Hi all, I'm new.  Here's a dress and jacket I made earlier this year.  Snaked this off a fellow costumer's websiste:
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And a coat I made last year:
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retrokitten,Oct 6 2005, 02:57 PM wrote:

Hi Lauren&#33;&nbsp; It&#39;s good to see you over here.&nbsp; &nbsp; Those are both gorgeous&#33;&#33;&#33;&nbsp; How is it working with fur?&nbsp; Did you salvage the collar piece from something vintage?

retrokitten/decodoll

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good to see you too, my dear.  Thanks for the compliments&#33;  Yes, the collar was a vintage fur coat that needed help.  It was ok to work with, but it flew EVERYWHERE&#33;&#33;  And the seams sewing some of the pelts together needed to be restitched after I cut it into a different shape, and I needed to pull the stray hairs through with a needle from the seam allowances, but other than that it wasn&#39;t bad&#33;

Did you use cold tape?

I&#39;ve got some books on working with furs, but all I&#39;ve done is a bit of mending/patching.

lauren,Oct 6 2005, 04:46 PM wrote:

Hi all, I&#39;m new.&nbsp; Here&#39;s a dress and jacket I made earlier this year.&nbsp; Snaked this off a fellow costumer&#39;s websiste:
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And a coat I made last year:
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That&#39;s amazing. I need to learn to sew.

lauren,Oct 6 2005, 10:49 PM wrote:

No, I didn&#39;t.&nbsp; To be honest, I&#39;ve never heard of cold tape, and just made it up as I went along &nbsp; What is cold tape?

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If I remember correctly, it&#39;s a sticky-backed flannel tape used to piece furs.

I&#39;ve got some repairs to do on one of my coats, and was thinking of sending away for some.

I did have an old sheared beaver that I&#39;d just stitch up any old way if the pelts split, but this one has a "design" in the pelts,  AND it was a gift from my husband (still vintage, but 60&#39;s rather than 40&#39;s) and I want to be a bit more careful with it.

I was sort of hoping you&#39;d used the stuff so I could ask your advice&#33;

lauren,Oct 6 2005, 04:46 PM wrote:

Hi all, I&#39;m new.&nbsp; Here&#39;s a dress and jacket I made earlier this year.&nbsp; Snaked this off a fellow costumer&#39;s websiste:
<div class='bbimg'></div>
And a coat I made last year:
<div class='bbimg'></div>

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Welcome to the Cafe&#33; That coat with the fur collar is phenomenal&#33; The only garmet I attempted to make was for a stage costuming class in college...and I nearly drove myself CRAZY&#33; We had to pick a period piece of clothing to build for our final, so that means what for guys? Vests, coats, shirts, etc. I wanted something I could actually wear rather than something that was more of a "costume" and originally settled on a frock coat, a la Willy Wonka (in the same purple velvet, no less&#33;) but decided to be ambitions when I found the Vogue pattern for a Zoot Suit. It didn&#39;t look all THAT hard and I&#39;m great at following directions. So I figured, why the heck not? Well, was I in OVER MY HEAD&#33;

Why my professor didn&#39;t try to discourage my enthusiasm, knowing that the project would be way too diffucult for me, is beyond me, and I partly blame him for not doing his job as a teacher and helping me pick something a bit more manageable. Well, I bought all the supplies (great charcoal grey wool with a subtle blue pin stripe, navy silk lining, interfacing, wool felt for under the collar, zippers, buttons, etc. In total, I probably spent &#036;250-&#036;300 on my fabric and acoutrements) and had EVERYTHING I needed to make an actual Zoot Suit (not a costume, but the real deal&#33;) except TIME. That was a particularly busy semester for me and I worked every free hour on that darn Zoot Suit, even hand pad stitching all the interfacing together, and then some trying desperately to finish the project for my final class. I told myself I would die before I didn&#39;t finish. I was totally driven and obsessed&#33;

Sadly, at 2 AM the night before the final, I conceeded and admitted defeat to myself. At that point I had a pair of pants I rushed to complete in a week, and the shell of a complete jacket (sleeves and all - which were a pain to set in the arm holes, but came out smooth without any puckers) as well as a separately completed lining that was pinned to the outer jacket shell waiting to be sewn together.

I got an A for effort (trust me, I worked LONG and HARD on this Zoot Suit and DESERVED THAT A&#33;&#33;&#33;) and tried to finish the jacket during finals week, however in working so hard and slightly faster than I should have, I overlooked a vital step in the directions and would have had to cut away the felt undercollar that I had to handstitch and stretch to fit in order to sew in the silk lining. It was a MAJOR step back and I just gave up.

To this day I still have my heap of a Zoot Suit tucked away in the same shopping bag I carted around campus with my fabric. The semi-completed jacket hangs on a rack in my basement, and the whole experience kind of scarred me for a while. I got quite good at sewing during the process, but I don&#39;t have the energy to finish my Zoot Suit. It kind of makes me sad, all the time and money I wasted with nothing to show for it.

