An early 60s-esque summer dress

I dropped by the fabric shop on one rainy June day and came away with this fabric. It screamed early 60s to me, so clearly a dress was in order.

I have a good basic pattern for my favourite dress and I've used it to make 3 other dresses already. This time I wanted a summery version, no sleeves and a zipper closure.

So, here's a popular style from the summer of '63 :)

Awkward early 60s fashion pose.

I <3 The Beatles! This album wasn't released until November '63, but what the heck :)

Mwah!!

I made the belt too, because I couldn't find anything from the shops. It's a length of wide black elastic band sewn onto a clasp. 

The hem is very full, I put three widths of the fabric in it, mainly because I didn't want to have any weird fabric scraps left over. The hem circumference is ca. 3,5 metres... :)

The Courtois dress revisited

I recently made some additional underwear for the Courtois dress and today I finally took the time to photograph them. The new things are a little underbodice, natural form hoop skirt and a balayeuse hem frill for the skirt.

There are pictures, of course :)

The first layer. I'm very scandalous and don't wear the bloomers, mostly because I don't have a pair. Note to self: put on stockings and shoes before the corset...

The underbodice and the hoops. It looks ridiculous but is actually very useful. It keeps your legs clear of the mass of skirts and frills and general froufrou. I had misplaced the buttons intended for the centre front opening while I was sewing this so here the centre front is basted close. I mean to add the buttons later.

Playing the harp wearing this was VERY difficult.

The underbodice. I'm happy with the fit. Extant pieces seemed to have a longer hem or a basque, but I was short on fabric and time and chose to make a waist lenght version.

Petticoat. I'm not entirely happy with this, I might modify it in the future and ad some frills up the back of the hem.

The 1st skirt.

Cancan! Or showing off the balayeuse. I simply gathered two looooong strips of fabric and sewed  them in two tiers on the train part of the skirt.

The 2nd skirt.

And done!

Some period reading. I'm actually halfway through Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd (also a period novel) but it's a bog standard paperback and not as photogenic as my Anna Karenina.

The underbodice back.

And the fronts. I made this entirely from stash, that's why the lace doesn't go all the way to the front....