Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Vintage Dress Restoration Project-Success!

The much anticipated pictures of my dress project have arrived!
I wanted to wear this to a dance later this week so I had a motivation to get to work on it and not let it languish in my sewing to do box..
The pictures of the finished dress and story of how I found it are below too!

The supports through the bodice were poking through their casings and the fabric was shredded in places.

I found some scrap fabric that was tough and canvas like -may have been the seat of an old folding chair. This was what I used to make a new casing for the supports. It was slow going and all done by hand, being careful not to go through to the front of the dress and avoiding the fraying areas.

There were also several seams where the mesh/lace like fabric on the outside was coming out of the seam and fraying.

I was able to fold them under and sew them back into the seams with the help of my bottle of permanent fabric glue to keep the fabric from fraying/disintegrating in my hands while I sewed it in.

Here it is!

and you probably want to know the story of this beauty.

Well, I found it on Craigslist believe it or not. A lady was having a yardsale for her stockpile of vintage treasures she had accumulated over the years from estate sales. I asked if I could come take a look at the clothes and, among other things, came out with this authentic vintage 1950s/60s dress!

What a find!

13 comments:

  1. Awesome job Conni! What a lovely dress ... the vining flowers are so delicate and I love how soft & flowing it looks. Kudos to you for having the patience to bring it back to its glory! Bet you'll get lots of attention when you wear it - you look fab in it! :~)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! The embroidery is just darling! Fragile but so so sweet. Glad you like it :)

      Delete
  2. Your dress is beautiful! I wish I could sew! My husband calls me the wonder under lady!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahaha, not sure what that means but I like it!

      Delete
  3. Gorgeous - you are really talented!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is beautiful! I wish I was better at sewing, I would love to get into this. My Aunt used to make dresses for her daughter, but I never learned to sew like her.

    Great job and yes this is a wonderful find :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You look absolutely AMAZING my dear. When I saw you in that beautiful dress, it made me think that your soul must be from a different era . . . congrats on a successful project. We're all jealous :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!I have often thought that I was born in the wrong era too!

      Delete
  6. i think my comment just disappeared into the interwebs. trying again!

    lovely find, you just don't see that sweet style anymore. thanks for reaching out on twitter, looking forward to more of your creations. thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol. hate when that happens! Glad to connect with you :)

      Delete
  7. This is lovely! You did a great job on the repair! It looks wonderful on you too! These vintage pieces have so much charm and elegance to me. Great find!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful! What a gorgeous find! It looks so pretty! Have a lovely week! Angie xo

    ReplyDelete

Have a thought? Tell me! I love to hear them :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...