Of Stays, the 1920’s, and Pattern Drafting…

Hello All,

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend so far. Aaron has been taking his Western Regional Boards this weekend. It’s one of the last hoops he has to jump through to be a dentist. He’ll find out in 4-6 weeks if he passed and if he can then get a license. It’s pretty exciting.

All’s well and sporadic on the sewing front. I finally have my stays completed to a point where I can wear them. I plan to try them out for at least one event before I finish them. I want to make sure there aren’t any adjustments needed before I bind them and put the lining in. I also still haven’t decided if I am going to add straps or leave them strapless. So, I’m going to try them both ways. I’ll let you know what I decide. As they are now, they are very comfortable and I love the shape they give me. We’ll see how they feel after hours of wearing them. Anyway, here is what is done thus far.

Oh, and as you can see, I decided to go white with a blue binding.

Ok, on to the ‘20’s. We are having a Diesel Punk party on the 4th of July for Aaron’s graduation. Now, Diesel Punk spans from WWI to WWII. So, I decided I needed to make a 1920’s dress. I also fell in love with the 1921 Vionnet dress in Patterns of Fashion II. I’ve seen a reproduction of the gown, by Katherine, and it is just gorgeous. Anyway, I started enlarging and drafting the pattern last night. So far it’s proving to be a bit frustrating scaling it up from the original size. I tried my scaled up version in muslin and it was waaaay too big. So, I’m going to try a muslin of the original size and then drape it to my dress form. Hopefully that will work better. It’s very strange working with such a loose pattern design. I’m used to fitting everything very tightly around stays. This time things are meant to be billowy and loose. Anyway, here are the pictures of the concept.

The dress… I just love the petal skirt.

The pattern. It’s not too complicated once you figure out how the pieces fit together. The hard part is scaling the triangular points.

The fabric… It’s a blue cotton voile that I’ve had in my stash for over a year. I hope I have enough to make it. Luckily, it’s still a good fabric so I can get more if I need to.

Here is the original dress. It is the orange gown on the left.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend. God Bless!

Love Lauren

Great News!!!!

So, hubby has completed his competencies and will graduate on time!!!! He has 3 weeks left of Dental School. I'm so proud of him and his accomplishments. Thank you God for getting us through and guiding us through these past four years. I'm excited to see what the next phase of life holds. 

Dr. Aaron Marks, well in three weeks he will be :-)

5 Years…

Today Aaron and I have been married for five years. So much has happened in our life together. We have been very blessed and God has carried us through so many things. Through it all, we have gown closure to each other and closer to God. I pray that our future years together will be just as wonderful.

Babe, I love you and I’m so happy that I married you…

Another Lovely Event…

We were quite fortunate to have two events this weekend. Our first was the one in the previous post and our second was a combined event between Le Bon Ton and the Oregon Regency society. We had a wonderful stroll through the Portland Japanese Gardens. What a lovely, serene, and fun walk that was. The gardens are beautifully manicured and there are so many little treasures hidden throughout the place. We also made quite the spectacle of ourselves. There were numerous professional photographers wandering around and many of them took lots of pictures of us. We kind of felt like celebrities for the day. It was a blast. Without further adieu,  here are the pictures….

Angel and me on the footbridge.

You know who…

Angel and me…. Our husbands keep teasing us about our similar attire.

M’Lord in is new period glasses…

Brad and Aaron “fighting” on the Bridge. I think the parasol just might win. Tee Hee…

Tara and Xian at the rock gardens.

More Tara and Xian

The whole gang…

The three musketeers…

And finally, Angel and me “imitating rocks” in front of the rock garden. LOL!

Have a wonderful week everyone. God Bless!!!

Love Lauren

A Day in the ‘40’s

Wow! What a wild week we have been having here at Portland House. After missing almost a week of work, I am finally almost back to normal.

Today, we joined our friends at the Willamette Lock Festival. We donned our Dieselpunk gharb and made quite the spectacle. Also, I was able to take my new ‘40’s dress on it’s maiden voyage. Almost everyone went as military personnel and I went as the civilian. It was a great day! Here are the pics….

 

Guess who!

Xian, Brad, Angel, Tara, Ryan, Me, and Jackson (aka Aaron)

 

And another…. With the Addition of Maggie and David, dressed in Steampunk

Watching the Locks

At the pub afterwards

Well, that’s all for now folks! Tomorrow we are hitting the Portland Japanese Gardens in Regency and 18th Century gharb. I will have more to share soon. God Bless!

Love Lauren

I'm still Alive... I think...

Hi all,

  Just popping in really quick. I hope your week is going well. Mine, frankly, is not going very well. As you know, I had all four wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday. Today was supposed to be my first day back at work. Well, it lasted all of 2 hours. I ended up having to leave due to my lovely recovery. I had really hoped this would go faster than it is. However, Aaron assures me that I'm healing just fine and it takes time to get better. I'm hoping tomorrow will go better and I plan to try to work again.The hardest part of all of this is the dizziness and the weird emotions. I have been forgetful and crying at the strangest things. I'm more that ready to be back to normal. The pain has been weird too. It's usually pretty severe in the morning and at nights. It tends to taper off in the afternoons. I am glad that I will never have to have my wisdom teeth pulled again. Aaron and I have been joking that we have no wisdom left :-D Well, I have done nothing but sleep, take meds, and eat soft foods the past few days. I hope I can start sewing again someday soon. God Bless!

Love Lauren

On Hold….

Hello dear friends and readers. I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. Well, I have become very quickly obsessed with the late 20’s, 30’s, and early 40’s. As much as I adore the 18th century, it will always be my first love, I'm ready to experiment with another era. My 18th century wardrobe is quite full, as soon as I finish my new stays it will be more than full. So, I’m going to dive head first into making some vintage frocks. I’m thinking I might have to don some lovely vintage clothing more often and maybe wear more in real life. Here are some pictures that are inspiring me today.

