A Weekend Excursion and Lookey What I've Found!

    I just love getting in the automobile and driving away for the day (or even weekend)out of the blue. with my little boys. Nothing planned, just pick a direction and motor off from Salt Lake City. This time it was south and this part of Utah is so gorgeous as well, I just love it. 
    We usually visit ghost towns and really small towns. This time around we found a couple of towns that were once the largest cities in Utah but are now so small there isn't even a chain store (what a lovely thought, sincerely, I love that).
     We spied a great museum in a small town called Fairview and stopped to have a look. Honestly I wasn't expecting much but this museum was quite swell!

     There were many things the boys loved about it and so many things that I certainly did, such as these lovely gowns...

Look at the detail! I like very much that they had photographs of those who wore these.

This permanent wave machine pictured below! How I wish hairdressers still had these!

And a pretty amazing collection of "Antique" and "Vintage" Sewing Machines! Again, the Detail!

And Last, but of course not least....

           

                         

 This is a sloper from the past. The New Perfect Tailoring system, and although I've seen these for sale online and have not been able to afford one just yet, this museum gave me a chance to finally see one in person. I was so pleased. It was used by a local dressmaker in the 1890s and there are sleeves and backs etc. that were used to make many designs in clothing fashion that were desired. 

Here is short film on this museum and if you ever find yourself in Utah stop by!

Here's a few snaps of just how gorgeous this area is!

1930s Dress Finished My Adrienne Dore

     I've positively adored Dore for quite some time. She's an Idaho gal (which is Utah's sister state), which is swell and she was really a good actress. I saw her for the first time in "The Wild Party" with Clara Bow years ago and around the same time, "The Famous Furguson Case" with Joan Blondell. Adrienne Dore wore a swell frock in that picture and I just loved it. I saw this film again last week and I figured it was about time I had that ensemble. 

  So here it is....

    And this is Adriennes...

         I tell you...it was so bright outside! I was squinting horribly.

It was impossible to find a photograph of her in this costume so I had to finally just put on the film again and take a picture of the screen. 

  Anyhow, I went through my fabric trove and found some great georgette which has been knocking around for years that would be perfect for it (I've been trying my darnedest to use what I have instead of buying more). Then I had to draft a pattern of it by memory because I didn't have a photograph but I remembered her floral print frock was under her dark jacket and the clown-style frilled collar came up and over it. It was simple, just drafted a six gored skirt with a top that buttoned up the front and a larger under collar over large collar. 

   I used some lovely lambs wool knit for the jacket and sewed Hong Kong seams nicely because I didn't want to line it. I did put tailored pockets in it that were of the same georgette as the dress. I thought it would be clever'n'cute. It's a seamstress/tailoress no-no but I like it. I'm a designer and I can do what I want.

      I just love big collars and collars that are quite unique, don't you? 

   Here is the dress alone...

I've been trying to incorporate more black into my wardrobe because I don't have a lot of it where clothing comes in but I do have a lot of black accessories I'm dying to use. I think for fall I'm going to make a black dress, at long last, and I need a new nice black hat (as you can see)!

     

My favourite aspect of the frock was the jet-looking buttons and green and yellow georgette. This was made completely on my 1918 Bessy Love handcrank (115 Singer) of course! My Khafra (127 Singer 1923 treadle) is busy with another floral affair! 

    See ya soon!

Everybody's doin' it...Doin' it? Doin' What?!

  Somehow, I've deleted my entire latest post. I'm so horrible at this stuff but anyhow!

        When you come up with an idea for a fashion piece, or sport one, particular to the impending seasons' wardrobe do you suddenly see it everywhere? I know I do, it happens to me every once in a while. Just as I've drafted the pattern and am at last going to tailor myself a checked suit it happens! Checks are everywhere.

   Carol was my inspiration in one of my favourite films of hers where she wore this suit.

 This type of very femininely tailored suit was very high in fashion in the 1930s and although hers is a very fine black and white herringbone I thought this suit in checks would make just as emphatic an outcome...

I just love this one but it shall be but a one button jacket (maybe?) and the black and white checks a bit smaller so at a distant it may appear to be a gray suit. Brilliant. I had it all planned out and went to the sewing room, drafted it in just a few hours and emerged to indulge in tea, knitting and a picture. So, with my little Teddy, watched a Madge Evans picture. Well, you wouldn't believe! She was in checks.

 And wasn't she stunning in them! Of course...is Madge not stunning in everything?

I will never be more lovelier than Madge, but I would like to think I may pull these checked numbers off nicely, too! I keep seeing the considerable bow everywhere an' all.
 And then there was Mae Clark in "Fast Workers," which I saw today for the second time. She played a floosy and the dress shows it but I still like it quite a bit...

                                                              Yes, and the bow again!
   I suppose it's just because I've had my eye on checks and am paying attention that they seem to be popping up everywhere I look.

    I also just love checks as trim, here are some examples...

These two are, of course, knitteds but nonetheless going along with the waves of checks which were so popular on and off in the early to mid 1930s. Let me not forget to mention checks can be traced back to early recordings of fashion history. 

And here's Constance Cummings in 1933 in the Mind Reader with Warren William wearing a bias checked frock. She told New Movie magazine that she was just smitten about green and white checks and all-plaid frocks. This is certainly something I would make or make that a plain white frock with the check as a half or three-quarter length tunic. Must have the bow and tie to go with it of course!

I'll have to decide on whether or not to go for the full checked frock or suit or just add a touch of it to complete an ensemble. 

What todo!

Just one more for the hell of it from mccalls magazine...and technically it's windowpane and not checks but I still love it and it's simplicity...

   Gotta do something about my appetite for checks.

         Be seein' ya!