Summer dressing

tnc boat

Woot!  Summer (dressing) is coming!

The weather has been really warm here in the city.  Trees are blooming on 27th street, the sun is shining, Spring Break is gone already!  You all are working on final projects, the fiscal year is drawing to a close, and that can only mean one thing!  It’s going to be SUMMER DRESS SEASON any second!

frel dresses413

 

I love to sew.  I’ve been sewing since I was 8 or 9.  Being a stubborn person, I always wanted to make EXACTLY what I wanted to make.  Not the pattern-company’s versions, not the version in the store, but the one in my head that seemed to take all the fashionable (there’s that word again!!) elements and put them together in my own, more elegant, more playful, more dashing, more Beth-McMahon sort of way.  So now that it’s summer, that means Beth has to research and work on some new summer dresses.

57pierre-balmain_red

 

 

 

I love the 50s, I confess.  Ok, so it was kind of a crazy time in American politics and social structure (I mean *how many* Levittowns??).  But I love the clothes.

 

 

 

Here’s a dress I must have made at least 4 times.  Sure, the pattern was published in the 1980s, but it’s really a basic 50s dress, with the fitted princess-darted bodice and the huge swooshy full skirt.    Of course, being stubborn me, I made the front-button closure work and ditched the side zipper.

I found the picture of this pattern in our Vogue Pattern Counter Catalogs.  How many of you remember buying patterns in fabric stores?  My poor tissue-paper pattern is wrinkled and taped and the envelope is torn.

 

 

vanhydrangeas

 

 

But I’m always looking for vintage details and ways to spruce it up.  I don’t want them each to look the same, afterall.  So I have one (the original) in calico, one in madras (made for my Mom when I was in college), one in red linen with a sweetheart neckline, and the new one will be in madras in my colors, purple and green.

 

Here’re another couple of blogs I follow to get ideas for dresses:

http://www.dressaday.com

http://www.thecorner.com/us/women

Ideas from all around me:

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by the best resources on the planet as far as forecasting and garment-detail research go.  We get so many magazines here, that I can pick the ones that target the freshest details, from the street and the runways and everything in between.

Collezioni Close-Up has some- good sources for dresses and skirts from runway coverage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also have a soft spot for StyleSight, too, since they reached out to us so early in their development.  They have a great range of images, a lot of which are also divided up by classification.  Plus, they’ve added the “vintage” sections.  And their flats rock!

You can take a look at our list of periodicals broken down by subject, date, or title here:

http://fitnyc.libguides.com/periodicals-by-subject/periodicals-by-title

But to keep current, I also usually take a look through our funkier or younger titles:

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years updating our holdings to keep the freshest points of view on fashion (ooh, that word!) here for your research and mine.

You can check out our forecasting and trends titles here:

http://fitnyc.libguides.com/periodicals-by-subject/forecasting-and-trends#s-lg-box-1280233

Here is our list of forecasting and trends services:

http://fitnyc.libguides.com/forecastcollection/currentforecasts

(Note that you won’t be able to use current forecasting materials if you are not a current FIT student.)

 

I’ll keep posting this spring as I decide what to make, pick the fabric, hone down the details, and put it together.  Hopefully some of you readers are sewing too, and can post your stuff.  I know not everyone has a Summer Sewing Season, but I do.  Hopefully you can share it with me.  Happy spring!

Comments

2 responses to “Summer dressing”

  1. Gifari Avatar

    wow ,really nice this is simple but really good and look fresh. Nice share information this is good and fit for summer.