The Half and Half Dress

The Half and Half Dress is something I've been thinking of for a while. I came across the very well known and extremely coveted Advance pattern 6238 (from 1949, I believe) after I'd actually drafted my own version:

I made my first half and half dress from black moire taffeta (for the overdress) and bubblegum pink taffeta for the strapless underdress, which I made as a fitted sheath. I decided to put buttons all down the side of the black overdress; the plan was to cover the buttons in the contrasting pink moire - snazzy! I was on the home run with it when I slipped whilst slitting one of the buttonholes, creating a huge gash in an awkward spot on the overskirt and effectively ruining the whole thing :( 
I was so upset about it that I put off making another (yes, possibly a bit of an over-reaction)...until NOW. I came across this wonderful rose petal fabric and bingo! was inspired again:

I had some amazing pink coated fabric in my stash that I thought would be wonderful with it! It's a candy pink stretch woven cotton that has a pale pink pearlescent coating on it. It feels cold and strange and makes an interesting papery swishing sound...cool! Here's the dress:

I'm so happy with it! And the great thing is the pink underdress, or perhaps foundation dress should I say, is lovely on its own as well.

I plan to do another very soon, possibly in black and white. I'll also perhaps do a combo of two different coloured halves and a sheath...the possibilities are endless!

Find it here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/152505481/vintage-mid-century-style-half-and-half?ref=shop_home_active

HYDRANGEA PRINT BOMBSHELL DRESS with 3D SWEETHEART PETAL BUST

Here is my latest creation - and so far, my absolute favourite!
(Please click on the images for greater detail)

I adore hydrangea flowers, and have several large bushes where I live. Of course, they are suffering in our drought. But still, the lush blue-purple fairly vibrates with intensity! I think of them as a very "old" flower, rather 'olde worlde' and nostalgic. So when I came across this wonderful cotton fabric on-line, I had to have it! It turns out it sells out rather quickly, so I had to wait to get my hands on some. Of course, having yards of fabric mailed over from the US is not a cheap process, so to begin with I bought just enough for two dresses (or so I thought).




I took my time deciding what to do with it - I almost couldn't bare to cut it! But then I came across some artificial hydrangea flowers when out browsing a craft store one day, and I had a 'Eureka!' moment. I knew what I had to do. And I had the perfect olive vintage taffeta with which to pair the lush hydrangea and raspberry print cotton.





So, it's a high-waisted 8-gore skirt attached to a sweetheart-shaped bodice, with matching bolero. The tiny jacket is rather structured and square shouldered, giving a small nod to the 1940s shoulder-line rather than the typical, more rounded shoulder of a 1950s bolero. The skirt has a 141" hem sweep - so it turned out I only had enough to make one dress after all! So, thus far, it's OOAK (one of a kind), in a size ML. It's available in my etsy store! More pics below.

SHE WALKED DOILY DOWN THE AISLE...

My daughter and I loved the comedy show 'Will and Grace'; in one episode Jack was attending a spelling bee and got the word 'doily' to spell...which stumped him, but then he had the bright idea 'Oh, I know! Like: "he walked doily down the street!"' and did a mincy little pose to illustrate. We all fell about.

That phrase has stayed with us ever since, especially because I do actually have a thing for doilies, (I collect them in fact, along with vintage tablecloths) so when I recently made a natural linen wedding dress - decorated with antique doilies and with the bodice made from a vintage 50s-60s barkcloth tablecloth - I just had to dub it "She Walked Doily Down the Aisle'. If you've seen the episode, you'll appreciate the joke! It's a strapless, pull-on dress, boned for support and elasticated both at the waist and across the top back edge. The skirt is very tapered with a luxuriously swishy fishtail.


Antique hand-tatted trim and tablecloth applique roses

Huge over-sized chintz roses in gorgeous shades of coral, peach, pink, yellow and cream are dotted here and there:



Don't forget you need to have an impressive back view as well when you walk down the aisle - this beautiful, upcycled vintage 60s silk scarf tie certainly does the trick! I cut it to make the most of the design and the delicious fall of the silk. The colors perfectly match the roses in the barkcloth tablecloth bodice:



For me, the piece de resistance is the wonderful antique lace adorning the cummerbund, which is very special: it dates back to the civil war period. Please click on the pic in order to zoom in and see more detail. The 3D butterfly, which I made from a very old doily (!) is a perfect finish to this very feminine, vintage look:



You'll find this one of a kind dress in my etsy store (please click on the etsy store pics to the left). I'm keen to make more of these so if you wish to discuss an original, custom-made dress in a particular colorway or materials, don't hesitate to contact me:
shayne_binqi@yahoo.com.au