vintage new pj's

My middle daughter ha been pestering me to make new pj's for her.  She hates nightgowns and flannel pj bottoms end up too hot.  so we came up with this.  This is made from a vintage simplicity pattern 7841 from 1968.  I found the pattern thrift shopping for $ 0.50.  You can find it on line at etsy.  We did not like the hat look eeeww so we did not make that but the rest was fine.



Because she decided I was starting this in the middle of the night we used a white flannel sheet, and cotton left over sheet from an apron for the play.  The flowers came off a dress she use to wear as a little girl but they use to go all the way around the her  waist now just across the yoke of her bodice.  Lots of lace to make it look cute and three pink buttons on the back and a little piece of white scrap double sided satin ribbon and voilà you have new pj's.  She likes them a lot.  Which is good because she had me make two sets which took three  days out of my sewing time for the play.

The other lavender set I will post another day when she is wearing them. This pink set is the cuter of the two sets and the one I made second the one I have yet to show was the first one I made and not as cute.

meg's blue dress

 

This is the dress that the character Amy remakes in the play.  Which I have already posted on here the remake.  Meg is modest shy and more motherly so this dress is supposed to show those types of details in her life.

As you already know the dress is made out of new blue fabric and re-purposed striped bed sheets.  The tassels are thrift store finds.  the antique crochet collar my grandmother bought and gave me to make clothes and costumes for my kids with.  Amy removes the collar and half of the sleeves and changes the waist belt in her version of this dress.  I used gross grain ribbon and some lace as accents.

 The sleeves have antique mother of pearl buttons that are dyed dark blue.  There is also a vintage cutton at the collar pretending to be a brooch.

Mr March's dressing gown

So the Character Mr. March is supposed to wear a dressing robe/gown in a few scenes as he is recovering.  I never knew how hard it would be to find a pattern like that.  I dressing robe is sort of like  a bath robe except youare usually fully dressed under it and it is more formal.    it is meant to be used when relaxing or getting ready for the day so you do not get hair gel ( oils, mascar in those days) on your clothes.  usually made of rich fabrics and velvets.  The costuming said it needed to look old and worn.  Because people do not wear this style of robe any more I had to improvise and modern bathrobes had a total wrong look.  I happen to find a kimono costume pattern thrift shopping (.50 cents)that had not been cut yet.  I figured with minor tweaking it would do ok.

I found a burgundy table cloth around Christmas time thrift shopping ($5.00) that I got just for this purpose not this item but for costumes in general.  It has age and wear already but is still a strong rich looking fabric.  I added brand new black velvet to the trim and belt.   I crocheted belt stays to keep the belt with the costume.  i tried to stay with dark rich colors in the hopes of keeping it manly for the era I hope it worked I think it did.  Not that my husband would wear this in this day and age.

Capes for the play

Because my brain is tired from sewing so much I decided I would go to an easy sewing project capes.  There are about 5 capes in the play Aunt March has 2, Marmei 1, and Jo 2 can't think of others at the moment.  So I think that is all of them I have to make.  Which is not to say I have made all of them yet.  I have made 3 have the fourth one cut out and still figuring out the 5th one what I want to do for it....  Oh yeah! just remembered 1 more, funny I already made it and I forgot that Meg has one too when she is a witch.

This first one above is Jo's to wear during a winter scene.  The only embellishments I used was cording at the hem for strength in wear and pretty metal hook and eye closures. I figured the fabric itself was enough, especially with a shinny satin lining.  Both of these fabrics and the cording are the same ones I used on my daughters Shakespearean Halloween outfit this last October.  Yes these are scrapes and yes I still have more of both to make other items in the future.  This cape is reversible if I want it to be just not sure who would want shinny satin on the outside of a cape like this.   She also has a hood on her cape the only one in the play to have a hood.   Jo sort of has a theme color of red in the beginning of the play to show she is strong and powerful and more dominate in personality than most females of the era as the play goes on her colors become more subdued as she learns life has trials and love.  But her clothes still lean towards the masculine side of fashion because she is still a woman doing a mans career in a day and age when women did not.

 

This second one is also Jo's in the play when she is acting as Rodrigo in the play within the play.  The character is supposed to be over the top with a shinny cape that is lined bright screaming red.  I have images of Dracula and phantom of the opera and other old sci-fis going through my head with this one.So this was born the button closure is antique Jet and is period to the play.  The red satin came from a set of new sheets still in the package I found thrift shopping around valentine's day.  Which I bough specifically for this purpose $2.00 how could it go wrong.  The black satin is new for the play but bought with a coupon to make it 40 % off.





The last cape for the day is Marmei's for when she come in at the beginning of the play from the cold winter outside.  This is during the war so dark colors and a somber look.  Only trim is fringe around the hem a simple brown button and no hood and simple black lining same used in the other cape above as the outside fabric.  All three capes are reversible.

On a note from my husband.