August 22, 2016

Summer Magnolia










The white flowers on this crisp rayon fabric remind me of magnolias, though sadly I have never seen any actual magnolia flowers here in Colorado. We had them back in California where I grew up, and seeing such large blossoms in a tree seems oddly surreal looking, and beautiful too.

This fabric was an Etsy find, and when it arrived I doubted it was truly rayon as the texture is very similar to linen. It had a rough crisp texture I don't associate with rayon, but as soon as I started to iron the fabric I knew it must truly be rayon indeed as no linen ever pressed so nicely and easily! This is the first dress I have made since setting up my mom's serger/overlocker to use and it was so wonderful to have the raw edges all finished before constructing the dress! No frayed seams for me! It will be nice to have an alternative to rayon seam binding for future projects as sometimes I am just too lazy to go that "couture" inside my projects.

I styled the new dress with cognac brown accessories including my beloved Gibson's from American Duchess footwear. Shoes that would really look even better with this outfit are Royal Vintage's new Peggy spectators, but as they don't ship till October (yes, of course I have pre-ordered the Peggy's in brown and white, they are the perfect shoe!) I'll just have to wait on those! I've snatched up two pairs from Lauren's new Royal Vintage 40's line so far, but I still remain tempted by others...thank goodness there are wonderful people out there recreating vintage shoes!

This necklace happens to be rather special too, it's a real Miriam Haskell! I found it for a complete bargain on Etsy and cant believe I got to add a Haskell to my collection. The beads are white milk glass interspersed with braided/woven straw beads, perfect to match all of my straw hats :)

Speaking of hats, I bought this straw hat last spring, but I'm not sure I'll be keeping it in my collection. As much as I like it, I feel like the crown is just a bit too tall for me. If I do decide to part with it it will end up in my Etsy shop with a few other hats I'll be letting go of soon. Trying to curate my hat collection isn't easy, but I cant keep all the hats to myself now can I? ;)

Dress: Made by me
Hat, Jewelry, Clutch: Vintage
Shoes: American Duchess
Belt: Target

12 comments:

  1. A beautiful dress, and just perfect with the brown shoes and belt. Kx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ohhh that dress is perfection!! (lets be real, all of your dresses are!) And congrats on getting a real Haskell necklace!! It is absolutely gorgeous!

    Carla, Tiny Angry Crafts

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on finding a genuine Haskell for a total song. Talk about a vintage jewellery lover's dream come true. It works so awesomely in the context of this outfit - each element of which I adore - and looks gorgeous on you, my dear friend.

    Big hugs,
    ♥ Jessica

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jessica! I couldn't believe it, I was searching for a basic milk glass necklace and I managed to stumble onto a Haskell, such lucky that day <3

      Delete
  4. Very pretty dress. Magnolias grow really well here, lots of people in our neighbourhood have them, they were spectacular in the Spring. We would like one too! X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Porcelina! That's awesome that you get to admire magnolias often, I am jealous ;)

      Delete
  5. Lovely, you always look so stylish!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really like all your brown accessories. The necklace was a great fund. The dress looks marvellous too.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...