The Sewing Bandwagon...All Aboard! A Tissue Holder Giveaway-Retro Style

I'm almost there, almost complete with my first dress!  Me-o-my what a process but fun none the less.   Gosh, if I can get the nack of sewing on vintage patterns, a whole new world is opened.

My first dress will be from a vintage reproduction pattern.  I suggest the same to anyone else who has not yet tried sewing a dress.  This is because there are other people out there who have made the dress and you can see their successes and failures.  Also, if you totally mess up, you can always get another pattern pretty cheaply.  I'll share more on my pattern and process (and of course dress!!) in an upcoming post.

Would you be interested in hearing about some sources for fabric and where to begin with sewing a dress?  I know it can be intimidating but it is also very rewarding.  I suppose not so rewarding if the dress or item doesn't fit lol.  You know what I got the most kick out of was putting in my very first zipper.  I know small things but hey, I did it!!

Before I began sewing together my very first dress, I thought it would be fun to dust off the ol'sewing machine by making some tissue holders from some of my novelty prints I had hanging around.   It certainly did help my case that I liked to make quilts.  I haven't made a quilt in quite a few years but I still have quite a bunch of fabric lying around.

The problem is though that some of the dresses I like will require yards and yards of fabric.  Those  "New Look" dresses are like a black hole for fabric yardage.  Can I also say that there are many types of 100% cotton lol?   I found this out the hard way that there are varying thicknesses and even though it says 100% cotton in a description for online fabric, you may end up with a weighty piece too!  

My first dress is with a light weight "quilters" cotton.  This is what you see with most novelty prints in cotton.

Anyways, back to the tissue holders.  I made a bunch of them and I thought I'd offer up three to giveaway to three different readers.

Choices are:

Viva Vegas
Charleston Dancers
Mod Sunglasses
Spring Tulips
Dutch Landscapes

Would you like one?  Leave a comment below which one you like best and three winners will be randomly selected.  I'll close the giveaway Friday.  I'm totally partial to the retro Vegas print.  Expect a dress in this print in the future, just love it!  How cool will I be when I make my Vegas dress with my very own matching tissue holder? <smile>.

Hey, I even think these would store lovely vintage hankies too!

Irene - A Suited Adventure

Part of my "Well-Suited" series....

The fabulous Irene!


What's not to love about a well-tailored classic vintage suit?

I've been wanting to do a blog post on Irene (Lentz) (Gibbons) for sometime.  

There is a kind of a nitche within the historical world of post-WW2 fashion..... a sub-world of fantastic California couture...shall we say a breath of Atlantis?  I'd like to explore this topic of California fashions more in future posts.   There are fashion magazines such as The California Stylist and The Californian which were dedicated to California style and showcased California designers and fashion.  Good luck trying to locate some of these magazines as they do not come up for sale often and can be quite pricey;)  

Can you imagine how California would be the place to be after all the hardships of WW2?    It's an interesting sub-genere with edgy designs, colorful prints, and sunshine enfused fashionable visions.

I thought it was fateful that I should discuss this designer now that I am fortunate to own one of her fabulous suits.  Her ready-to-wear garments are very difficult to come by and do not come up for sale very often, very much on par with Adrian. This one was very reasonably priced because it also had a couple of small holes and a tiny bleach stain that is barely noticable.  I think even with these small issues it was a good investment.

As with Lilli Ann, you can feel that this suit is very well designed.  Now that I am a total novice sewer, I appreciate even more the art of contour and form in making garnments.  What may look simple may really have required a lot of thought to make.  

  Irene was also known for her geometric designs in her suits.   She also played around with buttons as a design influence in her suits, interesting results.   

I can unquestionably see what all the fuss is about with Irene.  The tailoring is stunning and the little details very much ad to the magic of the garment.   This is what I love so much about vintage is the quality and workmanship.   The silhouette of this suit is form-fitting and it is almost like I stepped back in time and had a dream visit to the Irene studio.

This particular suit label indicates it is from the Halle Brothers  Irene shop.   Check out the link, this website delves into old department shops.  I encourage you all to revel in the history.

