Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Leafy Greens, Peter Pan, and the Case of the Magically Expanding Dress

Wow, I do believe in magic, I do, I do!  At a vintage fair last spring, I had bought an amazing 1930s dress; it had the most heartbreakingly beautiful leaf pattern on it and the most darling green trim with self ties at the neck.  Despite my love for this garment, when I took it home and tried it on, I found it far too tight in the bust, too short in length, and generally just not quite the right fit.  As some of you will recall, I put it up in my Etsy shop for a long while.  Then, as fall was coming nearer, I pulled it out of storage with the aim of willing this dress to fit me once and for all.  For some reason, when I put the dress on this second time, it seemed to fit a little better than it had before, perhaps because the crepe had been washed by the seller and was now starting to relax a bit, so I immediately pulled it out of the shop and hoarded it, though I still knew I would need a more powerful corselette or a serious bust flattening device if I was to wear it out and about for more than an hour or two.  Well, as I was looking through my closet in an effort to find something to wear this evening, I pulled this dress out once again.  I ended up discovering that the dress had been clumsily taken in at some point in its history, but the way the alterations had been done, the seamstress had simply stitched a wider seam allowance in the bust, waist, and hips, without actually trimming off any of the fabric and without ever removing the original stitching along the seams. As a result, after doing some stitch ripping for about a half hour, the dress is "magically" my exact size and ready to wear without restricting breathing or movement! I don't even need any Bridget Jones-esque giant "stomach holding in" knickers, etc.  My green "leaf" hat from Dear Golden not only matches the motif of the leaf pattern of the dress (and its color vaguely coordinates with that of the frock's palette), but it makes me feel a little like Peter Pan or Jack-er-Jill of the Magic Beanstock story, so thought I'd add it to the look. Magic!



22 comments:

Gemma said...

Fabulous :D x

Anonymous said...

Excellent stuff! Desrving of a happy dance (I did one of those at work today for non-garment related reasons) You look lovely :)

Mary said...

Yay!!

Riikka said...

What a stunning look - I'm so glad the dress now fits you so well.

Stephanie Lynn said...

Yay! I love it when you try something on that didn't used to fit and now it does.

Unknown said...

totally a beautiful autumn dress.

Harlow Darling said...

A beautiful dress and just in time for autumn too, prefection :D

Lauren said...

Perfect! I love that dress. The hat is killer, too :)

chelsea said...

Oh my gosh.
It is like a fairytale! How extraordinary! I wish this had been the case in so many of my failed dresses. Lucky girl!

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's some lucky stuff right there!!

A said...

looks amazing!

lauren said...

ummmmmm, when you want to get rid of that dress (again), you just tell me directly! ya hear?!

The Dreamstress said...

Fabulous! The colours of the dress are fantastic on you!

Jan said...

Truly gorgeous!

Porcelina said...

If only ALL of the vintage dresses I found had magic capabilities! Looks lovely on you.
By the way..I did a Poirot fashion post (the first of many), thought you might like it!
Miss P xx

Penny Dreadful Vintage said...

WOOHOOOOOOOO!

BaronessVonVintage said...

Thank you!! This has never happened before, so it was pretty neat. Now if only ALL my wishful thinking could turn out this way ;)

Will do, Lauren ;)

Porcelina: Yes, I saw that post of yours and LOVED it (I agree about the stylishness of Miss Lemon). Just a friendly little note: I tried to comment on it, but you seem to have your blog on a setting that only allows people who are members of your blog to comment? If you are finding no one commenting on your wonderful posts, that is probably why :)

Casey Maura said...

What luck that you were able to let out the dress! I love discovering that after I've given up hope that something I adore will fit. ;) hehe. You look so gorgeous--I love the hat especially!

♥ Casey | blog

Miss Matilda said...

style and taste, i love you xx

Nancy said...

You are too cute! I love this dress and I'm so glad you got it to fit you. That was very lucky that the seamstress did not take out the original stitching.

BaronessVonVintage said...

Twas lucky, indeed. Like growing a beanstalk from a hill o' beans ;)

Thanks again for your amazingly kind compliments

Stefanie Valentine said...

I wish my clothes would do that, I think I just need to cut out the chocs and cakes :)