Thursday, July 28, 2011

Altered Knits: Sailor Dress

Well, I am shooting for one post per week, so I'm only a little bit behind! Once again, welcome to all of my new followers; I'm so glad that you've joined my blog, and I'm very thankful for all of your lovely comments on my last post!

This is my favorite knit project so far! I love to look at all of those beautiful '30s knitted and crocheted dresses, but since I don't know how to make either, I had resigned myself to the idea that winning the lottery (or *ahem* finally learning to knit!) would be the only way that I would get my hands on one of these lovelies. But then I remembered: Hey, they made knitted and crocheted dresses in the '70s and '80s too! I found this great knitted dress on etsy:


Not exactly sure what I was going to do with it, I removed the turquoise trim and starfish embroidery, but there were some marks underneath that I could not get out. So, I turned it around so that the marks would be in the back, and after looking at MANY images of '30s knit dresses, I finally came up with the solution: a sailor collar! I have read some great posts about the popularity of sailor collars in the 1930s; here is one with a wealth of information (and a lot of beautiful pictures!) from Charlotte at Tuppence Ha'Penny. I've been wanting to make a sailor dress for so long, and this was the perfect opportunity, since I needed to cover the marks from the embroidery! Here is the result:


Here is the back. The collar is made from the same cut-up sweater as the hat that I am wearing in the photo below, which I blogged about making in this post. Luckily, it was a rather large sweater, and I used it to make the belt as well!


The striped knit is from yet another sweater redo (to be photographed later)! These were actually the scraps from that project, and I was able to make the bow and 4 covered buttons; two for the belt, and two to add onto these beautiful crocheted gauntlet gloves that I got on etsy.


Hopefully you can see the jewelry in this picture. It is a Navy sweetheart pin and earrings set, which belonged to my grandmother. She and my grandfather were married in 1943 when he was serving in the Navy. A little bit later than my chosen era, but I don't care; I think they're perfect!


The hat is another alteration, on which I used the same basic technique as my last one. It was a basic men's fedora with a small brim, the kind that they sell everywhere lately, brand new from Wal-Mart. It basically looked like this:


I wanted a white straw hat and couldn't find one at the thrift store, so I had to shell out for a new one. It was still under ten dollars, though! I separated the crown from the brim, cut about three inches off of the height of the crown, wet it and rounded it out, and sewed some tucks down the length to make it smaller and to add interest. This time, though, instead of putting a wire in the brim to change its shape, I wet it as well, and shaped it by weighing parts of it down with books. I wanted to make it look like the brim in this picture, and also as far away from a fedora as possible.


I am very happy with the way that it turned out.


I stood on a rock for this one (you wouldn't think that grass would grow so well in 100+ degree weather, but you'd be wrong!) so you could see my great navy leather/mesh oxfords! I switched out the original navy laces with white for this dress; the white "laces" are actually made from white cord. Trying to make them look like those beautiful vintage laces, I wrapped them with scotch tape about a half-inch from the ends and then unraveled them.


I sort of look like a giant in these pictures; since we don't have a tripod, my husband was experimenting with other objects on which to set the camera...this one was obviously a little bit too low!

28 comments:

  1. You did a great job....even though I had ideas for the original dress with the embroidery saved. But the sailor dress is brilliant. I can only imagine what you can do with the other cajillion knit dresses on eBay. You'll save a bundle on yarn, and time knitting!

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  2. Impressive, you nailed it again!

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  3. Amazing again! I've been dying for this post and it has totally been worth the wait. Your hair looks fantastic, by the way! How do you get such nice, deep waves?

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  4. Divine! I really cannot decide which part of the ensemble is my favorite! (Although it's quite possibly your ability to turn a boring fedora into a stunning 30s hat! Tutorial/Tips post??)

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  5. What kind of stitch did you use to keep the ends from fraying when altering the dress?

