Canceling the production of Gentlemen Prefer Wigs has left me with an extra few hundred dollars that I'd been keeping for the movie budget. I came across the site Recollections that sells historical looking clothing of the type I like to wear, and figured I could maybe buy something from them, as one of my summertime outfits, the "old lady dress" as my sister calls it, died. (It was a second hand gown when I bought it, so not surprising it finally wore out.)
However, I'm a pretty frugal person in general, and I decided I really should just use up some of the big bag of fabric I have in the basement and just make something new, instead of spending $200 on a dress that probably would need to be altered once I got it anyway (standard sizes don't seem to be well suited to my shape.) So I stayed up all night working and ended up with this:
So hopefully that will survive the next couple years. (It's all held together with snap buttons which I find sometimes come out too easily.) It's definitely nice and cool for the summer -- it was actually too cold to wear it today.
I did however buy a few accessories from Recollections and had some good luck by delaying the purchase -- everything on the site was declared to be 25% off for the next few days, so my new parasol and fichu were obtained at a good bargain.
However, I'm a pretty frugal person in general, and I decided I really should just use up some of the big bag of fabric I have in the basement and just make something new, instead of spending $200 on a dress that probably would need to be altered once I got it anyway (standard sizes don't seem to be well suited to my shape.) So I stayed up all night working and ended up with this:
So hopefully that will survive the next couple years. (It's all held together with snap buttons which I find sometimes come out too easily.) It's definitely nice and cool for the summer -- it was actually too cold to wear it today.
I did however buy a few accessories from Recollections and had some good luck by delaying the purchase -- everything on the site was declared to be 25% off for the next few days, so my new parasol and fichu were obtained at a good bargain.
velvet_petal:
Good for you in designing that lovely sari inspired dress for yourself. That Recollections site was fun to peruse. I have an old 1910/20s parasol from my grandmothers old collection which I love. It has a delicately carved bamboo handle and black silk and lace so old the color has faded and the fabrics is too delicate to open. Perhaps one day I will have it restored. It is nothing fancy but it is quietly attractive and hold memories for me. My grandmother was some special lady.