Halter style inspirations for summer

It's sure looking like summer out there!

Fortunately here we're not having the extreme heat wave some other areas are. (Don't worry, we got it last summer—just remembering the days on end of 100+ temps makes me want to jump in a bucket of ice.) But we have entered the part of summer when I dream of adorable summery outfits but then tend to wear shorts and a yawn-inducing tank top much of the time when I'm around the house. And for someone who mostly works from home, that's a lot of time. So I've been trying to come up with cuter styles to beat the heat and keep myself out of a summer rut this year!

High on my list right now for warmer months? Halters. I've been obsessing over vintage halter styles, let me tell you! Halter tops to wear with breezy dirndl or circle skirts, halter dresses like Hawaiian sarongs or sun dresses... you name it, my head has been swimming with them for weeks now.

Halters are great to help keep cool if you're willing to bare some upper body, and if not (or on cooler evenings), they're still wonderful with a cardigan or bolero. So I thought I'd share some inspiration for halter styles this summer!

{Sources clockwise from top left: sold listing from traven7, via Pinterest; Etsy listing from HelaQ; tiki 50s style bustier top from Boo Boo Kitty Couture; Simplicity 3250, my own copy;  50s inspired full circle halter from Outer Limitz; 1940s limited edition Shaheen print halter dress from Nudeedudee}

First up is a great checked vintage dress. Fun layout of a big print, amazing and kind of unusual halter neck, interesting color combination... I love it!

{Source: sold listing from traven7, via Pinterest}

Of course, playsuits and sunsuits often have halter necks, like this 1940s striped one. I love the touch of the ruffle on the bottom of the bra top and the buttoned sides of the shorts!

{Source: 1stdibs sold listing from Timeless Vixen, via Pinterest}

 And how about this Hawaiian-themed suit? I realize I'm here to talk about halters but omg, that print. I'll say it again. THAT PRINT!

{source: Reserved Etsy listing from Harem of Peacocks}

In addition to real garments, I often look to sewing patterns for inspiration. They're great not just to sew but to dream up ideas. However if you're looking to buy one, older patterns featuring halters tend to be much more rare than their non-halter counterparts, so it takes some digging to unearth ones that aren't extremely expensive.

The first I'll show you is Simplicity 3879, a 1950s pattern available on Etsy for $16. This is a bust 36, but I find 40s and 50s Simplicity patterns run really big in the bust (and keep in mind, this is coming from a busty gal), so I think this would work for a 38" bust without grading. How cute with a vertical striped skirt as shown, or sewn up into a little playsuit. There's even a bolero!

{source: Etsy listing from serine23}

Advance 6689 is $30 on Etsy, but look at all the options (some halter, some not). Holy cow! I love view 4 with the diagonal buttons and sweetheart neckline.

{source: Etsy listing from Epic Vintage}

If you're looking to sew for your daughter, or in the mood to grade up from a 26" bust, feast your eyes on this adorable pattern, McCall 1528 from 1950, available on Etsy. I want an adult-sized sunsuit like this, complete with embroidered touches. I'll take the non-halter style, too. Yes, please!

{source: Etsy listing from Historically Patterns}

I love this Advance pattern below (bust 32"), currently up for bidding on eBay. Can you just imagine this wrap-front set in a great tropical or novelty print?

{source: eBay listing}

I have a pattern with a similar top, Simplicity 3250 below, that I was lucky enough to snap up in an eBay auction recently for $5.99. The same pattern is on Etsy from three sellers, all over $40! If you see a pattern for more money than you're willing to pay on one site, it can't hurt to plug in the name and number into another site. You might come up a winner like I did!

Of course, I don't have a lot of reasons to wear a top like this without altering it to give it some midriff coverage. But could anyone blame me for working from home in a cute set like this? Hmm.

Simplicity 2026 below is from 1947 and is available on Etsy for $35. It's a size small, for bust 30-32, but there's not much to these tops (see that as a positive or negative, heh), so it might be an easy to grade up. Personally, I'm going gaga over the inset style in View 2, with the straps coming from the very center of the top.

{source: Etsy listing from HelaQ}

That style of top is the one I'm most in love with, with the straps coming from the center front, and sometimes a gathered bust. You occasionally see that feature on swimwear, sarongs (like this one from Vintage Blue Moon) and dresses (like this one from Dear Golden). I've always adored that shape! I've been dreaming of tops in this style (not just a bra top, but you know, some actual coverage), but I don't have a pattern for anything similar, so I'm still pining away and dreaming.

Now, what if you don't want to sew but you want to buy something? There are a some great options available!

I think my favorite has to be these limited edition 1940s style halter dresses by Nudeedudee. They're made using reissued Alfred Shaheen print fabric, what could be better? Kim only has a few of these left, and in the medium and large sizes, so now's the time to snap one up. I can tell you firsthand, Kim's work is amazing!

{source: 1940s limited edition Shaheen print halter dress from Nudeedudee}

Check out this halter dress by Outer Limitz. This one is a size medium (38" bust, 30" waist), but Diana has lots of great items in her shop! I love this print and the unique neckline. Isn't it so fun?

{source: 50s inspired full circle halter from Outer Limitz}

How about tops? Boo Boo Kitty Couture has some killer cropped halter tops, like the below top featuring tiki print fabric and pom poms (seriously, the pom poms make me so happy I can't even tell you). Pop on a solid skirt or a pair of capris and you're good. There's also basic black to go with all your great prints. Aislinn also has lots of other great repro offerings in her shop!

{source: tiki 50s style bustier top from Boo Boo Kitty Couture}

Now here's something I already own. I recently become enamored with the cropped Trashy Diva Trixie top. Okay yes, these are not strictly halter tops off the shelf, but the straps fasten with buttons at the back, so they can be unbuttoned and tied around your neck as a halter if you'd like. I'll talk about it more in an upcoming outfit post, but I can offer a word of advice: the sides are elastic and quite stretchy, so you may want to size down.

I suppose at this point, you must suspect I'm sewing up a little something in the halter department with all my daydreaming! And you'd be right. While I haven't bit the bullet on any vintage halter dress patterns yet and I'm still searching for the perfect 40s one with a gathered bust, I am working on a project and if all goes well, I'll share it soon once it's complete.

Stay tuned for more halter summer goodness from me!

Crazy for tulips skirt and blouse

I assume by now everyone who was using Google Reader has exported their feeds to another service like Bloglovin or Feedly? Today's your deadline if not, so you better hop to it! I exported my feeds to both of those services when I first heard about it, so I could play with them both. I decided awhile back that I preferred Feedly, partially because it included options to organize blogs into categories. I know you can do this with Bloglovin now too, so I might give it a try again. Options are nice!

Anyway, today's outfit is one of my favorites so far! And it was an accidental side effect of clearly having tulips on the brain.

You may recognize the skirt from the sneak peeks in my shaped and lined patch pockets tutorial last week! This is the skirt that my little tulip-shaped pockets made it onto. It's another version of vintage Simplicity 4496, the same pattern I used for my polka dot dirndl skirt.

But you'll see that the tulip shape of the pockets aren't the only tulips on the skirt!

I used a free transfer pattern from Needlecrafter for a Pennsylvania Dutch tulip and rose design, flipped it upside down to follow the curve of the shaped edge of the pocket, and omitted the roses. I love how it came out and I'm definitely in the mood for more embroidery!

My fashion fabric was a buttery soft, somewhat lightweight cotton blend twill from Denver Fabrics called fine line twill. Let me tell you, I love this stuff! I had a mixup where I thought it had a slight stretch content and couldn't figure out why it wasn't stretchy, then I thought it was 100% cotton, and then when I checked the site I saw it's an 80/20 cotton/poly blend. At $5.25 a yard, I highly recommend it. I think it would be great for trousers or capris!

But wait, the reason I was telling you about the fabric was the embroidery. I decided I didn't really need a stabilizer on the back of the fabric since it was a firm weave, but I did run into an issue on the front: I have a transfer pencil, but the pencil is red and it just wouldn't show up on the copper-colored fabric. So instead, I used Casey's great tutorial for embroidering on a knit sweater, and it worked a treat!

I drew my transfer onto tissue paper, drawing the upper curve of my pocket just to match things up neatly, and hand basted it onto the top of my fabric. For those wondering from my pocket tutorial, I actually did the embroidery on the pocket piece after attaching the facing (that's why you don't see a seam allowance above the curve in the photo below), although that makes no sense and I'm not even sure why I did that. So don't be silly. Just embroider first, then attach your facing. Your facing and lining will hide the back of your embroidery.

Embroidering like this was a breeze! Since I was doing two pockets, I actually stitched an area on both pockets before moving onto another area, to make sure my stitches were going in the same direction, etc. I used a combo of stem stitch, split stitch and French knots.

The embroidery kind of perforates the tissue as you go.

And then you just carefully peel off the tissue at the end and pick out the extra bits with tweezers!

I just love the results. It really turns a plain skirt into something more special!

And apparently I've been into tulips lately.

Over a month before our trip to the UK, I sewed up this blouse, and if you follow me on Instagram you saw me wearing it several times during our trip.

The fabric started life as a vintage feedsack, printed with delightful tulips.

In this next photo I see the facing is poking up on the right... I swear even after under-stitching (and sometimes after carefully tacking it down across the bodice front/back, not just the shoulders) this still happens to me. I loathe facings.

