50's Summer Dress

In 2009, I decided I wanted to be a 50's chick for Halloween. So, I found this super quick pattern, and some fabric hiding in a closet and sewed together a dress in three days! True story! It did drive be nuts at a few points within those three days, but I finished it! 

This is the only picture I have of the whole dress, and it doesn't show the bottom well, but it gives you a good idea. So the dress is just one piece. You put the dress over your head, then bring the front around and button it in back, and bring the back around and button it in front, so it looks like a vest. In the picture, the bottom part with the blue edging actually comes down to my knees to make a full skirt. Also hiding in the closet was ribbon made from the same material as the dress, so the headband and the dress match perfectly!

Total cost: All I bought was the blue edging and 6 buttons, so the cost was less than $10, I believe

Total time: I know for a fact I start Monday and finished Wednesday, but the hours I'm unsure of. probably around 20 hours. I know my mom and all her sewing friends were impressed with how quickly my first major sewing project went.

Engagement Dress

I love the 1950's! For our engagement pictures, we decided we wanted to do vintage pictures of different era's, so I made a dress. Not only does it LOOK vintage, but the pattern I used was from my grandma from when the dress was actually in style! How fabulous is that?! 

 As you can see from the pictures, it was a fairly simple dress. It has a zipper on the side to get in and out, which is actually quite tricky, especially since the pattern was missing sleeve pieces, and the sleeves I made were too long and skinny to slip in and out with ease.

The dress had a very wide neck, very simple, and I also sewed a few extra scraps to use as ribbons in my hair. 

The most time consuming part was probably the pleated skirt, although it really wasn't too difficult, except when I needed to size it down to fit my hips. All in all, not too bad. 

Also part of the pattern was a belt, which is super cute! you can see it slightly in this picture. It also wanted me to make a drapery to hang from the belt, but I was using cloth that was given to me, and I didn't have enough to make the drapery. 

Total time: about 20 hours
Total cost: since the fabric was free, just thread and the belt loops were purchased. under $5