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Designing, Drafting Patterns For, And Sewing Two 1950's Outfits

My charter school requires four leadership credits for graduation. So I've been taking leadership... and really enjoying it. It's been transformational. Now you might be wondering what on earth this has to do with the title of this entry. Well, in the leadership courses, students are required to use the Best Self Journal, which has one set and the achieve 1-3 big goals over the course of thirteen weeks.

For one of my goals (I set two), I decided to design, draft patterns for, and sew two 1950's outfits.

The first step was, of course, finding inspiration. VintageDancer was HUGELY helpful with this. Great historical articles, and images. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in fashion from the 1900s to the 1970s.

So after I gathered all my inspiration (and spend way too much time on the computer), I analyzed my 'data' and figured out WHY I liked each dress/outfit.

After I did that, I sketched a lot of ideas... picked my favourite three (a blouse, a skirt, and a dress), and started drafting patterns.

This was my first time drafting a pattern for a piece of clothing made from woven material (other than my doll...) and so I had a lot of struggles there.

But I finally got the patterns right... went shopping for fabric and other sewing 'notions' (going to JoAnn was the weirdest thing ever thanks to CoViD19 :-( ). The trip was actually pretty stressful... but it went well.

Then I started sewing! Inserting the invisible zipper was a new skill for me, so that was super stressful, but it went well!

Oh, and then I made matching scarves, because in the 1950s, everything a women wore had to match perfectly... dress, shoes, gloves, belt, scarf, underwear... all of it.

And then I got to wear them! And here are some picture of me... because I'm cute ;-) and I'm so proud of the two outfits...

Photo by my Mom

Photo by my Mom

Photo by my Mom

Photo by my Mom

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Libby T on :

WOW Liliana, these are so gorgeous! You are so talented.

Liliana on :

Thanks! I had a lot of fun making them.

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