New Direction: Vintage Couture Gowns

When I first started out after my course at the Melbourne School of Fashion, I made quite a lot of wedding dresses for private clients.

It was such a huge learning curve.  Every client & dress was different. 

From a Frost Green Medieval Velvet gown to Gothic Revival to great big beaded meringues & restyling Mum's 1960's dress.


With each new gown I learned so much about pattern making, fabric suitability, fixed quotes & hand embellishing.
From there I went to work at Adele Chapeaux in Toorak for a couple of years, before heading back to uni to study costume design.

Along the way I have continued to make a select number of wedding & evening gowns, via word of mouth, but it seems like time to start creating couture gowns in earnest again.

In 16 years of costume making I have amassed a vast collection of vintage patterns dating back to the 1920's through to the 1960's &  since the Vintage clothing revival does not look as if it is slowing down I have decided to start recreating some of those gorgeous designs for modern fashionistas who long for a taste of yesteryear.






So without further ado, Empireroom Vintage Couture is open for business.
Make an appointment for a design consultation today & let us create the Vintage gown of your dreams.

Come & visit me at Empire Room

The treasure trove

A couple of weeks ago I won this lovely antique tallboy chest of drawers on eBay. I'd been search for months for the right look, size & price, but everything kept going beyond my budget. Finally I won this one & my bloke & I travelled down to Mount Eliza to pick it up.
The couple were clearing out their mother/in law's unit who had moved into assisted living & while the men did the hard work, Jill & I had a friendly chat as she showed me around the near empty unit. My work came up & she told me her mother in law had been a dressmaker.
They'd already sent her clothing & accessories to the Op Shop (gasp, sigh), but her sewing supplies were in their garage.
I said I'd be most interested in purchasing some of it & she said she would go through it & send me some photos before she listed it all on eBay.
The email came last week with picture of fabric, buttons, haby & 160 patterns. I could have the lot for a very reasonable amount, if I would take it all. Too right I'd take it all.
Sunday we made the trip back down the Pennisula & picked up the booty. And I spent Sunday night & Monday morning sorting through it all. Lining, interfacing, wool, silk, satin, sateen, prints, plains, stripes, checks, cottons, tartan, furnishing, curtains.
 Of the 6 Singapore bags of fabric I have sorted it into one for myself, one to resell, two for Carey & one will go to charity. Only a supermarket bag full of scraps went to the bin.

Then there was the 60 button jars sorted into types or colours plus more on cards, more than 300 reels of thread, some millinery supplies, fastenings, bias binding, zips & a small amount of eqiptment - needles, measures etc.

Finally 3 boxes of patterns dating back to the 1950's. What a collection. And they are in sizes that fit me. Of course I wanted to keep masses for myself, but as if I'm going to make all those 60's dresses when my favorite eras are 10's, 20's, 30's & 50's. 

 There is a 1950's Norman Hartnell that could fetch a small fortune as it's so rare, but I can't bare to part with it just yet. So I have a 'keep for now' pile, a keep for school pile& 3 boxes: sell individually, sell in lots & send to the charity shop. 

It meant that I was throughly distracted from wedding stuff for almost a whole day, but eventually yesterday afternoon I sat down & got Emily's dress finished, to the hand stitching stage. It's so pretty. I must get on to finishing my own dress today.....

Less than a month

So Servant of Two Masters finished on Monday night. By all accounts it was a resounding success, which I didn't actually get to see because Emily's dance concert was on too.
With that out of the way all there is to focus on now is Christmas & the Big Day.

I am starting to stress a bit with the wedding being so close. The days get less & there is still so much to achieve.
Shirts are done, boys pants are done except for fastenings.
Ties are cut, vests are cut.
Emily's dress is started.
After a mild nervous breakdown when I tried on my own dress last week & discovered I no longer have the boobs to fill it. (No idea where they went as I haven't lost weight, just toned up)
I couldn't face it until yesterday, so armed with the tv series Kingdom Hospital I sat myself down to rectify the problem.
I unpicked the lace overlay from bodice, unpicked the top seam & removed a couple of centimetres from the bust, but then the sweetheart shape wasn't siting right so I cut that down, but it still wasn't right, so I trimmed some more, added bust cups, eliminating the bra issues & stitched it back up. After some tears, tantrums & almost dislocating a shoulder trying to hook the back up it finally fits again & sits, almost, perfectly. Now I just have to reattach the lace overlay, finish the beading, attach the skirt, sew on the vintage glass buttons & voila!
I cannot change shape again in the next 23 days or I'm likely to throw the dress out the window & wear a sack.