What I don't loathe? This blouse! This jubilant tulip print with red, gray and two shades of blue is one of my absolute favorites, I think, but it's just so hard to pick a favorite with feedsack. I want them all. Seriously.

Sorry I'm not sharing anything more about the pattern I used... yet! I'll just give you a little hint: it's not a vintage pattern, but a modern one that I modified. You'll hear more about it in the future, I promise!

After this skirt though, I think I'm temporarily over waistbands. I know you know that feeling, when you're working on a project and when it's done, you think, "Well that's about enough of that for the moment!"

So I think I may focus on some solid-colored blouses (perhaps with embroidery) to go with the amazing novelty print vintage skirts I never wear because I don't have tops to match. Now of course I have tops, but not ones I want to wear with them... you know how that goes. And I'm looking longingly at these wardrobe orphans and want to do something about it. Enough it enough!

Do you have a favorite vintage or 40s- or 50s-inspired blouse pattern you love?

Finished: polka dot dirndl for summer

Glad you like my new eyeglasses! Of course, you'll see I'm wearing my vintage ones in this post. I go back and forth. ;) By the way, I've had a few requests for a tutorial on my hairstyle in that post. I may work something up but in the meantime, you can watch this first part of this Lisa Freemont Street video for a 40s scarf updo to evening glamour to get the gist!

I finished this skirt at least a month ago kind of slapdash-style, and it even went to the UK with me. It's a basic dirndl skirt using Simplicity 4496, from the 1940s (but undated).

The construction is pretty easy: it's basically two gathered rectangles and a waistband. In fact, Gertie did a tutorial on making your own gathered skirt from scratch several years ago if you're looking for a similar pattern.

I'm in the mood for these fun and flouncy skirts! More roomy and breezy than an a-line and easy to wear with a casual blouse. You can even dare to mix patterns like I did.

(Yes by the way, my blouse really does snap up the front that way, I'm not missing any.)

I do have a tip for my fellow short-waisted + busty friends out there: I find that you really need a good, uplifting bra when wearing this style of skirt (check out my old 40s bust silhouette post for tips—I need to actually add a couple of bra updates to that). Somehow with the gathers extending out at the waist instead of a plain flat front, it's really easy for your bust and your waist to creep closer together than you'd like, unless your girls are as high and proud as you can get them. That'll keep you from feeling dumpy in this style. Just sayin'.

The fabric I used was in my stash forever and it's a lightweight cotton blend, but I discovered something terrible: the damn polka dots are, I don't know, painted on? Not silk-screened. Or at least not silk-screened well. I managed to wash and dry the fabric fine, press the fabric fine, press the seams fine, press everything and its brother fine, but when I was pressing around my zipper I smeared a few #@$%^&% polka dots. Aaaargh! Fortunately it's subtle, I really had to try to get them to show up on a photo.

But I can forgive the stupid smeary polka dots because the pockets are so cute. I liked the look of the super deep patch pockets on View 2 but didn't have enough fabric for them, so instead I took the slash pockets from the Sewaholic Cambie pattern and added them to this skirt. (By the way, this was my inspiration to do the same type of thing on my Refashioners skirt!)

On a gathered skirt like this they stick out to the sides in a very cute manner.

 Kind of like the original pattern artwork!

The only slightly awkward thing about adding the Cambie slash pockets was that I also wanted a lapped side zipper, like I put in pretty much everything. Things around the pocket opening and the zipper lap can get funky if you do that combo, but it's possible if you hand pick the zipper and your fabric isn't too thick... I wouldn't go heavier than medium-weight cotton.

I actually should have omitted the first 'pick' on the pocket as it closes off the very bottom of the open edge of the pocket as you can see below, but it's no big deal.

I topped off the waistband with a beautiful vintage button. I was going to handwork the buttonhole but after the smeared polka dot episode, meh. I didn't bother.

I'm going to live in this skirt this summer. Well this and several siblings of it that don't yet exist but will. I'm loving dirndls right now. Patterns, novelty prints, plain... I better get sewing!

What will you be living in this summer?

1940s dirndl skirt: made by me

1950s H Bar C western shirt: somewhere or other

Bakelite bangles and earrings: miscellaneous

hair flower: Ruth Nore Designs

bow flats: Mel by Melissa

Summery sewing patterns giveaway!

Happy Friday! First and foremost, let me say thanks for the encouragement on my tips on getting over a crafting slump. I know I've personally kept these tips in mind all week, and I'm pleased to say I just finished up the dress I mentioned in the post (photos soon once it warms back up, we're going through a chilly spell). And also many many thanks on all the wonderful comments about my new pullover! (In fact, it's so chilly I'm wearing it today!)

