Friday, February 24, 2012

New Fabric. Happy Me.

I went to the thrift shop last week and found five yards of a lovely, heavy, creamy satin in a particular shade of seafoam green that I particularly love. And in a reckless mood of "I'm-going-to-do-what-I-want-and-no-one-can-say-me-nay" I looked through my 1920's/30's inspiration folder like a child stealthily slipping a hand into the cookie jar. And I decided the seafoam green satin would make a lovely nightdress, and this is the style it will be:
I don't think this is originally intended as a nightdress,  but the style will work just as well for nightwear as evening wear, and no one will laugh at the sight of a pregnant woman in a bias cut, slinky dress. The only one to be horrified will be my husband and he will just have to deal with it. 
Here is the fabric. I think it definitely wants to be a 1920's/30's-ish nightdress. Don't you?

And then I was thinking about Civil War reenacting this year. I decided I hate most of the dresses I already have and that I need a new wool dress. A wool dress is just such a practical thing to have. You can wear it almost anywhere. So I got this wool from Fabric.com:

It arrived  yesterday and although the color is more gray-green-blue in real life than the bright green and blue it appeared to be on the computer screen, I still love it. And I love plaid. It will become a dress similar in style to this one from Time Travelers Antiques:
A pretty basic dress, but I love the sleeve style. 

Then I went to Jo Anns last weekend and their red tag fabric section was 50% off. In the middle of the piles of heavy home dec fabric, sleazy polyester knits and faux leather I found a bolt of this very springy cotton print.

I bought some to make a little girls dress, because my mother in law gave me this pattern last week and I think it is so adorable. In all liklihood this dress will become the subject of a giveaway post in the not-too-distant future. Having no little girls, size 2, of my own the horizon must be expanded and a little girl must be found who can fit this dress!

And no fabric for this project yet, but soon some must be found. For the boys, this 1950's shirt and trouser pattern will be just perfect for Easter, I think. I will have to size it up a bit for the older boys but that shouldn't be too difficult. I just love vintage patterns for little boys!

Love,
Sarah

6 comments:

  1. OH I love your inspiration dress (for you CW wool)! The mis-matched plaid in the skirt panels makes my eyes cross, though! :P I love the sleeves, though!

    Also, yes, I agree, that lovely seafoam satin is just begging to be a 20s/30s night dress! Lovely! :)

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  2. That is the cutest little girl's dress pattern! I'm just waiting for Grace to grow into my vintage pattern stash - she's only a toddlers size 1/2 right now, but we'll bump up to a 1 before summer!

    I'm so hoping your new stranger is a girl :D

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  3. Satin = bias cut 30's-ish. No arguments there.

    And all your sewing plans sound good!

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  4. Mmmm, mmm, mmm, that fabric is delicious! What a find! The green and the civil war wool make me smile, wait, so does the floral! You have many projects that I am excited to see!

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  5. Oh I don't know...you might want to hang onto a little girls dress just in case!

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  6. Hi! I stumbled across your blog when I was researching the Simplicity pattern 2881 for the Civil War ball dress that you made for a friend. My sewing skills aren't great, but I have a friend to help, so I'm planning on taking on the challenge of trying to make the ball dress. Being that my skills are limited and so is my budget, I was hoping to use a small floral print cotton for the fabric. But when I went to buy the fabric, I made the sad discovery that the pattern seems to absolutely require fabric 52" or more wide, and none of my local stores carry what I want in that width. Do you have any advice as to how to find cotton fabric that wide, or maybe how to modify the process of cutting out/making this pattern so that 45" wide fabric could be used? If you're willing, feel free to email me at starr44145 at yahoo dot com. I look forward to your response! Thanks, and God bless!

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Thank you for your lovely thoughts!