Where to Find Me Around the Web These Days

Hello all, just an update here. 

Since I have had this blog so long, I will probably continue to post an annual, end of the year review here, but for all current projects and posts, please head on over to Patreon to find me:

https://www.patreon.com/dressedintime

Over there, on the main blog tier, I share weekly progress videos, as well as detailed sewing posts and videos. We also do monthly giveaways, which are usually patterns or supplies related to my recent projects. At the higher tiers, I offer swatches of my recent and past projects, and fabric from my stash. The support I receive from Patreon goes directly toward the sewing projects that I share.

I’m also on Instagram almost every day, and you can find me occasionally on YouTube.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCK_PEfgnlbsNAnuyvV0tKQA

See you around the web, folks! 

A Tambour Beaded Egyptian Revival Dress and Evening Bag

Before I started tambour beading, I practiced using a tambour needle with some tambour embroidery that became two of my day dresses. It was a wonderful way to get used to the motion and process. 

Vintage Egypt, Part 5: Evening Wear

Always my favorite category of dress, donning black tie for almost a week 

straight was SO MUCH FUN! Off we go!

The first black tie evening was a beautiful dinner at the Old Cataract Hotel. The dress is a grey and white chiffon, with strategically placed beads (for weight) to keep the neckline laying nicely. 

The shoes were such fun! I covered a pair of grey shoes in thousands of Swarovski crystals. Had I realized how many crystals I would have to buy, or how expensive it would be, I probably wouldn't have made these. But once I started gluing, it would have been a waste to stop mid way, and so I decided I needed to see them through. Flapper Cinderella vibes, for sure! 

Vintage Egypt, Part 4: Undress

One of my favorite outfits of the trip was my fancy silk jammies! I used a period pattern, and made them in Nile green china silk. The boudoir cap and slippers were the icing on the cake!

I made my husband a robe so he could join in on the fun! His blue pajamas were purchased. 

Originally, I made these to sleep in, but once I found out there would be a pajama breakfast, I saved the set for that (china silk wrinkles like mad) and made similar pajamas to be slept in. (P.s. I sooooo wanted to get 20's looking glasses to wear, but figured it was a bit of a waste since I'm always in contacts. Next time!)

Oh hey, wrinkles...

Speaking of sleeping, this is how I kept my hair tidy when I slept. Clips and a hair net. Was it terribly comfortable? Not really. But it was so worth it to wake up to hair that was ready to go!

I also made beach pajamas! These were starting to appear in the late 20's. The cotton was lovely in the heat. The silk pajamas were beautiful, but definitely not meant for lounging in the sun. 

This sleeveless robe also worked well with my swimsuit! One of the days, we all put on vintage beachwear (for pictures - I don't recommend diving into the Nile!). Both of our wool suits were vintage. 

Another true vintage garment I brought was an early 30's nautical set that I won in a raffle at Costume College 2018. The boat was the perfect spot to wear it!

Another thing I forgot to mention was undies! No pictures, for obvious reasons, but I wore some me-made 1920's lingerie, and I also found some great step in/tap pants on Amazon to buy. Considering I needed over a weeks worth of underwear, buying seemed like a good option. The majority of "ready to wear" pants were nylon and a bit short waisted. I sized up and went with the highest waist option I could find, to get that 20's step in's vibe. The nylon was a little toasty, but silk would have been the same. If I did this trip in the summer again, I would probably make light cotton step ins. 

Another thing to bring up, since I mentioned wrinkles above (and was asked this after my last post), is how I kept my clothing wrinkle free. I don't like using hotel irons, as I'm always worried they haven't been treated well. The last thing I want is a crappy iron spitting... When I travel, I bring a steamer. I love the Joy mini steamer. It's not dual voltage, so for international I use a Conair travel size steamer, but I don't think it's as good as the Joy. 

Also, when I pack, I hang garments in dry-cleaning bags on dry-cleaning hangers. I kind of accordion the clothes into my suitcase. The slippery plastic bags really help discourage wrinkles, and the hangers make unpacking lightning fast. I put small items and foldables in packing cubes. It literally takes minutes to unpack, and then if I'm tidy about folding items away and hanging back up daily (minus the bags - I take those off so the clothes can breath, and replace when I'm ready to leave), when I go to repack, it takes only moments. 