♥ ♥ ♥

Here's the giveaway I promised last week and then forgot about (whoops, lol). Two vintage Simplicity sewing patterns that I think would be perfect for summer. The blouse pattern should look familiar as the one I mentioned I started last fall and tried to pick back up, but I need a break from it. When I ordered the pattern originally I accidentally bought the wrong size, so I thought it would be perfect to do a combo giveaway with another great pattern.

Simplicity 2579 dress - Bust 38, waist 30
Simplicity 4608 blouse - Bust 40, waist 34

The envelope on the blouse pattern is very rough, completely open on two sides and the dress envelope is in much better condition, though still "used" of course. Both are printed patterns, and have all pieces and instructions. Neither are dated, but the Vintage Patterns Wiki puts the dress at 1958 and the blouse is probably from the 1940s.

Aren't they both great patterns?? If you win, please do share if you sew either of these up!

How to enter the giveaway:

1. Be a follower of this blog, anywhere on the planet.
   
2. Leave a comment on this post. 
3. Want an extra entry? Post about this giveaway on your blog, tweet about it, or mention it on Facebook. Just post a separate comment on this post with a link to where you mentioned it so you get counted twice.
4. Don't forget to leave a way to contact you if your blog or profile doesn't have your email address.

The giveaway ends Tuesday night, June 5th. Winner will be pulled using Random Number Generator.

Good luck, and have a great weekend!

Getting my sewing mojo back

I'm tired of not sewing!

Last autumn, I had so much going on with knitting projects that I sewed very little. And then came the house buying, and the moving, and, well, my sewing machine has been pretty lonely. I kept saying I'd start sewing again once I got my basement craft area going, but that hasn't really happened yet. It's been bothering me that I haven't sewn in months, especially since I had hoped last year I'd really step up my sewing pace. Well, there's always next year... err, of course we're 4 months into that. ;) I finally decided I'll just set myself up to sew wherever I can until I have my dedicated space.

The first step was to find my last vintage sewing project in process. I started this back in September. It's view 3 from Simplicity 4608, though short-sleeved.

Let me tell you, if you've never picked up a sewing project that you started months ago, it is hard. I haven't even started back in on it, but it's pretty intimidating. I have no notes on this, only where I left off. The tucks are complete, as are the French seams for the shoulder front and back.

And sorry, it may be awhile before I get lighting figured out for basement photos! Our house is proving to not have very good natural light for photos and I need to do some research to work around that. Otherwise outfit photos in winter will be outside standing in the snow, ha ha.

Here's the back view. This fits very poorly around the neck of my dress form, but rest assured when draped on my own body it's fine. (I probably need to adjust the dials a bit.) The back horizontal shoulder seam was gathered, too. I recall I tested out the French seams with gathers and this fabric before doing it on my pattern pieces as I didn't think it would work out, but it did and I'm quite pleased.

(Of course, it looks a lot better ironed, but this was fresh out of the bag I had it stored in.)

Along with the sleeve and collar pieces cut out and pinned to their respective pattern pieces, that's it. I have no notes. I have no idea what I was planning to use as interfacing for the collar pieces. I don't have any white silk organza (why do I keep forgetting to order this!), so I suspect I was planning to use another layer of the fashion fabric since it's quite lightweight, or perhaps sew-in interfacing. I remember now that I still hadn't decided how to finish the inside of the sleeve cap and I was nervous about finishing the collar with such a sheer fabric. I guess I need to just dive back in! Although that's a bit easier said than done when you're already a rather timid sewist.

To try and get my sewing mojo going again, I also opened up my packed sewing patterns box. This is how my vintage patterns have lived since we started packing at the end of December. Lots fit in here, but it did really show me that my pattern stash is woefully small. No wonder I always look through and have a hard time deciding what I'd like to sew!

Isn't it fun when you get to unpack something of yours that you really, really like? It was kind of like Christmas. There were patterns I'd only recently bought before packing, so I didn't even remember I had them. What fun!

I had a helper, too. I swear you can't open a box in our house without Dinah diving in.

So here's a little sewing inspiration for you, from a few vintage patterns.

I really like this blouse pattern, it's very simple. (Did you catch the great shaped waistband on the skirt on the right, too?) I could see making view 2 in any number of solids, or using the collar-less view 1 to show off great prints. While the pattern didn't say, I'm thinking this needs something very lightweight and drapey, like a cotton lawn, or perhaps rayon? I think the only closure is one button at the back of the neck.

How about the dress below? I wouldn't wear the collar up, but isn't it smashing? I love the sleeves, too, and the piping accent on the solid version. If only I could find more light cottons in prints like that floral... oh, how I wish I could browse in a vintage sewing shop!

And last but not least, a blouse pattern that was new to my collection when it got packed. I just love all the views of this Hollywood pattern! Which is your favorite?

If you've gone through periods where you haven't done any sewing or your projects aren't working out for you, how have you been able to get your sewing mojo back?? I really need to step up my sewing!