So when I went to a vintage fair and came back with a skirt that almost fit but not quite, I knew I needed to recreate it, and then take pics. The blazer is from Miss Candyfloss, the lipstick is Victory Red by Besame, which isn't 50s but I only have their 40s shades, and the sunglasses are from Marks and Spencers.
And a few of the original
The story...
I decided to visit a vintage fair that came to my town. I have curves, lots of them, so I've come to accept that true vintage for a woman of my size is pretty impossible. I looked around the vintage fair, more interested in finding a watch than clothes when I came upon a skirt. It was at the end of a populated clothing rack and looking at it I thought, my God, that looks like my size.
Another thing with vintage fairs is that they sell both true vintage and reproduction vintage. Obviously repro has my size, but it also has the price tag. What this skirt didn't have was a price tag. I asked the woman who manned the stall, which was all genuine vintage, how much and she priced it at £15. Score! A vintage 50s style skirt that fit.
Little did I know the absolute gem I'd managed to find.
I got the skirt home and began the inspection. There were a few scuff marks on the fabric, but not very visible ones. Let's just say if someone noticed them that someone is looking too hard. It was a full circle skirt, so probably from the 50s. Then I began to notice details. The seams were finished with a pinking shear and pressed open, there was a sewn on snap at the waistband and a zipper hidden within a placket. The waistband and hem had both been done with some kind of zig-zag-straight stich I couldn't remember the name of.
This was....true vintage. I mean the purest of pure blooded vintage. This was a handmade/homemade skirt. Granted, there was a possibility it wasn't made in the 50s, but it was definitely 50s style. I'd inadvertantly hit the mother load.
Then I tried it on and it was a bit snug. I mean I could've squeezed into it, but there was very little breathing room let alone eating room. So I decided to re-make it. I was never really that comfortable wearing it anyway considering potentially how old it was, and how much care and attention had gone into making it.
I set about trying to find a similar fabric, which wasn't difficult seeing as it was large polkadots, and they always seem to be "in style" in fabric shops. Polka dots are quintessentially 1950s, despite the fact that they possibly weren't as popular in the actual 50s.
I couldn't get an exact match, or at least didn't fancy spending hours trolling the internet looking for one, so decided just to opt for the easiest. Honestly, I kind of prefer the newer fabric, I like contrast a lot better.
That wasn't the only strange thing about this fabric. I'm unsure if vintage fabrics were perhaps wider than modern ones, but the skirt was 2 semi-circles, with seams only at the side. I don't know how they managed it unless the fabric was curtain wide. Perhaps there's something I don't know, but to make a skirt that long only and circular having only 2 seams on the entire thing the fabric must have been hella wide. It feels like cotton, but not the same as the modern cotton. It's more textured, and a little stiffer than the cotton poplin I bought. I'm also unsure if there would've been curtain fabric with polka dots on it, so my theory is probably innacurate.
Regardless I began to pattern. I wanted to make is as close to the original as possible, so instead of having only 2 panels, I had to have 6, yes 6, just to get the same width. They were all the same, with CF and CB cut on the fold.
I also wanted a pocket so patterned one in. Unfortunately I miscalculated how much fabric I would need and ended up having to order some more halfway through...
I've never done a zip hidden within a placket, and CBA learning how to do one, so I used an invisible zip instead. I did keep the nice touch on the waistband by sewing in a snap (those things are so cool!). And obviously I deviated from construction. I attached the waistband by using the stitch-in-the-ditch method (also called other things), and the hem I did by hand, and regretted it instantly. I even ironed it, which I naughtily never do! So all my seams are pinked and then pressed, what a good wee seamstress I am.
It is a lot of skirt, as you'd expect, and it's surprisingly too long, even though I used the original for my pattern, so I'll need to take it up about an inch, but I'm definitely not doing that by hand.
