A 1920s Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve!! I'm delighted showcase my new 1920s dress.

This is actually my FIRST 1920s make (even though I sewed up another dress at the same time and blogged that one first--this one was actually the first make)!

I used McCall 5011, a pattern from 1928. I just loved the detailed trim of the pattern.

When my dear friend from Nepal gave me Sari fabric--I knew this would be the perfect project for it!

I used the Sari border as the contrast trim on the neckline, waistline and back bow and cuffs:

 

 

I even found the perfect 1920s hat at Fabhatrix to go with it and 1920s replica shoes from Bait Footwear.

 

Actually, the shoes are what started it all. I bought these shoes first and then searched through my fabric stash and found the fabric gift and then chose the pattern to match! It's all about the shoes! hahaha.

 I'm so pleased with the dress. Though I have to admit it is a bit strange to get used to the very slim sleeves of the 1920s style. One of the nice thing about sewing these styles is that they are no frills sewing--pretty straight forward and often quick projects!

We took these pictures in an area of Edinburgh called Stockbridge. It's a gorgeous residential area with lots of Georgian architecture. One of my favourite landmarks of the area is this gate from the late 1800s that led to market stalls. They took the stalls down just before the 1920s--so this gate would have looked exactly as it does now for when this dress was made. I just love the original lamp!

Did you make any holiday gifts or dresses this year? Have you ever made anything from the 1920s?

I wish you all a fabulous, restful and safe holiday season!!  I'll be catching up on a quite a few blog posts while I've got a couple of weeks off of work! I can't wait!

 

Photos by Darja Bilyk

Locks by Ariana at Vanity Thrills Hair
 

McCall 3556: The 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' Dress

This magical dress has all my favourite things: nice colours, neat border print, 1940s ruching and flowy design.

I made this dress earlier this year (catching up on my blogging) using McCall 3556: 

I bought this fabric on a recent trip to Malaysia. The fabric stores had the BEST border print dress fabrics and I was immediately drawn to this colourway:

I decided to use some of the border print on the bodice and just love the effect of the colours!

Overall, I really love the design of the pattern. Though I think the bodice ruching would only work well with a somewhat lightweight drapy fabric--which is what I ended up using. The only think I might change in future iterations is to bring the waist up just a bit on the dress. Though I might make a belt to match.

We took these photos in the glasshouse at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and I love how it looks like a tropical hideaway: 

And of course, I'm wearing matching What Katie Did purple seamed stockings and grey Bait Footwear shoes. I also found a fantastic matching flower for my hair!

I can't wait to travel to tropical destinations again! It's been so weird not to travel at all this year. But the silver lining was being able to discover more of my backyard and see things locally.

What about you? Where's the first place you want to travel to when you can?

'Where the Fox At?" Cambie Dress

Welcome to my fantasy airstream home. This is what dreams are made of....

I'm excited to introduce you to my new dress, it has super cute yellow foxes on it:

I've been wanting to sew up the Cambie pattern since Tasia and Sewaholic released it many, many moons ago. It has such a fantastic design including a heart shaped neckline, gathered wide shoulders with capped sleeves and either a pencil or gathered skirt:

I knew it was the perfect pattern to show off my super adorable Japanese cotton that I got on a work trip to Japan (alas I didn't really see anything of Japan except the conference centre BUT I did make it to a fabric store in the evening. YAY!). I picked up and have been hoarding this fabric for the perfect project. I knew I wanted a pattern that had a straight up and down design that would really show off the foxes (without two many pieces or darts so as to distort my wee foxes). And the Cambie pattern is perfect for such a fabric!

I knew I had to take pictures of such a special dress in a special location. Enter the Notel in Melbourne which consists of six airstream trailers on a rooftop right in the heart of Melbourne city centre. I was lucky enough to make it to Melbourne before the pandemic really took hold.  The ambiance of the hotel is really neat with the building behind the airstream painted in pink hues and a little patio area for each airstream:

There's a tennis court in the middle and each airstream is pretty comfortable. There's no one on site but you can order food in advance from local restaurants and you can order that your mini fridge be stocked up (though they provide some nice free goodies).

From the rooftop you can see the skyline of Melbourne and one of the airstreams even has it's own hot tub.

I'm definitely going to come back next time I'm in Melbourne...it's such a cool and funky location and fulfilled all my vintage airstream trailer fantasies :)

I paired this dress with a me-made jacket I made from a 1940 McCall pattern (check out the blog post here). 

Overall, the instructions on the Sewaholic patterns are impeccable and this dress didn't require any major fitting alterations. Though I do notice that the front bodice gapes ever so slightly, so in future iterations I will probably just take some width out of the bodice top front. I love that the pattern includes instructions for lining the bodice...it makes it look really pretty on the inside too.

I'll definitely have to try the pencil skirt version at some point as well. It's such a flattering design.