Even if I had had the whole semester to finish the Zoot Suit, to do it right, as an amateur, it probably would have taken me close to a year with all the tailoring and everything. There aren&#39;t many period clothes for guys that don&#39;t involve tailoring skills that take a lifetime to master&#33; The frock coat wouldn&#39;t have been much better, but at least then I would have only had one garmet to focus on instead of a jacket AND pants.

I should have made the frock coat&#33;

Argh&#33; Now I&#39;m upset&#33; 
Peace,
Pete

Oh my word. Those are AMAZING&#33;

I normally make all of my dresses since larger size dresses are hard to find or out of my budget. Here are two that I&#39;m selling on eBay.

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Makin&#39; stuff iz fun

Wow Wendy, I really like the second dress&#33;  Any chance of getting a link to your eBay auctions?  What is the size of the second dress?

Also the first dress looks like an exact copy of a 1940&#39;s sundress that I have, except the dress is turquiose with white polka dots and white rick-rack.  The dress style is exactly the same&#33;

Deja Voodoo,Oct 24 2005, 05:14 PM wrote:

Welcome to the Cafe&#33; That coat with the fur collar is phenomenal&#33; The only garmet I attempted to make was for a stage costuming class in college...and I nearly drove myself CRAZY&#33; We had to pick a period piece of clothing to build for our final, so that means what for guys? Vests, coats, shirts, etc. I wanted something I could actually wear rather than something that was more of a "costume" and originally settled on a frock coat, a la Willy Wonka (in the same purple velvet, no less&#33;) but decided to be ambitions when I found the Vogue pattern for a Zoot Suit. It didn&#39;t look all THAT hard and I&#39;m great at following directions. So I figured, why the heck not? Well, was I in OVER MY HEAD&#33;

Why my professor didn&#39;t try to discourage my enthusiasm, knowing that the project would be way too diffucult for me, is beyond me, and I partly blame him for not doing his job as a teacher and helping me pick something a bit more manageable. Well, I bought all the supplies (great charcoal grey wool with a subtle blue pin stripe, navy silk lining, interfacing, wool felt for under the collar, zippers, buttons, etc. In total, I probably spent &#036;250-&#036;300 on my fabric and acoutrements) and had EVERYTHING I needed to make an actual Zoot Suit (not a costume, but the real deal&#33;) except TIME. That was a particularly busy semester for me and I worked every free hour on that darn Zoot Suit, even hand pad stitching all the interfacing together, and then some trying desperately to finish the project for my final class. I told myself I would die before I didn&#39;t finish. I was totally driven and obsessed&#33;

Sadly, at 2 AM the night before the final, I conceeded and admitted defeat to myself. At that point I had a pair of pants I rushed to complete in a week, and the shell of a complete jacket (sleeves and all - which were a pain to set in the arm holes, but came out smooth without any puckers) as well as a separately completed lining that was pinned to the outer jacket shell waiting to be sewn together.

I got an A for effort (trust me, I worked LONG and HARD on this Zoot Suit and DESERVED THAT A&#33;&#33;&#33;) and tried to finish the jacket during finals week, however in working so hard and slightly faster than I should have, I overlooked a vital step in the directions and would have had to cut away the felt undercollar that I had to handstitch and stretch to fit in order to sew in the silk lining. It was a MAJOR step back and I just gave up.

To this day I still have my heap of a Zoot Suit tucked away in the same shopping bag I carted around campus with my fabric. The semi-completed jacket hangs on a rack in my basement, and the whole experience kind of scarred me for a while. I got quite good at sewing during the process, but I don&#39;t have the energy to finish my Zoot Suit. It kind of makes me sad, all the time and money I wasted with nothing to show for it.

Even if I had had the whole semester to finish the Zoot Suit, to do it right, as an amateur, it probably would have taken me close to a year with all the tailoring and everything. There aren&#39;t many period clothes for guys that don&#39;t involve tailoring skills that take a lifetime to master&#33; The frock coat wouldn&#39;t have been much better, but at least then I would have only had one garmet to focus on instead of a jacket AND pants.

I should have made the frock coat&#33;

Argh&#33; Now I&#39;m upset&#33;&nbsp;
Peace,
Pete

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Can you hire someone to finish the suit for you. With all the money and effort you put into it. It seems a shame not to be able to wear it. I applaud your ambition. I wont even purchase a pattern if it looks complicated.

Here&#39;s the scarf I made for my sweetie for his birthday:

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He loves it&#33;

Jet&#045;Propelled Wendy,Nov 4 2005, 10:16 PM wrote:

I normally try to pick out fabrics that look vintage at the store, then try to match it to a pattern (which was the case for the sundress). The fabric for the black dress is vintage acetate rayon that I got for a steal on eBay.
They&#39;re both plus sizes. I had originally made them as dresses for performances.

members.ebay.com/aboutme/vintagecurves

I do take requests, but they need to have the pattern. I do mix and match patterns at times, but I&#39;d love to learn how to make my own patterns someday.

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Those are great&#33;  Making repros from vintage fabrics is one of my favorite things to do as well&#33;

OOooh, good work. I like it a lot.

Where did you get the patterns?