GREEN YOUR: BEDROOM

I have reached the point where buying vintage clothes “as is” is not enough.  Now I look at things and think, “Yeah, that has potential. If I took it in a little here, shortened there, it could be fabulous.” A needle and thread still scare me, the sewing machine leaves me clueless, but I’m always up for an adventure.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Sew here I go…

Since I am working with vintage clothing I didn’t want to do anything too crazy for fear of ruining the garment.  Altering vintage pieces makes me nervous.  It feels wrong in a way, like you’re messing with history or something.  I need to get over that, they’re just clothes.  Ladies living in the era my clothes are from would have ripped that dress to shreds and turned it into ten different items.  In fact, many of my pieces are home-sewn, maybe it was once something else before becoming my favorite frock.

The “Make Do and Mend” mentality of the 1940′s is perfect for today’s climate.  We have become a disposable culture.  Our clothing tears, we throw it away and go buy more.  Something breaks, we do the same.  Items are even manufactured for planned obsolescence.  What sense does that make?  It seems silly to buy something knowing that in a few years you will need to buy it again.  What ever happened to “built to last”, “will withstand the test of time”, “takes a licking and keeps on ticking”?  I think it’s crazy that my dresses made 70 years ago are outliving the ones I purchased last season!  In just one year Americans throw out 6,330,000 tons of clothing and footwear!!!  Really?  All 6,330,000 tons of clothes and shoes were unusable?  Somehow I doubt it.  I am sure most of the items were just fine, perhaps needing a minor repair.  Many of them probably needed nothing at all, other than to be passed on to someone else who would make use of it.  We tend to be fickle folks, buying for no good reason and then tossing when we tire of it {i.e when society tells us that’s sooo last year}.

But I digress… back to the sewing.  Since this is all new to me, I decided to start small.  I figured I could handle a hem.  I have a home-sewn dress I think is from the 50′s that I have worn once before, but felt a little matronly in.  A shorter hem might just give it the updated feel while maintaining the vintage look I am going for.  I didn’t want a row of straight stitches all the way around showing and the folding for a blind hem on the machine drives me nuts, so I decided to hand stitch this one the way it had been originally done.

The Nina and Pinta were docked on the Mississippi River, so Mister and I took a little detour on the way to return the chitlin boy to his mother’s house to see them.  How often do you get to climb around on 15th century ships?  Well, replicas of 15th century ships anyway.  I figured it fitting to wear my newly hemmed masterpiece since Columbus and I had both sailed into unchartered waters {and it matched The Penguin Zesto where we went for ice cream afterwards}.  He was far braver than I.  Have you seen these ships?  They are tiny!  Okay, not tiny, but much smaller than I had anticipated for crossing the ocean in.  I cannot imagine living for months aboard one of these things.  How do you people living in one room apartments do it?  Cabin fever anyone?

THRIFTED/VINTAGE PIECES:

• 40′s Wilshire of California hat {VINTAGE VOGUE}
• 50′s Home-sewn dress {VINTAGE VOGUE}

Tagged as: 40's FASHION, 50's FASHION, GREEN YOUR: BEDROOM {CLOSET}, HATS, SEW FABULOUS!, SHE WORE WHAT?!, THRIFT SCORE WHORE, THRIFTED FASHION, VINTAGE, VINTAGE DRESSES, YOU CAN DO IT: DIY/MYO

{ 3 comments }