Adrian and Irene were both designers who designed for the Hollywood movies.  Adrian left MGM in 1941 to begin his own studio.  In 1950, Irene left MGM to open her own studio.  While at MGM,  she created gowns for Ginger Rogers, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Crawford, Carole Lombarde, Marlene Dietrich, etc.  She had a famed boutique inside Bullocks Wilshire catering to exclusive clientel.  She was the first designer with her own butique in a department store.  If any of you readers are in the L.A. area, from what I understand,  her boutique framework still remains.     It is quite sad in that she ended her life at the age of 62.  I'm not sure why she ended her life but her legacy still remains, which I'm sure she'd be pleased with.

A New Collection For Fall 2013 With Vintage Flair

In my search quest of looking for Irene suits, I came across Greg LaVoi's new collection for Fall 2013 adeptly titled Irene.   Greg is a costume designer for "The Closer" and you can also see some original Irene's on Kyra Sedwick in the show.   This new fall collection uses some of Irene's original patterns.  Isn't this great to bring vintage back to the modern world?  I'm very much looking forward to following this collection. How fabulous to hear about wools milled in the USA in this collection!  I'm not sure what the price points are yet but if they are in the right price range, I'm certainly adding a suit to my list.  It's nice to see a recent designer embracing the vintage tailoring and details in women's suits.  This collection certainly savors the elemental forces of the late 40s to mid 50's.  

Designing Women

Website maintained by great-niece

The Return of Irene Lentz

California Couture Irene

You can find all the information at  www.ireneglv.com for the new "Irene" collection.  Please go check it out.

Interview about the new collection with Greg LaVoi

The photographs were taken on a very sunny day so some of them do have a little of the "washed out" look but mark my words, the suit and outfit both have lovely colored hues.

Outfit Details:

Suit: Vintage early 50s Irene ebay

Brooch: Eisenberg ebay

Earrings: Eisenberg ebay

Scarf:  Local vintage shop

Necklace 50's multi-colored blue beads

Hat: Hattie Carnegie (Miss Carnegie) blue velvet with rhinestone accents

Umbrella:  NOS ebay 50's (came in a lot auction with three other umbrella's, woo hoo!)

Shoes: Etsy classic "baby doll" 50's pumps, a wardobe staple for the 50's vintage suit look.

Vintage Gloves-ebay

Buttons as a decorative accessory.  This is intriguing to look at buttons as a fashion statement and not totally as a function.  We don't see this too often nowadays.   This suit has key fashion button elements.  The button design is well thought out and ads to the form of the suit.  

I believe this Irene suit to be from the early 50's.

Excuse my off center necklace.  I quickly grabbed the only Irene ad I had access too to replicate a reference pose.   I'd also like to try taking more pictures of this marvolous suit again in the future.  I wasn't that happy with the lighting.

The only Irene ad that I had handy.  I know I've seen other images of her suits as I have looked through vintage Bazaar and Vogue magazines but I didn't flag them.  As I uncover more images of her suits, I will be sure to share them.  This image is from a The California Stylist Magazine.

This umbrella is what we all seek in vintage charm, the allure of character that can't be found in a "today's" department shop.   This umbrella is why I love vintage.  There is a harmonous edge to it.   Am I over-analyzing an umbrella? Maybe...maybe not:)   It was never used and still had the tag attached to it when I received it.  Yes, you could say that I love to hord vintage umbrellas.  I'm sure there are others out there that do too.  Please identify yourself.  I have a Pinterest board dedicated to the awesomeness of the vintage umbrella.  Feel free to check it out.

Flashes of Eisenberg rhinestones:

The lining of this suit has a charming color of pink in crepe.  Just lovely!

An additional Irene Ad:

Irene Ad: Source My Vintage Vogue.

A Well "Suited" Series

What would vintage glamour be without a well fitted suit?   If you haven't been following my blog long, you will learn that I am fascinated with vintage suits.  These glamourous pieces of artistic fashion were an integral part of fashion over many decades.  It's so fascinating to see how the styles changed but above all the glamour remained.  In today's word of make it fast and cheap, the cultured tailoring of suits has diminished.  Of course, I'm sure that you could still visit a boutique and find a well made piece but they aren't easily accessible.  I can tell you from personal experience that when you do find a vintage suit that fits, a veil of glamour also follows, add your accessories and welcome to the world of vintage charm!

When I see the right vintage suit in these vintage fashion spreads, my heart skips a beat!  There is just such a refined elegance about a suit.

I'm going to start a series of posts about the vintage suit.  I'll have to think of a nice catchy phrase.

I think I could even have an entire blog devoted to suits and never get through their fashionable impact.

So, I'd like to start off with some suits from vintage fashion magazines....