This is especially handy when traveling with multiple stops. I've been doing this for years, and it always works very well. It's kind of the same concept as having a steamer trunk as your wardrobe. No unpacking, as everything is hung and ready to use. And as a bonus, when I've accumulated too many souvenirs, on the way home I can ditch the hangers and I instantly have extra room and weight in my bag!

I should really do a post on packing...

Vintage Egypt, Part 3: The Nicer Day Wear

Lace insertion.
The lace has little sphinxes and pyramids on it!

After a hot, sweaty, dusty, day out, coming back to the ship and putting on something light and cool was absolutely heaven! 

Where I live, I'm used to the heat, and the joys of having a fresh, clean outfit to put on, so I made sure to bring lots of easy dresses so I would have plenty of fresh clothes. 

Vintage Egypt, Part One: The Planning

My biggest sewing project of 2019 was creating a 1920's travel wardrobe for a trip to Egypt.

The trip was organized by Goodspeed and Bach, and was a vintage themed Egyptian tour, inspired by Agatha Christy's famous novel, Death on the Nile. It involved staying at historic hotels, visiting all the best ancient sites, and a week long, privately chartered Nile cruise on a 19th century steam ship, the S.S. Sudan.

The trip ended up being absolutely epic. But before we could go and enjoy the time traveling voyage, I spent about eight months planning and sewing.

2019: In Review

A review of (almost) all my favorite looks from last year. Mostly vintage looks, and mostly chronological by month. Some historical. Some new makes, and a lot of re-wears. The vintage was a mix of me made and true. And most true vintage only made this post if I made something for the outfit (like my giant Christmas corsage toward the end), or was just plain proud of my hair, haha! 

I hope to get around to posting about some of the more interesting outfits, but till then, I'm plopping these pics down for blog posterity. Cheers!

Repeal Day, and a New Evening Jacket for My Rose Gold Gown

In December of 2018, The Mob Museum downtown celebrated Repeal Day with a costume party in their basement speakeasy. I've always wanted to get to the Mob Museum, but haven't found the chance. This was the perfect way to go!

The Vionnet Star Dress, Part Two

For last New Year's Eve, I decided to wear this dress again. We went to the Cicada Club, in Los Angeles, which has a very vintage vibe (beautiful Art Deco building!), so I decided to really accessorize. And it was New Years! There's no better excuse to dress up!

The Vionnet Star Dress

In October of 2018, my husband and I traveled on the Orient Express for the second time. The first time was in 2015, and I wore some beautiful modern evening gowns. I loved them, but told myself, if we do this again, I need to make my own.

2018: In Review

Jumping back in to the blog, I'm catching up with a brief review of 2018. 

The year started with a 1920's Robe de Style for New Year's Eve. Then I wore a remade, late 18th century dress for a Mozart birthday party. It was originally machine sewn, years ago. I took it all apart and remade it in a more period appropriate way.

Diving Back In!

For the last couple years, I've let this blog go. It's just so much easier to pop a quick picture up on Instagram, than write a detailed post (not to mention loading the pictures, as I live in a rural area and the pics just do NOT load!).

Well, I miss reading blogs. When I was first learning about historical sewing, looking up terms and techniques, and finding the answers on blogs was so helpful! And while more casual and frequent posts via platforms like Instagram have definitely brought the costuming community, worldwide, closer together, it is a hard platform if you're looking for specific information or tutorials.

I'm having a bit of an OCD battle, deciding whether to go back and post chronologically, or just start fresh. Perhaps a bit of both. Perhaps just the big costumes. I guess I'll see what I'm inspired to write about as I go.

So, welcome back!

The Tsarina Gown - The Jewelry

I searched high and low, near and far, for a coronet close to the one worn by Alexandra Feodorovna. To no avail. So, I made one!

Finding the elements wasn't too easy either. I ended up going to quite a few stores. Basically, I made a circular wire frame, and glued everything to it. I used SO MUCH GLUE.

The Tsarina Gown - The Dressmaking Details

The gown construction was pretty straight forward, as far as turn of the century sewing goes. The big challenge comes in handling all the layers.

I've already posted a bit about this dress, so, to view the finished gown, see this post. To learn more about how I planned and executed the sequines, see this one.