I am actually enjoying the amount of exercise I'm getting & it's helped so much with my back pain. Given the amount of sewing I'm doing, I'm fairing pretty well.
I think with the discipline of working each day on sewing tasks I can see myself being able to stick to the program next year & really get my Etsy store happening.
Each week I've been getting a sale for my vintage lace or patterns & as I'm picking up a huge stash from a retired dressmaker this Sunday I should have lots more to list.
But it's really getting on to making things & having the confidence to list them in the new year that I'm struggling with. It's ridiculous when I can get a call to dash into Crown Towers to alter a designer beaded dress for an evening event & get the job done in 3 hours. I know I can do it, I just need to find the confidence to put myself out there. New Years resolution? Maybe.


So I'd better stop procrastinating & get back to it, I hear Kingdom Hospital calling.

Anything but…..

I'm finding it really hard to focus today.
Invoices, packages, Facebook, youtube, emails, Houzz, eBay, anything but what I'm supposed to be doing.
Which is making Nigel's shirt & cutting out vests.
Unfortunately while I was at school on Saturday Willow our fluffy grey kitty decided to have a little shred of the vest pattern. She just loves shredding tissue paper & is not discerning when it come to what is patterns & what is discarded.
So I have to find a new pattern.
I have made some matching lace cuffs for Beatrice's jacket  with the lace from the jabot. The sleeves were just a touch short & the black & white broderie anglaise cuffs will just finish it superbly. I still have some for sale in my store if you are interested.
She looked amazing on Saturday. I trimmed a tall velvet hat with ostrich feather, buttons & ribbon that really bought the whole look together.
I was really pleased with the overall look of the show, I think the costumes & set really complement each other.
I think Servant of Two Masters will be a really fun night.
Ok really must go & sew…...

Busy Bee

I've been a busy bee last few days.
Added loads of Vintage patterns to my Etsy shop & sales started almost immediately. Several yards of lace, 4 patterns & an inquiry for all the lace as a lot all in two days. It would be nice if this continued. Here's a few examples of the 1940's-60's patterns I have for sale.

Yesterday I started on some personal sewing jobs for the Biggish Day.
Got the silk underbodice for my dress constructed, but am still waiting for the lining from Spotlight. It's so frustrating when I ordered it weeks ago & I can't go anyfurther with out it. Also cut out the lace overbodice. I drafted it & tweaked it on Mildura, but the lace is sitting quite different to the toile fabric that was a bit more fluid, so I need to work out how to get the bust sitting less puffy. It's exactly how I wanted though, so that's encouraging.
I also made the lace waistband & cut out 'millions' of silk petals for the waistband & birdcage fascinator. I still can't decide on exactly what I want so there is lots of samples, more things to put in the shop hopefully. I tried a little padded heart to sew the bits on to & a few gathered flowers, but decided I really want more authentic silk flowers. They are just so time consuming.

This silk flower is abut 150 years old from
the Vienna Museum Fashion Collection that I visited in June.
Mine is just going to be ivory & blush.

Love the size of this one, not too big, but still quite bridal.
   I don't quite get the point of the ones with veiling across the eyes,
so this really appeals to me.
Sorry I don't know where I got the pic. 

I've also been making a playlist for the wedding reception. I think we've got a good mix so far. Some romance, some dance music, some jazz, some classics, some silly songs (with Larry).

Prague Quadrennial: Estonian exhibit by Reet Aus

I have also been trawling google for more ideas for S2M. I'm getting more excited about the idea of upcycling, so I need to get down to Savers & other big Op Shops to find the right jackets, pants vests, skirts & tops to get sewing with. I think it's going to look so fun….