1954 Chiffon Dress

I first made this dress way back in 2006 and I always intended on making it again so I could have a copy of my own.

My first attempt.

(Picture By John Peacock)

The inspiration for this dress came from a John Peacock fashion history book.  I am still looking for an actual picture of this dress by Dior.

I was inspired by a Vogue hat pattern to jazz up the pill box hat.

Of course, I didn't practice the restraint I had promised myself after my last big sewing project and ended up making almost 30 dresses.  The good news is I used up 7 different pieces of fabric from my fabric hoard, so there's that.

Now before you think that I'm totally off my rocker, the dress was relatively easy to make.

It's the hat that is nuts.  It is very labor intensive to make.  Luckily, not every dress has a hat (thank goodness!). 

I think the hat really makes the outfit special though.

So here in no particular order is the evidence of my OCD.  Warning!  Lots of pictures!

I was able to make three different versions of the dress out of an orange border print.

 I'm keeping this one for myself.

The embroidery on this fabric doesn't show up well in the pictures, but it is beautiful.

To purchase the pattern, click here.

Dior's Envol Ensemble

 

This outfit was inspired by a 1948 Dior ensemble.

 

The first time I saw this outfit was on the cover of a Tom Tierney paper doll book.

(Of course I want to make the other two outfits on the cover.)

 

I first attempted this outfit ten years ago. 

 

 

It is a little different than the new version.

 

 

 

 

I lost count of how many outfits I made this time around, but each outfit has 12 buttons, 21 snaps, 18 beads, and 2 hooks.  That is A LOT of handwork.  I retrospect, I should have charged more for them.

 

Like all my other obsessions, I had to find as many pictures of this outfit as I could.  I tried to replicate a few of them with my "Black Lipstick" Gene.

 

I even made the gaiters.  They are a little bulkier than I wanted them to be, but working with human scaled fabrics in miniature is always a challenge.

Another thing that is hard to miniaturize is the drape of a garment.

 

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures that I found.

 

 My dolls need all of these outfits.

 

 

 

To purchase this pattern, click here.