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.

A Robe de Style for New Year's Eve

In the fall of last year, friends of ours invited us to a 1920's themed New Year's Eve party near Disneyland. I really didn't like the last twenties dress I made, so I decided to have a bit of fun and make a robe de style. 

Unless you're pretty into fashion history, most people don't associate this silhouette with the twenties (cough cough flappers and fringe only cough), but I just fell in love with it, and decided it was much more flattering than a shift style, for my body type. 

2017 In Review

What a busy costuming year 2017 was! Compared to the past few years, I'm amazed how much I actually did. Of course, a major part of that is that most events I went to involved my husband dressing up, too. And once it was about more than just me, we got wayyy more inspired to go to things. He even won a costume contest! Woot!

January ventured into the 1920's, with a silk velvet evening gown, undies, and a black camel overcoat.

The Fastest Dress in the West!

My mom joined us up in Calico last month, and since we thought it would be fun to all go 1880's, I needed a second dress. And fast. Aside from the time constraint, I needed the dress to fit another person. Luckily, my mom is about my size, just a little shorter. 

The easiest thing that popped into my head was a tennis dress! The blouse wouldn't need close fitting, and the skirt length could be made short enough for her, but still work at that length, for me. 

I was greatly inspired by this tennis dress, at the LACMA. Because of time, I didn't try to draft anything. I just went into my pattern stash and pulled out some Truly Victorian patterns.