Rescued Rayon

Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress

I think I found this dress in a flea market quite a long time ago for a few bucks, and although it was quite tattered I decided to bring it home.  (Never pass up good rayon, you know!)  It has sat in my closet for… probably a year, waiting to be brought back to life.  Finally, this past weekend I attended a wedding which was the catalyst to restore this dress!  It's been my unofficial tradition this summer to wear a new-to-me dress that I end up finishing on the way to the out-of-state weddings we've attended.  This dress continued that!


Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress

Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - vintage 1950s earrings

The problem with the dress was three things: it was a bit big on me, the darts were too low, and nearly all of the bodice and waist seams had frayed so the dress was falling apart.  But… good rayon!  First I took apart the bodice pieces completely.  I left the skirt intact because those seams remained strong.  I traced all the bodice and skirt pieces (for future re-creating, of course!), then I adjusted the darts.  This dress has two French darts on either side, and I've never made or adjusted such darts.  I put the bodice on my dress form and pinned where I wanted the darts to go.  I was sure to match both sides and to re-draw the darts on my pattern pieces.

The distance between both darts at the side seam and at the point aren't exactly right, but I was really hard up for fabric as I was trying to adjust this bodice, so it had to work.  It isn't very noticeable with the print anyway, so I'll leave it and just adjust them on any other future re-creations of the dress I do.



Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress

Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress, headscarf style

I trimmed away the fraying on all the seams and sewed the pieces back together on the sturdy sections of the fabric further in.  This did double duty in making the dress strong and smaller for me, and it fits beautifully now!  I love the drape of the flounces on the shoulder and hip, and the light rayon blows beautifully in the breeze!  It's really a perfect summer dress, and I am sad I waited until the end of the summer to fix it up!

There are also a couple holes that I'm going to need to patch.  They get lost in the busy print so it's not noticeable to anyone but me, but I want the dress to be strong and not fray further in those spots!  I am going to use the fabric from the old back neck facing that I replaced with bias tape.  If you are working on a vintage piece and realize you need to patch something, it's nearly impossible to find a matching fabric for it now.  You really need to find a piece of the garment you can repurpose for a patch, and neck facings, arm facings, and hems are great places to do that.  Facings are easily replaced with bias tape, and hems can be let down a bit sometimes.  Sewing hint for life!


Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress, 70s 80s wood leather heels

Flashback Summer: Rescued Rayon - restored 1940s dress

In my opinion, restoring vintage is a lot harder than recreating it from scratch.  It's difficult to work with limited fabric, especially knowing that you have no back up fabric to work with if you mess up.  You have to learn to be careful, intentional, and resourceful.  This is the beauty of the make do and mend skill set!

And another random note about this outfit… The headscarf coordination was actually a happy surprise.  That morning I pin curled my hair so it would be curly for this photo shoot after work.  I had no purple, pink or green solid scarves, so I grabbed the closest thing I could find, and I was bummed it didn't match. However, I realized I actually love this dress and scarf combo so much so that I decided to leave it for the photo shoot!  It's now one of my favorites!


Outfit details

dress: restored 1940s
shoes: from the 70s or 80s, wood & leather heels, gifted
earrings: belonged to my great-grandmother
headscarf and belt: flea market finds

What are your top tips for restoring a vintage garment?  Do you find it harder to restore or to sew from scratch?  Have you found any favorite outfit pairings by accident?

15 comments

  1. Beautiful!!! I love your head scarf!

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  2. This looks great! I love it with the head scarf as well, it matches so nicely. :)
    -Emily

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  3. You have a vision and a talent for this my girl and I have adored your recreations from the old.( I also liked your swishyness on instagram) I wonder how many times things like this are discarded by thrift stores because they aren't able to sell them... or so they think.Makes me kind of sad to think about it. So my hat is off to you for saving one more piece of history and wearing it with style!!!

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  4. This dress is fabulous!! Love the print and the style is so perfect. It looks wonderful on you and I love how you added that head scarf:)
    -Madison
    www.1minniemuse.blogspot.com

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  5. Absolutely lovely! I think that purple is a fantastic colour on you.

    ♥ Jessica

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  6. You did a great job with your restoration! The dress looks lovely on you, and it's always great to know that you've given a pretty garment a new lease on life.
    Zella Maybe

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  7. What a gorgeous dress! And it suits you so perfectly! That rayon is just gorgeous, and I love the style of the dress.
    At first glance, I thought it was Butterick 5880! It makes me think that a rayon might just work in that pattern.
    In any case, you look beautiful!! :)

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  8. A dress well worth saving! Both the shape of the dress and the print of the rayon are very pretty! What a bonus that now you have a pattern for the bodice now too. I'd love to find such pretty rayon dresses out in the wild! The headscarf is really pretty too, the dark forest green shade is one of my favorites!

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  9. Lovely dress, you have done such a good job with it. I like the scarf loads too!

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  10. So now that I'm at my mother's house, I have the photo of my grandmother. Forgive the "cell photo of an old photo" quality of it. I figured the easiest way to get it to you would be a blog post: http://cheznouscrafts.blogspot.com/2015/08/gloria-warnick.html

    My mother had claimed she searched the house and couldn't find it -- it was right next to the chair. :-P But this is the photo that reminded me of you, especially with your new hairstyle.

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    1. She has fabulous hair, so I'll take that as a compliment! Thank you for sharing it!

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  11. I love this outfit so much, you always do a great job on refashions.
    I had a question about your hair. Do you usually set your pincurls day or night? I'm currently trying to work out the most manageable option, and you make this look so chic for day wear with the turban

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    1. I usually set mine at night, but sometimes I run out of time and do it in the morning. In those cases, I'll generally only pin curl if I have something important going on that evening. Otherwise, I just stuff my hair into a scarf and call it a fashion statement!

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  12. I am so glad that you were able to rescue such a lovely dress! And it looks positively fabulous on you too!

    Blessings,
    Brigid
    the Middle Sister and Singer

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  13. Like you, I have had and still have a few garments that have been in the closet waiting to be rescued. I'm so glad you were successful with this beauty! What a wonderful pattern and color palette.

    xoxo
    -Janey

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