Free-Hand Sewing ~ Aqua Blooms & Sprigs Dress ~ Retro 1930's

Hello again!

Here's the next edition of Spring Sewing '25! 

I was inspired by a beautiful dress made by Kristen at Verity Vintage Studio, and after finishing my no-pattern variation of it I can say it's one of my new favorite dresses. It had its share of complexity, but nothing too frustrating. Darts made up most of the time-consuming work since they must be very carefully placed to give the right shaping to the dress, but they are worth it once they are finished!

I like the way the darts smoothly shape the bodice.

The collar "peeks" out of the shoulder area instead of going all the way around the neckline. This design was a very easy way to achieve the collar look! I tacked the points down and it lies nice and flat :)

For the sleeves, I made a sort of knife pleat at the shoulder and then sewed it into a tuck. I added a band of contrasting fabric and some rickrack to make it pretty! 

 Here is my new favorite way to make skirts! Sometimes I like gathered/pleated skirts on a dress, but this time I wanted a smooth one, so I took this skirt concept (with added pockets) attached it to my bodice, and voila! I really like how it went together.

That's all for today! If you'd like to see more retro/vintage fashion, be sure to check out Verity Vintage Studio.

Have a blessed spring!

Miss Humphrey

Independence Day

 

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

I made a design for the dress that I wanted to make for 4th of July, and...didn't. Maybe next year!

See a very similar design that DID get sewn here: https://misshumphreysblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/easter-dress-idea.html

Instead, I am wearing this for the 4th!  

My mother made the blouse for me using the skirt of one of my free-hand dresses that didn't turn out so great. She copied it from one of her blouses. Didn't she do a wonderful job?

I paired the blouse with my Edwardian walking skirt.

There you have it - my red, white and blue!

If you are in America, what are you doing to celebrate the 4th?

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

How I Made This Dress, Part 3...Finishing Up

When I have the bodice completely done on a dress, I have usually passed all the hard work. Just have to attach a simple skirt, and I'll be done! 

Not so with circle dresses. Those can be finicky to the very end. 

And not so with the tiered skirt to this dress, because I had a lot of work ahead of me to make all those gathers!

My mother told me how to do a tiered skirt. Here's the "formula" I used for how long each of my panels needed to be.

Here's how I did my panels...

I cut a panel and sewed the ends together (right sides together) to make a round. On one of the panels, I had to add extra yardage to make it the right length. This dress fit easily into 4 yards of fabric, using the excess from one panel to complete another.

I sewed 2 rows of gathers on one edge.

It would have been cute to just hem the bottom of this panel and have a blouse!

I gathered the second panel until it fit pretty well with my last panel, then sewed it up!

To this I added a short panel to complete the skirt.

I made a sash out of the dress material, and I was...done!!

Here's some more dress pictures.

Hope you enjoyed this dress-making process!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

How I Made This Dress, Part 1

 Hello all,

I'm pretty excited about this new dress! It is a little different than the designs that I usually make. I documented a lot of the process so I could share it with you. Here goes Part 1!

The inspiration for this dress was this 1940's tiered dress, and the fabric came from Joanns.

First, I Visualized My Design

Here was my rough drawing of what I planned to make. Yes, the finished product turned out different. I changed some things...and forgot some things because I was not paying attention to my drawing. Just being honest!

 I used another dress I made to give me some dimensions for the bodice. I folded it in 1/2 and laid in on my folded fabric. (Look at this post to see how I fold my fabric)

My front (lower) and back (higher) neckline 

More lines :) I made my armholes and shoulders larger than my original markings, because I was cutting a yoke out of this bodice, which meant that I needed room for its seam allowances. 

Speaking of the yoke, I used this measuring tape as a sort of compass to make the yoke the right distance from the neckline.

I cut the back neckline and the armhole out. I opted to cut the armhole a little differently than I had drawn. 

I also drew a line for the bottom of my bodice, but I didn't end up cutting it at all! I had planned to cut it before I attached the skirt after sewing the bodice, so I could make sure that the bodice was the length I wanted it to be. But I left it with a low-waist at the end.

Cutting my front neckline

I decided to make my neckline a little bigger

The yoke

For the yoke lining, I salvaged some muslin from my sewing scraps. 

I had to do the yoke lining in 2 pieces, but it turned out fine. I made sure to leave seam allowances for the connecting seams so the lining would still fit my yoke once its pieces were sewn together.

I sewed the lining to the yoke, (with the yoke on the right side of the fabric) and snipped into the seam allowance. This is to make the curves of a neckline lie flat and smooth when you flip a lining or facing to the inside.

Now it was time to sew the yoke to the bodice.

I sewed an arc of lace to the main piece of the bodice first, and then added the yoke. This way, my lace could not move around while I sewed the yoke and bodice together, and I used that first seam as a guide for where to sew my yoke on. My lace didn't get completely enclosed in a seam this way :)

Then I sewed the back of the bodice to the back of the yoke...

I top-stitched above my lace, folding the seam behind it upwards so that my lace would lie down and not up.

I sewed the side seams together.

Well, that'll be all for this post. Stay tuned for more of the process!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

An exciting end to my project...

 Hello all,

I have another circle dress to show you! If you remember, I showed a sneak peak of the fabric in this post, and I finally got around to sewing it up recently. 

It was a project I worked on for awhile, and I would say it's definitely success from a failure...this free-hand/homemade pattern dress was NOT working out for awhile! A change in design and some prayers later I am really happy with it :) 

I used the sash and sailor's collar in this photo from this dress.

The bodice is lined.

I do apologize for the finger-printed mirror;) 

My grandma says that ruffles are my signature. Maybe they are! I love a good bit of eyelet lace!

This is another no-zipper dress. Unlike the earlier version of this dress that I was working on, it is very comfortable and easy to get on!

The 2/3 circle skirt was cut too big for this particular bodice, but a few carefully placed pleats worked well to fix that problem. Free-hand sewing can be very frustrating...and very rewarding!

I did a simple puffed sleeve, gathered at the bottom by elastic.

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey