Like most people my age, I read the Homer Price books at some point in grade school. Homer Price Aside from loving the adventure with the doughnut machine, one detail in one of the books really stuck with me as a child.
In case you want to re-vist this childhood treasure
One of the characters was an older woman who had crocheted herself a dress in “robin’s egg blue”. She used to add or subtract from the length according to the current fashion. I loved the idea of the color “robin’s egg blue”. I was also completely blown away by a woman making herself a dress and adding and subtracting to it as she wished.
Just before Passover, my friend Welmoed was visiting. She was on a mission to purchase fabric for a dress for an occasion. I joined her for a bit on her quest. Several bolts of robins egg blue open work fabric were at Kabbala-Man’s. I loved the J. Jill vibe of the fabric. It also came in a color that catalog would call celery. I chose the blue. The fabric seemed perfect for a Passover dress.
I had the brains to not attempt to begin the dress before Passover.
The fabric had no stretch to it. It’s a sort of fake –crochet with a slight sprinkling of sequins. I had to cut the dress fairly wide to make up for the lack of stretch. I decided to edge the raw edges with the stretch lace I had bought a couple of weeks ago.
I used a dress I had made a while back as my starting point. That dress was far stretchier, so I lay it about two inches from the fold before I began to cut it out, so I could actually fit into the dress and not have to insert a closure. I guessed right and the dress fits quite nicely. I will probably wear it belted. This fabric, while pretty, isn’t fun to sew, so I tried to have as few seams as possible.
Many of the vintage clothing sites I visit show sheer dresses that were clearly meant to be worn over a slip. One could very the slip one wore underneath the dress to vary the look. After I completed this dress I made a white under dress out of a textured knit.
You can see the two textures playing off of one another.
To me this dress also has a very ‘70’s vibe.
One of the characters was an older woman who had crocheted herself a dress in “robin’s egg blue”. She used to add or subtract from the length according to the current fashion. I loved the idea of the color “robin’s egg blue”. I was also completely blown away by a woman making herself a dress and adding and subtracting to it as she wished.
Just before Passover, my friend Welmoed was visiting. She was on a mission to purchase fabric for a dress for an occasion. I joined her for a bit on her quest. Several bolts of robins egg blue open work fabric were at Kabbala-Man’s. I loved the J. Jill vibe of the fabric. It also came in a color that catalog would call celery. I chose the blue. The fabric seemed perfect for a Passover dress.
I had the brains to not attempt to begin the dress before Passover.
The fabric had no stretch to it. It’s a sort of fake –crochet with a slight sprinkling of sequins. I had to cut the dress fairly wide to make up for the lack of stretch. I decided to edge the raw edges with the stretch lace I had bought a couple of weeks ago.
I used a dress I had made a while back as my starting point. That dress was far stretchier, so I lay it about two inches from the fold before I began to cut it out, so I could actually fit into the dress and not have to insert a closure. I guessed right and the dress fits quite nicely. I will probably wear it belted. This fabric, while pretty, isn’t fun to sew, so I tried to have as few seams as possible.
Many of the vintage clothing sites I visit show sheer dresses that were clearly meant to be worn over a slip. One could very the slip one wore underneath the dress to vary the look. After I completed this dress I made a white under dress out of a textured knit.
You can see the two textures playing off of one another.
To me this dress also has a very ‘70’s vibe.
Tres chic! It looks lovely. Maybe a photo of you in it sometime?
ReplyDeleteIs the underdress sewn in? I like what you said about using a different base for different occasions...like the lady in the book with her hem.
Sandy
Sandy - the underdress is a 'freestanding' slip.
ReplyDeleteI real;ized after I bound the dress with the ivory stretch lace that either my black or my purple slips might look messy with the light trim showing through the blue openwork.
a photo! that means I have to learn how to use the delay functon on my camera...and also deal with the horror of having my photo taken. I'm a bit photo phobic.