Retro fifties purple dress

A retro-style dress for a trip to retro Las Vegas.  The pattern I used is a modern version of a vintage Butterick pattern.

From the Stash:

• 4 yards purple cotton broadcloth
• 2.5 yards rayon bemberg lining
• horsehair braid
• bias hem tape

Bought:

• Purple zipper

I started with a muslin mock-up.  All grainlines were thread marked as I learned in Lynda Maynard's Garment Fitting Class (super awesome class, highly recommended, CCSF Fashion 16).  The large bust adjustment with a kimono sleeve was tricky, fortunately I found a tutorial from Texas A&M Extension that helped with that.  I ended up with a dart in the side seam that the original pattern does not have.

The bodice was faced with purple cotton and the skirt was lined with rayon bemberg lining.  The hem was faced with horsehair braid to help it poof, and bias hem facing.  I wore the dress with a full net petticoat and a one layer tricot petticoat.

In the club

And some pictures from the fantastic Neon Museum in Las Vegas.

Shortcut embroidered pinball

Two years ago at Costume College's Bargain Basement I bought a distressed copy of Pincushions by Averil Colby, B T Batsford Ltd; 2nd edition (October 1988).  The book is an excellent compilation of historic pincushions and includes instructions for makeing quite a few different pincushions, including an 18th century pinball.. Most of the pinballs described are needlework, worked in queen stitch or cross stitch and the book gives the pattern for a queen stitch pinball.  Other canvas needlework pinballs, including one in flamestitch, are found in Fitting and Proper by Sharon Ann Burnston, Scurlock Pub Co (March 1, 2000). There are also resources available for making knitted pinballs, primarily of Quaker designs.

From the Stash:

• 2 - 4 X 4 inch pieces of embroidered silk tafetta
• polyfill
• 1/2 yard petersham ribbon

Guest post over at Demode

Baleen (from Wikipedia Commons)

Guest Post: In Defense of the Use of Baleen in Hobbyist and Recreation Corsetry over at Kendra's fabulous blog, Demode.