockets on all the dresses I make for her in the future!

 

I altered it to button the whole way down the back, and omitted the ties since this will be an everyday dress. Otherwise I followed the pattern. It was pretty quick and easy to put together.

 

The bodice pattern pieces were slashed and spread to make a bigger size, so this is actually a tad long-waisted for her. But that just means it will fit her longer, and she is growing so fast that is a definite plus!

 

The fun thing is that I have some of this fabric set aside for a 1950s house dress for me, so once I get around to sewing it, we will have matching dresses! I'll have to take more photos then. 

 

She was super pleased with her dress, and took interest in all the fittings and progress I made. She will be sewing her own as soon as she can, I'm sure. Meanwhile I can hardly believe she is 4 already!

Another 1950s Rose Dress

Everything's coming up roses, apparently! Actually, since I was pregnant all spring I didn't get any of my dress ideas for my spring-ish fabric made, so now I'm hurrying to stitch some of them before fall arrives. As a result, you get the 2nd large rose print dress in a row.

 

This one was sewn with fabric and vintage glass buttons from The Timely Tailor, and I have to say it probably is my favorite sewing project so far for the year. I was so pleased with the fit (important since most of my Sunday dresses don't fit me again yet!) and the style. 

 

This is the first time I've made this 1950s pattern, and I usually shy away from something with a lot of fullness in the front. This time, though, I decided to risk it, and top stitched the pleats down for a few inches, which really helps keep the waist looking trim.

 

It has double slanted side darts to add some pretty detail, and my favorite kind of fold back collar. 

 

Funny story though - I was having a bit of a day when I cut this out. Everything was going wrong. And when I went to cut out this dress, I found that the front bodice piece was missing. That was a bit of a poser, since it's harder to swap out a bodice piece, especially when I wanted the details of this particular one. I ended up going through my patterns, finding one similar, kind of cobbling together a front piece that I HOPED would work out like the original, and cutting it out. It added quite a bit of hassle and time to the cutting out process.

I carried the stack of pieces to the sewing room, turned around - and there on the floor was the missing bodice piece. :-) 

 

Thankfully the rest of the process went a lot more smoothly! But because of the substitution and my size adjustments, the collar piece ended up too short to overlap in the back like it was supposed to. It didn't even meet - there was 1-2 inches of gap that just didn't look right. So I had the idea to make a separate tab to cover it, and actually love how it turned out. It makes a petal collar that fits with the fabric very well.

 

Narrow white cotton lace trims the sleeves, and I went with classic white glass buttons. 

 

The skirt is super full and swishy - even though I took out quite a bit of width to fit it on my fabric! - especially with a small crinoline, but I really like how it adds that feminine silhouette while still being trim and flattering.

 

I will definitely make this pattern again...THIS time with the right bodice piece!

1950s Dress and Basket Quilt with Poppie Cotton Delightful Department Store

 

Time for sewing with one of my favorites ever of the new collections by Poppie Cotton! This one is all about midcentury, which of course was right up my alley. Of course I had to make several things with it. First I'll show you a 1950s dress made in my favorite print.

 

There are several charming color ways of this rose fabric, but naturally I gravitated toward the teal. It's so lovely! I especially like this rose print in yellow too, but unfortunately yellow is not a good color for me. 

 

I made this from a 1950s pattern in my collection, only adding contrast piping and a tie belt in the pink gingham print. The tie belt can also double as a hair tie if preferred. 

         

 

I really like the collar shape, which makes this pattern a bit more unique. Otherwise it is just a straightforward A line dress with a nice full skirt.

 

I had to piece the underside of the collar - that's how close I came with my yardage! But I'm so pleased to have such a pretty, wearable floral dress in my closet now for the rest of the summer. 

 

I had to pair it with my favorite pink 1950s hat, of course.

           

It feels so good to be back to sewing garments! 

 

But there were too many sweet prints that I couldn't use for a dress, so I also had to make a little wall quilt out of my FQ bundle. 

 

I've never done basket blocks before. Normally I would say they aren't my favorite, but I had this idea to use vintage cutter embroideries for the backdrop to make it look like flowers in a basket, so I did some experimenting to come up with a basket block I liked. 