I'm going to start out with some fashionable suits from the l930's and early 40's.

I also have a Pinterest board with vintage suits which I will put some of these images too.  Please feel free to follow me on Pinterest too!  Link is on the sidebar.

A future post, I'll also discuss accessories.  What would a vintage suit be without accessories?  Those hats are just mind blowing!  Look how perfect the hair is? 

1934 ladies, quite an interesting suit!

Gosh, if I could find a suit just like above this I'd swipe it in a heart beat!  $40 back then was quite some cash.

Dress Form Choices

I've been on the hunt for a dress form and I bought one that I feel will be a good match.  Hopefully, it will arrive next week.  I'm hoping to use it in sewing and also displaying vintage clothing to photograph so I can sell things I'm not getting use from.

I am in the process of working on sewing my first dress.  I'll be sharing this journey with all you lovely readers.  I started out thinking I would do a vintage pattern first why not take the big plunge?   But quickly changed my tune when I looked at the directions lol.   I've decided to start with a current patten based upon a vintage style.  I decided this would be the easiest course of action.  

When you are first starting a dress pattern, there are always a few supplies you miss on the first go around to the fabric store to collect basic supplies so I am off to the fabric store today to pick up a tracing wheel, pinking sheers, and transfer paper.  The tracing wheel and transfer paper will be important so that I can lay down the darts to the fabric.  I've also been watching a few YouTube tutorials.  This helps out alot as I am more of a visual person than trying to figure out from a book and instructions.  I'll share more on this process in a future post.  I'll also blog about the fabric selections.  This is a fun adventure.

I think I am just about ready to cut out the pattern but I'll need a little more time to experiment with some stitching techniques before I begin sewing the dress together.  I've never used my zipper foot or button hole foot:)  I am quite lucky as I have an excellent sewing machine from my quilting days but the 1/4 inch philosophy is out the window and now I must be aware of different seam allowances lol.   Looking forward to it though!

Back to a dress form selection....

Source: Graphics Fairy

There are a wide array of dress forms on the market with Wolf being on top.   I thought I'd share some of the dress forms I looked at and which one I decided on.

I would have loved a vintage dress form in good condition but these are hard to come by plus it is a bit of an unknown as to what you will receive, if you are purchasing over the internet.  I think it's great if you happen upon one in person and can really check it out.

In my search for a dress form,  I looked at some expensive models and some cheap models and I went middle of the road.   I wanted a dress form I could pin too and would be sturdy.

I looked at Wolf, which of course was way more than I wanted to pay but it is the cream of the crop.  This is a good investment if sewing is really a big hobby to you or you are wanting to make a career of it.

$800-$1000 low end range.   It's really difficult to find vintage Wolf dress forms so an affordable Wolf dress form was not in the cards.

One thing to remember when selecting a dress form is that if the dress form is not exactly your size you can pad it so it is best to go down a size when the measurements don't quite line up.

Source: Wolf Website

I noticed on Gertie's blog that she used these dress forms below.   I wasn't sure if  I wanted to go this route in price as it is a lot of money to lay out for your first dress form.  What I did like is that they are made in the good ol'USA.  This would have been over $700 with shipping but I'm sure worth it if sewing becomes a big hobby.

Fabulous Fit Dress Form

I also thought of the local Joann's and what they had to offer, which is the cheapest dress form route I would go (especially with a coupon)
Around $150.  You can probably get it even cheaper off of ebay but it's difficult to return so I would think this would be the best option for an adjustable form.  Amazon is also a great option but again difficult to return.  You can get a dress form on Amazon for $85 new in the same type of adjustable format.


Dritz

Source:  Joann Fabrics

I read the reviews on the adjustable form and I decided not to take this route as I heard they can be flimsy and "you get what you pay for" type of reviews.   I wanted my first dress form to be a good quality form that I wouldn't be frustrated with.  Also, I think I prefer a permeasured form rather than adjusting.  So after much debate, I ended up with this dress form...

$230

Source Amazon

I feel this is a nice mid-range choice.   The reviews also won me over.  This form was ranked very highly in customer satisfaction.   It will also display clothing nicely that I wish to sell.  The best part is that I used my saved up Amazon rewards points and it's free to me.

Do any of you own a dress form?   Are you happy with your dress form?

Lovely Beach Outfits

Here are some vintage fashion summer visual delights summer of 1940.....

I love, love, love vintage beach shoe wear.