Inspiration Board: 1950's evening gown

1950's evening gown by sewindigo featuring platform heels

Inspiration Board: 1950s cocktail dress with train

Today I have two looks from the same gorgeous vintage McCalls cocktail dress pattern from the 1950s:-

This first look is sleek and modern with a classic silhouette of the dress focussing on the waist and feature train completed with a pair of killer red heels.

1950s cocktail dress with train by sewindigo featuring hot pink heels

While this second look has a much more "lady-like' feel with the lace bodice, gloves the dainty turquoise kitten heels.

1950s lace bodice cocktails dress by sewindigo featuring mid heels

Do you have any preferences for the look? What are your thoughts on the lace bodice and feature train? Do you prefer the pencil or flared skirt.


PS Don't forget to enter the Colette pattern giveaway here. If you already follow, just leave a comment letting me know you'd like to be in the running. 

Grace Kelly was fashion thrifty

Grace Kelly was thrifty with her approach to her clothes - apparently. She's also a huge movie style icon of mine. I have written about her previously here and her modern influence here.

In a recent newspaper article, her wardrobe mistress from Monaco, Maryel Giraden speaks of her as beautiful and stylish but frugal with her fashion. She would often re-wear favourites, get them altered or get a Ms Giraden to whip up a Vogue pattern she fancied. On the day she tragically plunged off the cliff on the Cote D'Azur, she was taking clothes to be altered and reworked for the next season's wardrobe.

One piece of Kelly fashion history that has captured my imagination was the dress she wore to her first meeting with her future husband, the Prince. It was 1955, Kelly was in the middle of a hectic trip to the Cannes Film Festival and the hotel electricity had gone out. With no way to iron an outfit, she pulled out the least crushed dress, a long sleeved floral silk taffeta dress inspired by a "easy to sew" McCall pattern from a pattern book. The fabric featured splashes of pink, yellow and white flowers on a black background.

Excerpt from "Grace Kelly Style"

Her hair was pulled back (no blow dry possible) and finished with a  floral headpiece. The effect was stunning and and the rest (as they say) is history....

Do you have any style or fashion icons? What do you think of the dress?

Designing Woman

One of my favourite "vintage" movie for the costumes is the Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck film called "Designing Woman". It's about a sports writer and designer who marry quickly only to discover they don't have much in common.

Not a great film as such but the costumes designed by Helen Rose are stunning, and worn to great effect by the statuesque Ms Bacall. Helen Rose also designed for a number of other movies including High Society and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. More about those movie costumes at another time. You can read a great biography on Helen Rose here. In the meantime enjoy the elegant Ms Bacall and Ms Rose's costumes...

Great suit with matching beret

love those sheer sleeve and high waisted skirt

The Look

The Silhouette

The pattern that started it all

I've love patterns, maps, recipes - they are always inspirational and filled with so much potential for clothes, travel and food.

Last year I started collecting vintage patterns and I confess it's has become a more than a little obsessive. It drives my better half spare! Here's the pattern that started it all. A Vogue Couturier Design by Ronald Paterson #100 from 1958. It has a barrel shaped skirt and overlapping released pleats at the right side of the front, joining the bodice at the waistline. there are released asymmetrical pleats at the douche front below a square neckline. The sleeves are three quarter length or short. I just love the elegance of the look. It probably has something to do with the model and her impossibly tiny waist (again!)

I've finally got myself a copy - obsessions pay off sometimes! Again no sense it this - it takes meters and meters of fabric plus petticoats. Being a Couturier Design I expect the pattern making to be challenging to say the least. Plus where would I wear it? Too the local shop perhaps? Ah well.....

It did prompt me to learn something about Ronald Paterson though. He was born in Scotland on 1917, trained in Paris and worked in London. He opened his Couture house in 1947, it closed in 1968 and gained a reputation for masterfully tailored clothes. Here's a couple of other examples of his designs. Very chic!

Does anyone else share my madness I wonder?

Grace Kelly Rear Window gown

Grace Kelly always looked amazing in her films and her costumes were beautiful. In Alfed Hitchcock's Rear Window she plays the girl friend of a wheel chair bound photographer with a broken leg who is spying on his neighbours to pass the time, only to become convinced that one of his neighbours has killed his wife.

In the opening scene, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) makes an entrance wearing a black and white evening gown. The dress is three quarters length and incorporates a black V neck, slightly off the shoulder top and full white skirt with black beading. Hitchcock wanted this dress was to emphasise the character's love of fashion and social status. The designer was Edith Head.

Design by Edith Head for black and white gown 

In the design drawing you can get a better sense of the design of the beading of delicate floral branches. I love the simple elegance of this dress and the drama of the black and white. By the way, Edith Head's drawing was sold at auction in Nov 2010 for around $13,000!

Those nipped in waists of the 50s

Having watched my fair share of Mad Men while at sea and prompted by Jane's comment on my last post, I thought I would share some information I read on shapes and sizing in the 50s and 60s here in a newsletter.

In the 50s, the industry standard for measurements was a 10in (25cm) difference between the bust and waist. Which means if your bust is 36in, your waist measurement is 26in - hmmm, not so for women these days I think. In the 50s, girls as young as 15 started wearing girdles or waist cinchers (not shapewear - not enough support) so their waists were trained into shape - comfy!

