Shirring!

I always loved shirred dresses.
But they weren’t in fashion for the last 30 years, I guess.

Me, wearing a shirred dress in the 1970's

After buying a black and white shirred sundress at HM one year ago, my love affair with shirred dresses and shirring in general started again.

I found a lot of information online, how to do shirring, so I made a few shirred things myself.
I converted a thrifted long skirt to a shirred sundress, made another shirred dress from a 1950’s remnant and shirred the back part of a thrifted to wide dress.

This year I didn’t make anything requiring shirring. But after seeing this cute pattern I had to have it. (She has a very nice blog, too)

The dress is made from a 1970’s cotton fabric. I'm really satisfied with the result. It's an easy sew, easy wear dress, just right for the hot and humid weather we have over here.

I wrote a review for this dress you can read my review
here .

Vintage Petticoat Tutorial

I couldn’t find many instructions for making a petticoat in my vintage sewing and pattern drafting books. But this one is quite interesting. I think I will try this one soon.


Because I don’t have a skirt block, I will use the hip part of a good fitting pencil skirt for the yoke of the petticoat. You can find an instruction how to draft a basic skirt block and a skirt here.

I already have a really stiff fabric for the middle part of the petticoat, which is similair to the crinoline fabric, that was used in the 1950’s for petticoats.
Now I only have to find a suitable fabric for the yoke and the hem!

Operation Petticoat

Lately I’m a little bit obsessed with (vintage) slips and petticoats. I own a few thrifted 1950s petticoats but neither was right for most of my (vintage) dresses.
So I was looking online for a red or a black petticoat to wear with my dresses. But everything I found online was too long, too scratchy, too wide or too expensive for me.

I received a black taffeta fabric, which was meant for a cummerbund. But I decided to sew my own petticoat with it.

Petticoat tutorial

Drawing for cutting and sewing

You will need:
1 yard / 1 meter of 60” / 150 cm fabric
1 yard / 1 meter of tulle fabric
1 nylon half slip in the color of your fabric
Matching sewing thread
Ruffler foot (it’s nice to have one but it isn’t a must)

Cut fabric lengthwise into:
2 strips, each 7 ½” / 19 cm wide, 60” / 150 cm long
1 strip 5 ½” / 14 cm wide, 60” / 150 cm long
1 strip 5 ½” / 14 cm wide, 47” / 120 cm long
(Seam allowances of 3/8” / 1 cm included)
This will be the outer part of the petticoat

Cut fabric lengthwise into:
2 strips, each 7” / 18 cm wide, 60” / 150 cm long

Cut tulle fabric lengthwise into: 3 strips, each 7” / 18 cm wide, 60” / 150 cm long. This will be the inner part of the petticoat.

Cut the slip 6”/15 cm long from the top.

Overcast all edges.
Sew the two longer fabric stripes together.
Sew the three net stripes together.
Make a narrow hem (1/5”/6mm) on the 7 ½”/19 cm wide and 120"/3 m long strip of taffeta fabric. (Outer part of petticoat)
Gather this strip to 60”/150 cm.
Gather the 7”/18 cm wide and 120"/3m long taffetta strip and the tulle strip also to 60”/150 cm.
Gather the 5½“/14 cm wide strip to 47”/120cm.
Gather the 5½"/14 cm wide strip to the size of your slip. Close all the strips to a tube.

Tulle layer between two layers of taffetta fabric

Work now from bottom to top.
Sew the three widest tubes as one layer to the bottom of the next ruffle. The outer layer it the taffeta one with narrow hem, the middle layer is the tulle one, and the inner layer is the other fabric one. I suggest that you baste these three layers together, because it’s difficult to catch all three layers with the pins. Now sew this to ruffles to the next one and then sew all 3 ruffles to the slip.

Tada! Your new petticoat is finished!

If you like you can add bows or trims to make it even nicer!

