"God Is Good" Khanga Dress

Mungu ni mwema kwa watu wake.

For the past several months, I have been praying that God would send African families to our intercultural church.  We have people from all over the world, but we didn't have any families from the continent of Africa. It felt like our church family was missing something.

1930s Fixer Upper Dress

The vintage community is fantastic.  This dress was a gift from a fellow blogger, and I was delighted to find it was very close to my size already!  (A rare occurrence.)  It needed a couple mends and a bath in some Retro Clean to brighten up the white sections on the bow print and remove yellowing and age spots.  All I needed to do to make it my size was to shorten the straps a bit, and voila!  It fits!

Basic Sewing Win

After working on this pattern and making several versions of it (you can my first, second, third, and fourth versions in previous posts), I have finally perfected this pattern!  It is Simplicity 4762, and I am happy to say it is the first pattern I have completely and utterly conquered.  It fits perfectly, and I've made it up so many times now that I don't need instructions and I've figured out the best, most efficient way to sew it up.  

Turbanista

Someday I'll do my hair again, but lately... Why?  Why when there are head wraps in the world?  I've been wrapping almost every day this week, including earlier when I went to a new friend's house for brunch with my sister and donned a turban!

I've been working on getting better at using this type of wrap, a long rectangle.  I paired this turban with a blazer made from a 1940s pattern, my Freddies jeans, a t-shirt, and Swedish Hasbeen clogs. I was surprised at how modern this look seemed even though it's made of vintage repro pieces.  Good fashion is timeless!

My sister was nice enough to take some photos for me.  This is my first post with iPhone photos.  I'm still figuring out how it all works!

Outfit Details

blazer: handmade by me

jeans: Freddies of Pinewood Ton Up jeans

shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

earrings: Kenya

Vacation Style

I spent the last week at my grandparents' house in the country, and it was a much-needed break!  They live in the country amongst fields and pastures, and one of my favorite things was to sit out on their patio and peruse some new-to-me vintage magazines.  

I love the fashion illustrations!  And while it's always the fancy dresses that inspire awe, sometimes it's the casual looks that get you through the day.  That's what inspired this particular vacation look!  I absolutely love the "soft & sexy" t-shirts from American Eagle Outfitters, the only things I've ever bought in their store.  They're, as labeled, super soft and the drape is nicer than the average t-shirt.  This black one is a staple for me, especially since the length is a tiny bit cropped and perfect for my shorter torso.  (I think this one on the site is the one I've got... mine may be a bit more fitted, though.)

I paired this comfy t-shirt with some flats and my 1930s khaki clam diggers.  I took these photos with only basic makeup on and wrinkles in the trousers, true to vacation laziness!  This is real stuff right here, folks!  

While I do totally love my yoga pants, this vintage-y look is my midway point of effort between them and full-out vintage garb.  I'm sure ladies back in the day had similar looks because everyone needs a chill day.

What's your boring-but-fantastic, sort of vintage-y relaxation style look like?  Or do you, like a lot of us, just swing from yoga pants to full-out vintage depending on the day?

1940s Ford & Floral

A couple weeks ago those of you who follow me on IG gave your input and said I should use my tropical rayon with this 1940s pattern.  You spoke, and I listened!

But sometimes sewing doesn't go as planned.  Sometimes you do a muslin test of a pattern you think is going to be so easy that you really consider it just a formality of being a "good sewist," then it epically fails.  Then you try another muslin, sure this time it will work, and it turns out to be worse than the first. 

At this point in the story I pulled a CeeLo and told that stupid muslin, "FORGET YOU!"

Sometimes you just have to go balls to the wall (in the aeronautical sense) and just cut into the fashion fabric and hope for the best.  (I've got sewing details on this pattern in the post with a TLDR summary at the bottom!)

I realized after cutting into my fashion fabric that using cotton muslin as a test for a rayon garment just doesn't work well.  The cotton behaves differently than the rayon, and the fitting adjustments I made on the cotton were not necessary on the rayon.  My cotton muslins were far too roomy at the waist, by about 5-6 inches, in fact.  I tried to combat this with bringing in the side seams and back darts, but it ended up looking stupid with the kimono sleeves and looser fit of the shoulders.   BAH!

For my fashion fabric, the only adjustment I did to the pattern was to shorten the shoulder/bodice length by about 7/8".  My torso is a bit shorter than the average person's, so I figured this would be a good tweak.  The length of the pattern in this area also accounts for thick 1940s shoulder pads, a detail I did not consider when making my cotton muslins but did indeed remember in time for the fashion fabric.

The pattern also advises that 2-3" be added to the skirt length for a hem, but since that's usually the amount I remove from a pattern, I just cut it out as it was.

Luckily.... it worked!  The dress has turned out well, though it did involve only one major alteration to the fashion-fabric version I made: I still needed to bring in the waist about 7-8" at the side seams, for there was almost no waist shaping in the pattern at all!  It went almost straight down from bust to hips with very little curve, and I looked like a terrible 1980s tropical shmoo.  I removed the zipper and brought it in about 4" on each side, tapering out to the slim the hips just a tiny bit below and adjusting the bust only as necessary to smoothly meet the curve from the waist.

I made shoulder pads about 3/4" thick, hemmed the dress and let it hang on a padded hanger for a few days to "shape" the shoulder pads correctly.  Then I wore it for the first time yesterday!  

I paired it with a Muchana Panama hat I fancied up with some red yarn pom-poms, blue Swedish Hasbeens, vintage earrings... and a 1940 Ford!  

This is my grandfather's prized car that he built and restored.  Back in his crazy drag-racing teenage years, my grandpa had a 1940 Ford.  He ended up selling it to pay for the hospital bill when my father was born.  A few years ago my grandmother surprised him with boxes full of old car parts... that when put together would make his '40 Ford!  I've never seen my grandfather so happy as when he got those boxes of parts.  He has since built the car, put a Mustang flathead motor in it and gotten it all shined up.  It looks awesome, and he was more than happy to let me borrow it for a shoot.  (You also saw this car in my wedding photos!)

I got a lot of compliments from non-vintage-wearers when I wore this, which kind of surprised me.  Shoulder pads usually earn me some strange looks, but the compliments I got with this ensemble was, "I love the details in it. Clothes don't have details like that," and "Wow, you look fantastic! What a lovely dress!"  I think that's pretty great.

Here is a summary of the pattern details and things I changed:
Fabric: modern rayon, red tag fabric from Joann 
Pattern: 8142 (not sure of the company...)
Year: 1940s war era is my guess!
Notions: 6 buttons, zipper. I also used light interfacing around the neckline.
How historically accurate is it? Pretty accurate as far as fiber content of the fabric and silhouette.  
Any tricky parts to the pattern? The complete lack of waist shaping!  That required major adjusting, and I took at least 7-8" out of the waist.  The point at the back can be a bit trick to line up correctly, but it does wonders in accentuating the bum nicely!
Did you change anything?  I didn't add extra for a hem, just turned it up where the pattern ended.  Took a lot out of the waist, too, as I talked about above.
Time to complete: two days
First worn: 17 July 2016
Total cost: The fabric, I think, was about $15.  The buttons were about $3, and the zipper was from my stash. The pattern was a gift from a lovely friend!
Notes: The drape of this pattern really requires a heavy, draped fabric like rayon. I can't see it working at all with quilting cotton and looking right.

So what do you guys think?  How did it turn out?  Feelin' good about the crowd's pattern choice?