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  6. Wow! Just beautiful! It's SO great to see how you refashion 'modern' fashions into something lovely from the 30's. That is my very favorite era and SO hard to find the styles I like in anything close to my size or less than an arm and a leg. I'd really like to see you do a hat tutorial, step-by-step, if you are so inclined.

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  7. Gasp! You look gorgeous, and are so creative.

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  8. swoon, swoon! pure perfection again. And your attention to details: to unravel the shoelaces ends, fabulous!

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  9. Oh my goodness, this is AMAZING! I just found you through my referrals, and I'm so glad I did - I'm now a follower and I can't wait to see what you do next!

    xx Charlotte
    Tuppence Ha'penny Vintage

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  10. Wow, I am seriously impressed! It looks amazing!!

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  11. love what you did with the hat! It seems so difficult, but I guess it's not that bad? Great outfit!

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  12. Thank you, everyone!

    Mary Beth: The embroidery was pretty, just not very '30s, so it had to go! If only I could afford all of those knitted dresses, I would buy them all!

    Brittany: I use those metal wave clips and a comb to do the waves, and small foam rollers for the curls in the back. I just wash it at night, spray it with setting lotion, and put it up; when I wake up in the morning and it's dry, I just take it down and sort of pin it in place. I'm glad that you like the big waves; I actually try to make small finger-sized ones every time I style it, but I can't seem to do it!

    Stephanie Lynn and KibitzKnitz: I've never done a tutorial before; the idea sort of intimidates me! I'm always on the lookout for new hats to refashion; I'll do a tutorial on the next one!

    Shishi: Ideally, I would use a serger, but since I don't have one (darn economy!), I use the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine. If I'm really worried about fraying, sometimes I'll run a straight stitch down each piece before sewing it together, but this doesn't work if the seam needs to stretch too much. I do worry about fraying, but I haven't had any major problems (so far!) using the zigzag stitch.

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  13. Wow! Your outfits are so awesome I'm considering knitting a dress, or a skirt, or maybe a "vest" top. Or maybe all three, that's the next 6 months (at least)of knitting time taken up then!!!

    I do my finger waves at night on wet hair every few nights too, then a quick spritz of setting lotion and loads of pins before bed to make it last a few days more in between washes as it's very dry and doesn't like being washed every day. X

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  14. Wow! What a great job you did and so inspiring. I love refashioning old clothes into new. I always look forward to reading your blog, thank you for sharing with us x

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  15. I think the belt is just fabulous (along with the rest of it, of course!). If I tried what you do, it would look like a kindergartener did it!

    I have to admit to really liking those late '70s knitted dresses and having a few in my collection. They make me feel very Pamela Ewing.

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  16. Absolutely stunning! I am always blown away by your refashions :)

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  17. Amazing!!! I absolutely love how you transformed this!

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  18. Oh you are such a very clever gal and thank you for sharing such amazing ideas.

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  19. You look breathtaking as always. Love the dress! Your milinary creations are incredible.

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  20. I enjoy your blog so much, and love seeing the things you make. Thought I would let you know that I mentioned your blog on mine today :)
    http://sewn-seabees-crafty-and-vintage-musin.blogspot.com/

    HUGS! Sharon B

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  21. Brilliant!!!!! I don't think I am ever going to look at a knit dress in the thrift store the same way again. ;) What a great refashion--I'm in awe!

    I love your Navy sweetheart set as well. I've started collecting pieces from the 40s of Navy jewelry (my husband is Navy), and they are just too darling and special. Didn't know that they made earrings along those lines--now I have another item to keep an eye out for! ;)

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  22. Lovely!
    I especially love what you've done with the belt with the big ring at the center.

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  23. I found your blog via Penny Dreadful's weekly round up - and I am so pleased that I did! This is amazing!!!

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  24. Love your blog! You make such beautiful clothes. I make my own clothes too and love the 30s and 40s.

    http://www.pedanterier.blogspot.com/

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  25. Wow! This is a gorgeous refashion. What an inspiration! You look really really good in that dress.

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