Seeing Double!

Today Millie (storytelling partner) and I gave tours in our latest dresses.

Christine and I had a marathon sewing Saturday last weekend and we managed to complete two dresses.

Christine made Millie's dress and I made mine:).

You may recognize the frogs on my dress as those from the dress I bought last week at Goodwill.

This fabric was a bit pricier that what I usually buy but I found it on sale at a nearby quilt shop on the $15 per yard rack marked down to $5 a yard.

It is some of the most wonderful fabric I have used for a dress in that it is cotton but feels like silk!

The vintage lace collar was a fun find just under $5 during one of my antiquing sprees.

The blue braided trim on the bodice was found at Hancock's for .99 cents a yard

(it took about 7 yards).

Although the dress is costlier than some of the others it was fun to make and to wear.

Every once in a while I splurge with the money saved on all the other dresses:).

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

From Rags to Riches

Recently I was asked to make a period outfit for a young lady of thirteen.

The outfit began with a trip to Goodwill where I found this checkered bedskirt

 (I actually got two of them).

As you can see Lizzy is helping with the presentation:).

I found a lovely white blouse at another thrift shop.

Here is the final result.

I made the skirt from the bedskirt and then used some blue fabric leftover from another project to make the belt.

I altered the sleeve cuffs and added some lace to the white blouse.

Altogether the price tag is low:

$6 for both bedskirts,

$2 for the blouse,

nothing for the leftover blue fabric.

I am going to make her a matching petticoat from the other bedskirt and a shawl from the leftover ruffles.

What thrifty projects have you completed lately?

Pink Brocade and Lace

Well another dress is finished and made it's debut

at our Pick Pocket Plantation tour today.

The pink, actually it's more of a mauve, brocade fabric was on the discount fabric rack at Walmart for $1.50 a yard (the dress needed about 7 yards plus the lining fabric which was also $1.50 a yard but only required about 2 yards).

I used a Simplicity pattern and trimmed the sleeves with some leftover tea stained lace from a previous project.

The frog closures ($3 for both) are also tea stained and the bodice is trimmed in a pearl trim (also leftovers).

The chemisette is an antique piece found at a local antique store for about $12.

 Altogether the dress has about $35 invested and a couple of days time.

 Don't forget to consider leftovers from previous projects when sewing a new project as it helps reduce costs greatly:).

Gone With the Budget!

Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite movies!

I am actually fluent in GWTW being that I can quote most of the film:).

In addition to being a fan of the movie I also enjoyed reading the book as well as reading books about the making of the movie.

Aside from being a big fan I also love the dresses.

Of course, my favorite is the BBQ dress.

So I decided to make the BBQ dress.

 Reproduction fabric is available but at $35 per yard with 18 yards needed another option had to be found.

And so the search began for a fabric close in appearence to the original. I decided to find a comparable green and white fabirc and cover it over in sheer white organza in hopes that it would have the same effect as the original dress.

I finally found a fabric that would work at Joann's on sale for $5.60 a yard.

The organza was also on sale and I chose to use dark green crushed velvet for the belt instead of real velvet (a difference of about $20 a yard:).

The boning was leftover from a dress I purchased at a thrift shop for $1.

I used a bodice pattern from an old Simplicity ball gown pattern and made the skirt without a pattern.

This allowed for only about 7 yarrds of fabric as opposed to the 18 yards required for the actual BBQ dress pattern (yes I have the reprint pattern which can be purchased at the gift shop at the GWTW/Marguaret Mitchell museum in Atlanta).

It took some creativity but I think the overall effect is very similar to Scarlett's BBQ dress.

Instead of spending $600+ to make an exact copy, my dress came in just under $100.

Frankly Scarlett, I saved some money!

What's your favorite GWTW dress?

New Blue Dress

Well Christine has done it again!

My dear friend has created another beautiful dress. We decided to have a sewing Saturday with dueling sewing machines racing away:).

I sewed one dress while she sewed this one.

The fabrics (stripe and blue) came from Walmart off the sale rack for $5 a yard.

About 2 1/2 yards were needed for the bodice and 5 yards for the skirt.

We used one of the Simplicity patterns from my stash.

The lace on the back is an antique piece I found years ago.

The small lace caplets on the short sleeves of the bodice are another set of antique lace I found and kept for just the right dress:).

The chemisette is a lacey blouse I found at a thrift shop for $4. I removed the collar and sleeves and hemmed the collar under. The under sleeves came from a blouse found at Goodwill. I cut off the sleeves and trimmed them with white lace and then affixed them to the short bodice sleeves.

The lace up boots were another thrift shop find for $4.

Reenacting can be a very expensive hobby but a little thrifting and a little sewing can have you looking like Scarlett without breaking the bank:)!

Sewing History

Next week marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the civil war, or should I say 'war between the states' because there wasn't nothin' civil about it!

I am a member of the PSRS which was tasked with recreating the orginal flag that flew over Ft. Moultrie when Ft. Sumpter was fired upon.

I was blessed to be able to sew on this new historic flag which will fly over Ft. Moultrie for the next couple of weeks during the reenactments of the battle which began the civil war.

I worked on this for nearly a week.

Next week I hope to post pictures of this very flag as it waves in the winds of future history over Ft. Moultrie.