So I'm curious if there are any unique or unusual hotels/accommodation that are on your travel bucket list (for when we get to travel again....)...I like to dream of new locations and would love to hear where you really want to go and stay!

McCall 3823: The Perfect Staple Dress

I'm absolutely in love with the design of this dress. And the plain navy fabric means this will be a staple in my 1940s wardrobe.

This dress was made using McCall 3823, a pattern from the year 1940. I made an exact copy of view B on the pattern envelope in navy blue.

The dress features a lovely shaped neckline (almost a heart shape but a small one) and a button down bodice. Both the bodice and the skirt are pleated to match each other. This dress has 3/4 length sleeves --or bracelet sleeves as the pattern calls them.

I made this dress from a very lightweight wool that I picked up on holiday in Florence many moons ago. It's so lightweight that it's silky and buttery smooth and a dream to work with. 

The fabric held the pleats beautifully. I first pinned down the bodice pleats and sewed them.

The back has pleats as well and I just love having a plain yoke and then having the pleats. The skirt matches this design as the top part of the skirt is smooth and then it goes into an inset skirt piece with the pleats.

Here is the bodice top coming together:

Sewing the yoke to the pleated section using a lapped seam takes some slow sewing but the fabric helped immensely as it was easy to iron in place prior to sewing:

Yay!!! I paired the dress with some light pink details -- a small light pink belt, vintage navy gloves with little light pink flowers on them and some light pink/nude1940s style shoes from Bait Footwear.

We took these photos in Falkland,-- a small village in the Kingdom of Fife area of Scotland. Some of you may recall that when I first moved to Scotland, I lived for a short time in this picturesque village.

It was so lovely being back. This village is such a gem. It has some incredibly nature walks, a historic palace, cobblestone streets and a proper village square and lots of little nooks and crannies that are so beautiful. And it's small--only about 1,200 residents.

The amazing Darja Bilyk and a lovely friend of mine took these photos and I'm so in love with them. She captured the beauty and mystery of Falkland.

I also had my dear friend Ariana from Vanity Thrills style my hair before this shoot--I just love her 1940s styles: 

This is right on the corner where Vintage Quine is--a lovely vintage store in Falkland. 

This is Falkland Palace in the background...where Mary Queen of Scots and her parents would come for their summer holidays:

Yay! I can't wait to try different ways of styling this dress. 

I might also make another version in a lighter colour so that the details really stand out. What colour do you think I should make?

The Art Deco Gem of the Skies

YAY! My second 1920s make --which I made for the perfect occasion, the Napier Art Deco Festival.

Back before everything went a little crazy with the world, I managed to get out (just in time) for my FIRST trip to New Zealand. I've been planning this trip for some time and I'm really lucky that it took place in February because not more than two weeks after returning, the UK went into lockdown and we are just now emerging from that! I feel so so lucky as I know many people had holidays disrupted.  

The Art Deco Festival is the most amazing vintage festival--set in the completely preserved Art Deco town of Napier with lots and lots of activities over the course of the long weekend. I'll be doing a separate post about the festival--I'm hoping to go back in the future, it was so much fun!

 

One of those events was the opportunity to ride in a DC-3 vintage airplane. These planes were the Art Deco gems of the skies and continued to be made up until the 1960s and there are about 200 still flying across the globe. I was so so excited to get a chance to flow in one of these low flying vintage planes. 

So, of course, I had to make a special outfit for the event. I have a small collection of late 1927 McCall patterns (I'm specifically collecting pattern numbers from 5000-5100) and one of them is this gem:

I love this pattern and it's been so fun to explore sewing 1920s patterns (this is my second). And if you've been following me for awhile, you won't at all be surprised that I didn't quite finish this dress before I got on my long haul flight to New Zealand. So I actually finished the collar by hand in various hotel rooms (hahaha).

 

I actually made the dress and chose the fabrics to match this awesome cloche hat that I got in Edinburgh at Fabhatrix:

I then found the feather boa and shoes in Napier and the outfit was complete!

The actual flight itself was amazing!  The plane was very small and was gorgeously preserved:

There were small square shaped windows with curtains! I remember curtains from the older airlines and it was so fun to see this again. The seats were quite large:

No air conditioning in the airplane--so it was quite warm. Luckily I had a matching fan that I also got in Napier. It was perfect!

And wow! The flight was amazing! It was loud and low-flying but the views were PHENOMENAL!

It was quite a windy day so we had to do an alternative route and you definitely felt the bumps of the wind. I don't mind that at all luckily!

I posted a short video of the ride on Instagram (unfortunately it's too big to post here) taken by the amazing photographer Robbie Cancian who also took these pictures.

Yipppeeee...what an amazing bucket list item to tick off. I will never forget this amazing adventure.

What about you? Ever sewn 1920's? Do you enjoy flying? Would you ever go on a vintage plane ride?