Girdle front - source-

Girdle back -source-

Also longline bras would also help smooth out the bust to waist area.

Long line bra - source-

So if the shapes looked impossibly smooth and the waists impossible small, they were and helped by some serious undergarments.

-source-

By the 1960s, women were moving away from wearing girdles at all times and styles moved away to a more relaxed waistline. Empire line, straight shift dress and looser styles in general, slowly reflecting the changes in times and attitudes.

-source-

-source-

I don't know about you but I love the glamour of the 50s and the wearability of the 60s.

Also further to my last post on slip dresses, the VFG also has a great post on Slips. I'll update my last post with this link also.

Slip dresses

When I think of slips, I think of Elizabeth Taylor in the silk slips in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Butterfield 8 (1960). In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof she plays the neglected wife of Paul Newman in the Tennessee Williams play. She looked stunning in a white slip in one scene.

She won an Oscar for playing Gloria in Butterfield 8 in 1960, playing a model come call girl who has an affair with a married socialite. Once again, stunning in a slip.

The slip became popular as outerwear, and copied by designers such as John Galliano, who even dressed Princess Diana in a slip dress. 

If you're a fan of this delicate and sexy look, you can reproduce it with lingerie patterns from the 1950s and 60s like this one.....

-source-

The Vintage Fashion Guild also has a nice article on slips which you can read here. 

Vintage Vogue Couturier - Jacques Heim

I'm already planning the sewing projects I intend to do when I get back. I want them to be a mix of things I can sew quickly and wear (eg. Japanese patterns) and more complicated projects that will improve my sewing skills and knowledge. I know I have heaps to learn.

As for the quick sews projects, I haven't decided yet but I'm focussed on planning which "complicated" project I should tackle first. And these are the projects where I'm going to need help.

One dress I do want to try is a Vintage Vogue Paris Original Pattern, Couturier Dress by Jacques Heim - 1047. I seen it made up here and I really liked the clean elegant look. Plus I think it's a flattering style and I'm going to make the sleeveless version. Not sure where I would wear it at the moment but hey.....

Here's the fabric that I've chosen...a cotton elastine...it's not quite a busy as it looks in the photo.

Here are my random thoughts so far...

• the pattern size is one size too big and will have to be graded down. I've never done this before.
• I've decided to make a toile to make sure I get the right fit. Never done this before either but I bought meters of muslin for the purpose:)
• This will be the first vintage Couturier pattern I've used so I'm not sure what to expect. There are not too many pattern pieces so this is encouraging. I haven't had a chance to read the instructions yet either.

So I have some questions....

1. Should I cut the pattern as the pattern size then adjust the sizing in the toile based on fit?
2. Has anyone used a vintage Couturier pattern - if so, any tips?

Bed Jackets

Remember this post with the charming photos of knitted underwear which is a thing of the past. I had a comment asking what a bed jacket was, which is a great question because it's not a garment we hear much about these days. How ever it does have it uses......according to Wikipaedia.....

The bed jacket, a woman's garment, is a waist-length robe worn to cover the chest, shoulders and arms while sitting up in bed. Its short length and cape-like cut allowed it to be put on (or removed) while in bed. Often made of sheer or lacy fabrics and displaying very feminine trimmings and details, it was often used more for seduction, rather than warmth or modesty. It was popularized in 1930s Hollywood films featuring glamorous settings and glamorous stars lounging languorously in their silken bedrooms. Ostrich feather tips, swan’s down, pleated tulle and shirred lace were just a few examples of the extravagant materials that could be used in creating these confections. These garments are currently very popular with people who have been hospitalized or recommended bed rest.


Sometimes, they were akin more to a cape in style, for something to throw over your shoulders easily.

Source

source

source

I think they are lovely. Any modern day versions I've seen have been very frumpy and made of not very nice fabric like polar fleece. Polar fleece doesn't make me feel glamorous at the best of times!

While bed jackets appear to be a thing of the past, I think it's shame. You can just throw something pretty over your shoulders while reading in bed. Seems like a good idea to me. Must get knitting.....

Sewing...hmmmm

As you can see I've been a little absent in the blog department lately. That's because preparing for our cruise to North Queensland tropics has taken up most of my sewing time. Any sewing I have done has to be a quick item for myself or a practical item for the boat. I'll photograph some of the finished boat items for interest while we're underway.

So to maintain my sanity and give me a break from boat, boat, boat, I've been haunting second hand stores, ebay, Etsy and charity stores looking for old patterns and useful sewing books. No luck on the books but have found a few interesting old patterns and pattern books. Here's one in particular that gave me a chuckle.

It's a 1937 Sunbeam knitting pattern book for "lingerie" - basically knitted underwear! These little gems should keep you warm.....

Front cover

Love the bed socks!

First Vintage pattern purchase

Having discovered a wide world of vintage patterns and people who sew from them, I made my first purchase. A pattern I fell in love with...a 

1950s RONALD PATERSON  COCKTAIL DRESS PATTERN with a ASYMMETRICAL FAN PLEATED BODICE and a BARREL SHAPE SKIRTED  VOGUE COUTURIER 100. I think I have my hands full with this one!