 

It was fun to sort through my stash of stained embroideries (they are too pretty to throw away but in too bad condition to use) and find ones that would work in the baskets. Then give them new life!

I joined the blocks with basic 1" sashing, and custom quilted it on my Juki sewing machine. I was pleased with how my free motion quilting skills have improved enough that I can like the result!

 

I took step-by-step photos of the basket blocks, so someday I may get around to sharing the pattern. Basic piecing, with a hand appliquéd bias handle.

         

Each basket is unique, and I used almost all of the line in it (not the large novelty prints - I have another idea for those), so I can enjoy these favorite cheerful and old fashioned fabrics on my kitchen wall! Some of them remind me of vintage wallpaper. 

 

If you love this fabric as much as me, it's shipping to quilt stores now, so ask at your local shops! There have been so many adorable makes in this beautiful collection, so I hope you check them all out.

Friday, July 7

Ori AOK Sews

Monday, July 10

Charise Creates

Wednesday, July 12

Dori Troutman

Friday, July 14

Lisa Jo Girodat

Monday, July 17

Belinda Karls

Wednesday, July 19

Angela Hernandez

Friday, July 21

Kristen Clay

Monday, July 24

Kristyne Czepuryk

Wednesday, July 26

Faith Essenburg

 

1930s Parasol Dress

I'm so glad to be back sewing garments again! Our sweet little son was born on June 18, and now that I feel back to normal I'm taking advantage of the long newborn naps to get some summer sewing done. A lot of these have been on my list for a long time, delayed because of the pregnancy, so I'm buzzing through them as fast as I can until the next big project comes along. 

 

This fun fabric is an adorable novelty print by Liberty Cottons in the UK. Riley Blake Designs distributed it in the USA in several colors, and I had to snag some of my favorite for a dress. (It's out of stock now, but if you want some, I still have some yardage available in my vintage sewing shop The Timely Tailor.) 

 

Because the print was so busy, I needed a pattern without a lot of details - something that most 1930s patterns often feature. So I pulled out a dress pattern that I've made twice before and knew would fit me well, without a lot of tweaking. 

 

As usual when I make a duplicate, I try to change it up a bit. This time I added rickrack points to the collar, made the neckline different with the placement of the panel, and tried a new sleeve pattern.

 

I didn't end up liking the sleeve pattern as is, but I tweaked it until I liked it. A knot of rickrack trims it, and ties in the collar edging. 

 

Since I had already made it twice, it was super quick and no-fuss to make again. I hardly had to look at the instructions.

 

Though I will wear this as a house dress, I wanted to photo it a little more formally since a lot of my accessories don't come out of the closet as much as I would like.

 

Whether you think it's beach umbrellas or Japanese parasols, I think it's the perfect summer fabric!

Two Little Bunny Dresses

I finished another coordinating dress set for my two little girls last week. I had intended to do these for Easter (because bunnies!), but when the last set of dresses turned out so cute, I ended up using those instead. But these did finally get done!

 

More cute prints from Poppie Cotton's Poppie's Patchwork Club fabric line, perfect for little girl dresses. I made the 4 year old size from a 1940s pattern. I really like the inset belt and the square neck.

 

This color of green is such a good color for my little redhead!

 

A touch of vintage rickrack ties in the pink accent fabric.

 

It was a fairly basic shape, so it didn't take long to put together once I buckled down and started it.

 

My 1 year old dress used a 1930s pattern, and I really like it!

 

She didn't cooperate very well for photos, but it does have super cute pointed yoke and pleat details on the front.

 

It is loose enough to pop over her head without a waist opening, and cinches a bit with a sash. I made it a tad long for her so she can wear it all summer.

 

I opted for ruffles instead of sleeves, and used a long-hoarded card of vintage pink bunny buttons that were the PERFECT match. Rather than fuss with buttonholes with that shape of button, I closed the back with snaps and sewed the buttons on top. Much easier to fasten a wiggly toddler in a dress with snaps, and the buttons cover the snap stitches – double win!

 

This pattern has several sleeve options and different looks depending on how you use fabric in the yoke. So I want to make it again while she will still fit in it. Meanwhile this one is a fun warm-weather addition!

 

One of the fun things about having little girls is that I get to play with fabric that is too juvenile for myself. It's enjoyable to make up this cute little bunny fabric into something that they love.