The skirt ended up being a foundation of silk satin, a chiffon layer, trimmed in lace, and then the sequined silk tulle. All the skirt layers were joined to one waistband. I tried to decipher as much as I could from photos of the original dress. What was not obvious, I filled in with instruction from period sewing manuals and other extant dresses from the era. 

The Tsarina Gown - Planning and Executing the Sequins

For anyone that's been keeping up with me on Instagram, you'll know that the bulk of my sewing this past year has been devoted to sewing sequins. Lots and lots of sequins. Twenty six thousand of them.

Haha not all 26,000... This was the sample order!

After Costume College last year, I was super inspired by the Royalty theme. I finally settled on a direction because of my husband. While taking the Orient Express a couple years back, his beard had earned him the nickname, The Tsar (not by us, but it stuck). Well, Romanovs it had to be! I chose this particular dress (designed by Lamanova and worn by Alexandra Feodorovna) because it stood out as something complex and challenging that I wanted to tackle. In truth, it didn't end up being especially complicated, but it did take a lot of patience and careful planning. And time. It took about 200 hours to sew 26,000 sequins. I diligently kept track. 

The Costume College Gala

Guys!! I actually remembered to take pictures this year! I always get so swept up that I completely forget to take photos. I made such an effort this year!

I'll share about my dress in the next post. For now, here's a bunch of pics from the gala night. Everywhere you looked there was such amazing work to see!!!

A Day Dress for Tombstone

My favorite photo from the whole weekend.
My husband spent the whole event dressed, as well.
He looked awesome!

The second dress I made for Tombstone actually turned out to be my favorite! At some point (while pleating miles of silk), I panicked and decided there was no way I could wear a silk dress in the heat of the day, and I simply needed a cool, day dress. Good thing I did, because it was HOT! And we're from hot. We know hot. Good thing I thought ahead!

A Silk Dress for Tombstone

Back in May, my husband and I finally got to Tombstone, Arizona for the first time. We went for Wyatt Earp days, and it was such a blast! A long drive from Las Vegas, but we road tripped with our Airstream and made a two week trip out of it. It was absolutely fantastic, getting to explore Arizona.

When we first decided to go to Wyatt Earp days, we had many, many months before the event. There was no way we were going without dressing up! I could have worn the 1885 dress I wore to Calico, California, last year, but I had so much time before the event, I decided a new dress was totally doable. I settled on 1880 because Wyatt Earp went to Tombstone in 1879, and the famous OK Corral gunfight was in 1881. Also, I wanted to do a silk dress, because I didn't have one.

In planning the silk dress, I looked at sooooooo many extant dresses and sooooo many paintings and photographs and fashion plates. I saved them on a Pinterest Board called "1880ish Inspo", if anyone wants to browse. I settled on what is often referred to as a "dinner dress". It's not a "ball" gown, but is often of silk with ornate trimming, but with longer sleeves and a low neckline.

Summer Vintage

I'm playing major catch up on the blog today. I must admit, ever since I started posting on Instagram, my poor blog has been terribly neglected. It's just so easy to quickly share a photo of a finished project. But I've had this blog for so many years, and have documented such a journey of sewing, I want to get back to posting on it.

Oh, but I've been so intimidated with catching up! Well, I have to start sometime... So, here goes! I thought I'd start with an easy one to type up today: my favorite pieces from this summer's vintage wardrobe.

I totally lived in forties shorts this summer. I made two pairs from McCall 6449: a white cotton twill pair that was true to the pattern and a seersucker pair. I changed those to zip up the side. The blouses in these two photos weren't made by me. The grey blouse is Freddie's of Pinewood and the white is from Target.

I had lots of the white/caramel seersucker and made a full playsuit. The skirt was self drafted, and the top was Vogue 5469. I wore the whole look to Viva this year. Speaking of Viva, which is a weekend long Rockabilly convention held here in Vegas, we had such a blast! I can't wait for next year. The music is great, but the shopping and people watching is the best. The vintage you see walking around is incredible!

1920's Beaded Shoe Buckles

My very favorite part of my New Year's outfit was making the shoe buckles. The top pic are mine, the picture below is of an original pair, on the same shoes. So why not wear the originals and call it done? Because for me, the making is 99% of the fun! It was really handy to have an original pair to reference, however.