Palm Springs Mid-Mod

We love to go to Palm Springs once or twice a year, usually for a birthday or special event. This last weekend we attended the Rock N’ Luau on Saturday.  Sunday was our day for antiquing and driving through the beautiful mid century modern neighborhoods.   My favorite neighborhood is called Vista Las Palmas.  When built in 1958-59 by the Alexander brothers, it was the Beverly Hills of Palm Springs.  Here the Rat Pack partied with Marilyn, Elvis and Priscilla spent their honeymoon in the famous "House of Tomorrow", and dozens of other stars owned the desert homes. The floor plans were similar; long, low ranch houses, but the front of the houses had interesting architectural features, some designed by William Krisel and some by Charles Dubois.  Butterfly roofs, concrete block walls (by Krisel) and my favorite, the "Swiss Miss" (by Dubois).  There are around 15 Swiss Miss houses in this neighborhood.

I found the perfect Palm Springs dress fabric.   Made by Michael Miller, its called Mod Pad. I thought it would be fun to wear it while on one of our neighborhood tours.  It looks like this:

 

 Since I could only afford 3 yards, I searched for a simple sundress type pattern. I found a very easy Simplicity “Lisette” pattern, number 1419.   It used less than 3 yards.  It only took a few evenings to finish, and I really like the style.  I will be making more dresses from this pattern.  I made the view B, but without the collar. I cut it out to my measurements, but it runs large.  I can use a size smaller on the next dress I make from this pattern.





Dress cost:  3 yards fabric for $27
                   1 zipper  $1.50








 











Jerry has taken dozens of beautiful photos of these homes over the last few years. I would love to show you them all, but here are some of my favorite "Swiss Miss" homes :)

 

"THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW" ELVIS HONEYMOON HIDEAWAY

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

I have always loved this song, written by Bobby Troup in 1946 and sung by Nat King Cole.

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

It winds from Chicago to LA,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Won't you get hip to this timely tip:
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.


Two things happened to get me more excited about the famous highway.  California Adventure opened Cars Land, a Route 66 themed land full of memorabilia and attractions based on the movie Cars.  The other thing is I found awesome fabric I just had to make a dress out of. I previously discussed the pattern and construction in my post from Tiki Day at Disneyland
                                                                                                                                           
This post is more of a photo shoot dedicated to the "Mother Road" than anything else. My daughter and I went to California Adventure, and she took some shots of our time there. I added a vintage vibe to the coloring.  Here are some of them.  Photo heavy!

 

 

My Route 66 bracelet from Etsy

Me, Tow Mater, and Amy

My Buick Parasol

Stash Projects

I have a problem, probably the same one as a lot of sewers.  I love to hoard fabric.   I can't pass by a fabric sale, a $2 pattern or a cute print.   I buy between 2-4 yards of 100% cotton prints because "someday" I will make something out of it.  Sometimes all that is left on the bolt is a scant 2 yards.   I get it and worry about what to do with it later.  Well, my stash is now a mountain. Its time to make a few things!  

I am currently in my "I don't want to make another costume for awhile" mode.  Summer is coming and I realized my everyday clothing for work consists of mostly polyester tops that absolutely do not breathe.   I also don't want to fall into the boring, look alike clothes from Kohls or Target, rut.  I LOVE PRINTS!

Here is what I will start with.

 I fell in love with this 40's print from Rosie's Calico Cupboard, and have to make this retro blouse! Not cheap at $8 a yard, but 2 yards for a blouse is not bad!  Will need buttons, but less than $20 for a cute top!

 Here is a summery fabric from Rosie's Calico Cupboard.  Again, $8 a yard, but will finish under $20.

 Big sale at Joanns Fabric.  Bought four yards for a total of $18.  Now that's a bargain!

A different sale at Joanns, maybe 2 years ago.   3 3/4 yards for I think $14.   cute floral for work.

This retro print I just couldn't pass by.  Joanns again, 4 yards for around $20.

The last three prints I haven't decided on yet.  (1) The red, white and aqua is 2 yards, so either a blouse or a skirt.   I am leaning towards a skirt, so I can wear a red or white blouse with it.  From Rosie's Calico Cupboard. $16   (2)  Yellow and black print is four yards, so definitely a dress. From Joanns. $18  (3)  retro like pink, grey and white.  4 yards.  I really liked it when I bought it, but now - meh.   Will have to think on it.  Joanns. $16

Meet Anastasia Tremaine

Most every costumer I know was eagerly waiting for the premiere of the new Disney Cinderella movie.  The San Diego Costume Guild was no exception.   We planned on attending opening weekend.   At least I had a few months to work out a costume!    In the beginning, there were only a handful of photos on line of a few of the costumes.  I ruled out Cinderella right away.   I do not need a blue ballgown to hang in the closet, possibly never to be worn again.  The only other photo I had seen was the movie poster of Lady Tremaine and her two daughters.

Right away, I fell in love the the 1950's vibe of the costuming.   I knew a few people were going to try for the stepmother look, so I decided to recreate one of the stepsisters.   I am a sucker for pink, so Anastasia it is!  As you can see by the above photo, you cannot tell how long the skirt is.  I would worry about that later.  I started looking in local fabric stores and on line for flowered pink fabric that was similar.  I found nothing even close in the stores, so started googling "pink flowered fabric".  Still nothing!  I found an article on line about Sandy Powell's costuming for the movie, and it mentioned the fabric was hand painted.....no wonder I had problems! 

