Transformation Thursday: 1950s dress

I found this amazing 1950s-style dress in a second hand shop in town (the best one in Bxl if you ask me. Already the third find I made and even though it's definitely more "vintage" than charity shop and this is also reflected in the price, the stuff is decent quality and they have a very good selection.). Isn't the print completely irresistable?! It reminds me of Nani Iro and a bit of Marimekko but the cut is just pure 50s and perfect for the late summer here.

As you can imagine, the fabric alone would have been enough to sell it to me but I also love the construction of the bodice, the button band, and the pockets. The best thing is: it's completely hand made! I suppose back in the day it wasn't so rare to make your own dresses so it probably shouldn't surprise me but it's so nice to wear something which is a few decades old and has hand-stitched hems probably by somebody who is dead by now. Ok, that sounds a bit tasteless but it's true!

But why am I posting this? Because, unfortunately, it was a bit tight around the boobs and the fabric doesn't stretch a millimeter I had to adjust the bodice and therefore made it into my "Transformation Thursday" category, yey. It's only a very small adjustment but a very useful one in case you also come accross a garment you really love but it's just a tiny bit too tight. Here's what I did:

• I ripped the side seams of the bodice and carefully detached the facing on the top (you can see the line where the stitches used to be in the close-up picture above)
• I re-sewed the side seams with more "give" and also re-attached the facing
• I attached the facing to the bodice with blind stitching by hand, as it had been done before
• I fixed some botched stitching on the side seams by hand

I was lucky that there was enough fabric in the seam allowance to do this, I will remember that for my next dress "just in case". And in hindsight, it would have been a better job if I had taken apart the bodice completely and detached it from the skirt. But that would have been a hell of a job so now it doesn't look perfect but it makes the dress wearable. Ready for some more Sunday picnics!

Transformation Thursday: Embroidered top

 

It's been a while since I had a good upcycling project but the second I saw this top at the thrift shop I knew this was a perfect candidate. I had been looking for a simlar top for ages and I love the embroidery (although I still can't decide if it's more South American or Eastern European style). The only issue: it was the size of a tent. But with a sewing machine at home there was a quick fix.

I wanted to keep the embroidered panel in one piece and make the top shorter. The easiest solution was to just take the sleeves off and make a kind of tunic instead and I was lucky enough that the width was just right. I unpicked all the pieces and also re-pleated both front and back parts. In hindsight I'm not a big fan of the pleat in the back but the distribution of the fabric is ok. 

The blue flowers on the back are such a nice detail and I'm happy that I could keep them in place! Likewise, I saw this little figurine (see the second picture below) at the thrift shop and when I asked how much it cost, they actually gave it to me for free. Yey, such a good week!

Stage 1: The original shirt

 

 Stage 2: Disassembling

 Stage 3: The new top

Transformation Thursday II

In the second part of this mini-series I attacked this originally completely hideous shirt (see proof below), a vintage gem ca. anno 1970. I spotted it in a heap of old clothes at a flea market and fell in love with the sailing boat pattern. I got it for 1 € - the lady probably thought I wanted it as a dish cloth. To be honest I didn't even know what I wanted to do with it but when I got home I remembered that I still had some leftover bias tape which had the perfect colour to match the blue background!

I didn't take any pictures during the transformation process but basically I just took an old pattern that I used for the scallop hem dress amongst others and cut off the sleeves roughly according to the pattern. The ugly v-neckline was annoying (and I could hardly get it over my head) so I made a nice and round one. I don't know what kind of body shape people had in the 1970s but the shirt was also quite tight around the hips so I had to make two incisions on the sides, otherwise I would have looked like I had a pot belly. I don't, I promise! 

About an hour and some struggle with the bias tape later the transformation was complete. Voilà:

 

Tranformation Thursday I

And more sewing! Actually, this time the lazy kind because I just transformed some old items into something new and fabulous - I believe this is called "upcycling" nowadays. Whatever you call it I'm happy with the result, I liked the fabrics so much that I wanted to do something with it even though I didn't like the cut.

I bought the skirt in a charity shop in Glasgow and I loved the little polka dots as well as the fact that it was from NoaNoa and I got it for less than £ 3! The ugly ruffles had to go though, totally the wrong length (halfway down to the calves  - makes it look like I have even shorter legs than I already have in reality) and the fact that it didn't have a lining made it ride up so I had to add that, too. Surprisingly, this wasn't so difficult! I followed Tilly's tutorial but as usual I skipped a few steps. Since the skirt was already done and the zip of course sewn in I just left a gap for the zip and attached it to the waistband on the top. Easy-peasy!

In the end I added the gold trimming because I have a thing for golden clothes at the moment and I had the bias left over from a another project. Not sure if I will be wearing the skirt on a daily basis but I like the combination. And all of this took me one evening of work; not too bad for me.