I’ve been discovering a lot of sewing and crafty blogs lately. I think I might have already mentioned Crazy Mom Quilts and Tilly and the Buttons. Now via the latter I have found several more:
Adventures in Dressmaking
A Fashionable Stitch
Thread Square
So Zo…
It makes me happy that there seem to be a lot of women interested in “vintage” dresses these days. I don’t know… maybe it’s just that I’m finding all the right websites and there aren’t really that many but all the pattern companies seem to be selling these kinds of patterns so there is at least some interest. I don’t see many around here. The usual women’s attire consists of jeans, yoga pants or shorts and a t-shirt or tank top. I haven’t tried the vintage look myself. I’m a little afraid that I would feel too silly wearing it. A woman working in the Wal-mart fabric department last week expressed happiness at the return to “ladylike” dresses so maybe there are more of us around who just haven’t come out yet.
…which reminds me of this unrelated item about Sweden’s Gender Neutral Schools. When I first saw that it made me rather sad but I think they are going to discover that girls will be girls and boys will be boys. It’s good to let girls know that they don’t have to be girly girls if that’s just not who they are, but trying to suppress all girly impulses will cause another whole set of girls to have hangups and feel bad about themselves. (And of course the same goes for boys who are not allowed to act like boys.) And ultimately it will not work. You can make people feel guilty and embarrassed about who they are but you cannot change who they are.
April 16th, 2012 - 9:09 am
“the return to “ladylike” dresses ”
Applauds. (I like the “ladylike” look and think it suits me well).
If only I had more time to sew…I’ve seen some of the vintage patterns and they can be very cute. (I think the trick is picking fabric that doesn’t look specifically vintagey for them, so you don’t wind up looking like “Farmwife In Town, ca. 1942″ or something)
April 17th, 2012 - 6:15 am
I might not mind the “farmwife 1942″ look if I wasn’t the only one. Actually, to get that look I think it would take more than a vintage pattern and a vintage looking fabric. You’d have to go all the way with the 40′s style make-up and hair. Without that it just looks classic, which is good.
Another problem I think (as well as being part of the attraction) is the old-fashioned illustrations, with the impossibly long legs and the impossibly tiny waist and the skirt either flared out like it has four petticoats under it or so narrow and close fitting that you couldn’t possibly walk if it was really like that. I really like looking at the sewing blogs and seeing the vintage dresses people have made so I can see what they really look like.