I used a black taffeta fabric and a black nylon half slip for my petticoat. You can use any fabric you like, but taffeta is nice, because it gives a bit of a body and rustles if you walk.

My petticoat is only about 21” / 55 cm long, because I’m vertically challenged and I like my dresses below the knees. You can make yours as long as you wish.

This is the first (english!) tutorial I ever wrote. If there are questions please don’t hesitate to ask me.

Helpful links are:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=210078.msg2251590#msg2251590
http://www.pettipond.com/lon.htm
http://www.urbanthreads.com/pages?id=312
http://sugardale.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-petticoat.html

Vacation!

I take a little blogging break, we will be on a family vacation for the next 10 days.
We are going to the Netherlands. It's my first visit and I'am really excited about it.

There are lot of markets, the fabric market in Utrecht and the flea market in Amsterdam should be very nice and worth a visit. I’m hoping to return with a lot of fabric and some nice 1950’s frocks!

I wish you a nice time!

"Dirndl" skirt dresses

McCall's 6218

McCall's Pattern Fashions Spring 1962

"Miss America models McCall's patterns across the country"

McCall's 5416

McCall's Pattern Fashions Summer 1960

I love these dresses, but I'm really wondering what kind of petticoat they were wearing underneath…

Woman in red

I made Simplicity 3429 for the Vintage Pattern Contest at patternreview. You can read my review here.

It’s actually a slip pattern, I used for making a sundress. I made it before, but I realised that the first version is a little bit to big at the bust because I used a stretch cotton fabric.

For the second version of this dress I used a cotton fabric from the 1950s. On the first two pictures I'm wearing rather full and heavy (!) petticoat that I found for only 5 Swiss francs in a thrift store. On the last picture I'm wearing the dress without a petticoat.

Sorry for the blurry pictures and my funny face, but I don't like posing for pictures that much.

This type of dress or skirt is actually very easy to sew and it can look cute if your follow a few "rules":

-Hourglass and pear figures are suited best with this kind of dress or skirt.
-The perfect length for this skirt is under or above the knees. I f you make it longer you can look dowdy or matronly. Till the late fifties the dresses were worn longer, but sometimes look comes before historical correctness. I f you wear it shorter you risk to look very girly.
- Leave the flats (and the bobby socks) at home, especially if you are a shortie like me.
-Wear a cropped cardigan or a bolero type of jacket with this kind of dress
- Wear a petticoat with the dress (optional)

But live is to short to be lived by rules, especially by the rules of somebody else, so wear these dresses as you like and you feel most comfortable!

I will look trough my vintage magazines and post a few pictures of "dirndl skirt dresses" in my next post.

10 things I "hate" about this dress

Last year I found a cute fabric, with red and white flowers on it, in a thrift store with some other fabrics ranging from the 1950s to the 1970s. I’m not sure how old it is, but it was only 36” wide, so it’s probably pre 1970’s.

Because I really liked the print of the fabric I decided to make dress Number 4 out of it. My usual 1950s dresses wouldn’t work with this rather thin polyester (?) fabric, therefore I choose McCall 5622, which was already in my stash. I made View D, with short sleeves. Although the dress was easy to sew, the project sucked from the beginning to the end.

Here are the 10 things I “hate” about this dress:

1. Fabric : It’s a man made fabric (polyester or acetate I’m not sure about that)
2. Sizing: The sizing of this pattern is really off. I made a 10, but it was still too big.
3. Sleeves: They didn’t fit in the armsceye, I had to make some puff sleeves.
4. Neckline: It’s to low for my taste.
5. Fit: It fit’s like a sack.
6. Belt: I have to wear a belt with it, but I’m not much of a belt person.
7. Lining: Although I understitched the lining, it did not want to stay in place.
8. This dress it does not look as cute on me as it does on the model on the envelope. :)
9. Overall appearance: It reminds of the 1980’s. (I don’t liked the clothes then)
10. I’m not sure what I should do with it: Toss it or keep

Finished dress