I think her dress is just too cute.

Again, I just love it!

Well, that’s all for now folks. Stay tuned for more :-D

New Additions…

I picked up these lovelies at a couple of local antique stores recently. I absolutely love them. Enjoy!

I adore her. I keep wondering who she was and what her story is.

Can one have too many fashion plates?

On another note I am having my wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday, and I’m not looking forward to it. I’m a big baby when it comes to pain of any kind. I am, however, looking forward to having a little down time. SO, I may not be online for a day or two.

Oh, and i finished my 40’s dress this evening. You’ll have to wait until next weekend to see pics! I’m thinking vintage style clothing is going to become part of my daily wardrobe.

God Bless!

Love Lauren

A Birthday Celebration

We had a lovely Saturday evening with our dear friends. We started the evening with good food and libations at the Stillhouse Pub. Then we went over to our friend’s historical home for games. Here are a few pictures of the evening. I hope to have a group shot soon.

Angel in her new ensemble

Angel and Me

Here we are :-D

I will post more as soon as I get the rest of the pictures. Have a wonderful week.

Love Lauren

Life and Costume ADD Strikes Again..

Hello All,

    I hope you are having a great week so far. Our weekend was very odd and surreal. Our plans have changed with regards to the Dentist and his practice, which I have spoke of before. Basically, we have changed routes, as it were, and are planning to stay here in Portland. It’s a bitter sweet outcome, especially since I will be working longer than expected, but I’m satisfied and content with what God has in store. Anyway, I will keep you posted as things move forward.

On the plus side, Aaron graduates in two months. I can’t believe it’s almost here. We have been building up to his graduation for so many years and we are ecstatic that he will soon be a dentist. Please keep him in your prayers as he prepares to take his final board exams.

Ok, enough of real life, now onto costumey things… My Stays are on hold for the moment. I realized I was being too ambitious trying to finish them by this weekend. We also have a 1940’s Diesel Punk event coming up on May 15th. So, I’ve set the 18th century aside for a little bit and I am currently working on a 1940’s dress for myself.

The pattern… I’m making the short sleeved dress without pockets.

The bodice mock-up. Once again, I had to take a good 3” off of the length of the waist.

The Fabric… A 1939ish reproduction I found at our local store in their 1930’s and 1940’s section. I think it will be very cute.

Aaron is also super excited  about trying a new time period. We went shopping at a local Army Surplus store this weekend, with our friends, and found some amazing things for his outfit. He is planning on portraying an adventurer/ mercenary. We found an old military trench coat, an aviator cap, period goggles, and gaiters for his boots. The sleeves on the coat are, as always, way too short for him. So, he is adding leather cuffs to lengthen them and give the coat some flair. I’ll post some pictures once he is finished. I will show you the progress, however.

Here is is sewing the cuffs to his sleeves. I think it’s going to be fabulous.

Well, that’s all for now, I hope you have a lovely rest of your week. God Bless

Love Lauren

1948 Fashion Video…

I was wondering through blog land this morning when I came across a link on American Duchess’ blog. It is hilarious!!!! The clothes are amazing, and it shows vintage sewing techniques.It is also over-the-top cheese ball. It reminds me of Troy McClure’s educational videos, from the Simpsons. It is a must see!

Just click on the pic to view the video.

God Bless! Love Lauren

More Stays Progress…

Well, there isn’t a whole lot to report, but I will show you the progress so far. I spent most of Wednesday evening redrafting my stays with the changes I made to my cardboard mock-up. And once again, HOLY MOLY MY WAIST IS SHORT!!!! In the end, I took of three inches from the length of the original pattern. If all goes well, this one should fit much better than my previous pair. That being said, I have decided to make a cloth mock-up just to be sure I like the fit. I plan to, gulp I can’t believe I’m saying this, sew my mock up by sewing machine. I haven’t used a machine for my own garments in years. However, I don’t want to spend hours hand sewing boning channels for a garment I will be using for fitting purposes. I guess if there aren’t anymore adjustments that are needed I will go ahead and finish the rest of the mock-up by hand and then make another fully hand-sewn pair. Then, I’ll have two sets of stays (insert evil laugh here). I have also decided I am going to make strapped stays. As appealing as the no strapped stays can be, I really like the way the straps look and how they enhance my, ahemmm, assets :-D Thanks for all of your input. You guys are awesome, big blog land hug.  Have a wonderful weekend.

All of the parts laid out with the boning channels marked.

The front, showing the seam allowance and the top eyelet placing.

More color inspiration. I just can’t decide if I want a white linen pair with blue binding and lacings or a blue silk pair with white binding and lacings. I’m really drawn to this pair from the MA movie. Mmmm…..

This blue is about the same color as the blue silk in my stash. My silk, however, is a solid color.  And my stars will be 1/2 boned.

Well, that’s all for now, folks. Have a lovely weekend.

God Bless

Love Lauren

Progress…

I know it doesn’t look like much, but here is the progress thus far. I made my cardboard mock-up, laced it up, and Aaron helped me mark the adjustment. The main thing I discovered, which I kind of already knew, is that my waist is really short. I can’t decide if  my new stays will be strapless. I know strapless stays are supposed to be more comfortable. However, I like the look of strapped stays.  Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the not so pretty mock-up. God Bless!

You can see the black lines indicating the changes I plan to make. I might also need to lower the bust-line a bit too.

 

Here are the stays from Pirates of the Caribbean. I really like the look and shape. I think this is the overall idea that I’m going for.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a great rest of your week, everyone. Love Lauren!