 

 Upon closer inspection of Anastasia's bodice, it shows us that the dress is a sheer over a solid pink.  I wasn't worried about recreating this look, and opted for a solid print. Looking closely at the flowers I realized they were hibiscus-like. I googled "pink fabric with hibiscus". I was directed to an etsy shop that sold Hawaiian fabrics. I found one I thought would work. I ordered 4 yards.   For the crocheted collar, I found a nearly identical one on Etsy.    Yellow buttons-easy.  The sleeves had little lace and black trim.  Belt looks like a ribbon. Buckle - I used the one from my 1830s dress and bought black velvet ribbon for the belt and sleeve trim.

For the dress, I used two different patterns.   I used Retro Butterick B5920, but for the bodice I used a regular button down shirtwaist dress pattern.  Very easy! For the length, I found a photo on line of a museum costume display that showed the dress to be about ankle length. The concept art shows her wearing what looks like Victorian ankle boots, which I already have.  For the hat, I had the perfect one April had made me for last Costume College - but it was black.   I did not want to ruin her beautiful hat, so I basically made a round pink pillowcase for the black hat.  It was open around the inner brim so I can easily remove it.  I cut out some of the flowers from fabric scraps and glued them inside the brim.  I had never seen the back of the original hat, so all I did was add a ruched black ribbon around the brim to match the belt.  Imagine my surprise when I saw the movie, and she had a black ribbon around the brim!   Now for the hair   I ordered the cutest side curls made by Tracy Gomez at the Historical Hairdresser.   They were perfect!  Thank you Tracy!     Here are a few photos from our Afternoon at the Movies.

 



Taken by Debbie Boyd

 

 

 

 

Breakdown:  Unfortunately this was not cheap. I had a small bonus from work that helped out a lot.

 

Flowered fabric 4 yards plus shipping $46

pink fabric hat 1/2 yard  $1.75

collar plus shipping   $7.25

velvet ribbon 1 yard for belt  $4.75

sleeve trim $3.00

buttons $3.50

Hair (good investment!)

 

TOTAL:  $66.25 PLUS HAIR COST

 

 

My First 1830s Dress

Several of my friends have lovely 1830s dresses.  I have always resisted making one for a few reasons.  First, most of them have slightly off the shoulder bodices, which I cannot wear because of my scoliosis.  Second, I am not much of a fan of the style in general.  I saw a friend who had made an 1830s dress and it was real cute on her, and had a high neck!   It was Past Patterns 1830s Full High Gown.

I will say that this is a very easy pattern! It seems to run a bit large, so I would make at least a mock up of the bodice.  There is a fitted under bodice, and a larger over bodice that I actually pleated down front and back so it wasn't so blousy.

I went shopping in Val's fabric stash and purchased 4 yards of cute cream, rust and green mini floral.  It was perfect for a day dress.
 









The first thing I made was a quilted petticoat.   I used maybe 2 yards of quilted fabric that I got at Joanns on sale.   I made a waist band and pleated it on to the waistband. I cut several inches off the bottom after the dress was done.  Because the fabric is so thick, you have to put a cotton petticoat over the quilted one or your dress will get stuck in the pleats of the quilted fabric.  Here it is before I cut off the bottom.

For accessories, I got a belt buckle at the antique show that Val found in a pile, and it was only $2.  The bonnet was from Austentation.com - a plain green felt bonnet for $18.   My thought was it would bring the green out of the print in the dress, but when it arrived it was a lot brighter green than I thought it would be.  More of a kelly green. I had bought a pelerine from Etsy, and then received an email from the seller saying there was a death in the family, and she wasn't able to mail out timely, so she refunded my money. Imagine my surprise when a month later I received a shipping notice that it was on the way!  I emailed her back and said I needed to pay for it.   She said it was a gift because she made me wait :) 

Once I had the dress together, I had scraps of green and rust/pumpkin taffeta to make a belt.   The green was in no way close to the bonnet color, so I chose the rust.   I had a rust and cream color plume for the hat.  Well, the hat was still too green, so I decided to cover it in the same taffeta as the belt.  Here it is in the process of being covered.  I  pleated white cotton to line the inside as well.  Swapped out the green ribbon for brown.

Once the bonnet was finished, I put the whole outfit on for a test run.  I played around with putting tulle in the balloon sleeves, but I didn't like puffs that were as big as my head......   out came the tulle!

My basic day dress was done.  I had planned on wearing it in the Dickens festival fashion show.   I wasn't real thrilled with the final look, but I tried :)  I will make myself another bustle gown and feel better about the outcome.

Val was sweet and made me a cute matching reticule. 

 Above, Cat wears her gorgeous late1820s transition gown.  Val is wearing a lovely jewel tone 1830s ensemble.  The fashion show theme was Villains.  I was Sarah Dazley, who poisoned two husbands with arsenic.  Here I am demonstrating how I did the dastardly deed!


Below are photos taken on stage, including one where I show my quilted petticoat with the cotton one on top.

Cost Breakdown

$16.00     Fabric
$18.00     Hat
$2.00       Buckle
$9.00      Quilted fabric

Total    $45.00