Mystery Shirt

So I buy a lot of things from thrift stores. Most of my wardrobe, and most of my raw materials. And sometimes I find some pretty strange things, and I can't help but buy them. But this time I'm really stumped as to where/when this blouse came from. I'm hoping someone clever and costume-history knowledgeable might be able to clue me in.

So I found this blouse, and I initially thought it was from a modern Japanese Lolita company (like Baby the Stars Shine Bright, which has a similar looking blouse here) I bought it because it was $3 and hey, I used to be into EGL long, long ago. I might wear it in a dandy-sort-of way. 

But when I got it home, I realized it wasn't a mass-produced shirt. You can see the wee monogram on the inside bottom hem, and the fact that the hem is hand-finished. The embroidery, you can see on the reverse here, is also hand done. 

Tatted lace around the collar edge

The buttonholes are strange. They are hand made, and horizontal rather than vertical. There's also only 3 of them, and they only go halfway down the shirt. 

Hand finishing on the collar stand. 

Hand embroidery on the ruffle up the front. 

My best guess is that it's maybe from that sort of Gunne Sax movement in the 1970's? I know it's not very old, there is a lot of machine sewing on it, but that's the only other time period I can think of where it would fit. Or maybe a modern lolita with some serious hand sewing skills? 

Also, shoe things are happening! More on this later. 

Back in Place

It feels so good to get the Dear Jane back on the wall. Now I feel like I've moved in. I've been so busy getting things ready for my class and fixing up the new apartment, I haven't really worked on anything for myself, and now that I'm ready I've found that my little ruler is missing. Ugh. But at least it's here to cheer me up. 

Speaking of class, seven of these guys went with me tonight, the kids are going to transform them however they'd like. Of course, every other year everyone wanted to make shorts/rompers, now that I've done the hard part for them they all want to make gowns. Soooooo we'll see. 

And I did a little more ice dying. I'm just tickled with how well the broadcloth I bought is dying. I'm so used to cottons dying very washed out so it's great! I'm going to dye the scraps from cutting out the jumpsuits for quilting.

I love when it gets all fractal-y, which I could get this effect more consistently. 

Ice Dying and Shibori

So that plain white shirt from the last post has now turned into this! I'm super pleased with how the ice-dying came out, I will definitely be trying it again. 

I sort of want to do it again on a shirt that I didn't just throw together in a few hours, the collar's a bit messed up. 

The marbled effect is so cool! Also it's good to see the cotton broadcloth dyes so well, that's what the kid's jumpsuits are made of. 

We also did Shibori dying in class on Wednesday, these are some of the samples I made up. I love the gradation that the Thiox gave to that purple piece, I really want to dye a whole shirt that way. 

Some of the kid's samples. A lot of green this year!

I also dyed a chunk of silk in the ice-dye bath, it took the color a little darker. This I'll cut up and give a piece of to each student. 

Moving In

So I'm moved into my new studio! And it's bigger than my old one, which is fantastic. The unfortunate thing it, not knowing what kind of space I was moving into, I donated a whole lot of my old work and materials. So if you live in Philadelphia, check out Philly Aids Thrift, you might pick up some of my old work for very, very cheap. 

So it's looking a little empty right now. I need to rehang my design wall for the Dear Jane, but I donated the fabric it was made from. As an added bonus, the previous tenants left me this ironing board! No more ironing on my desk on some canvas. 

My closet is so big! I had those little half-size closets in the old place. I feel so luxurious. We've got a linen closet and a hall clothes closet too. And a great kitchen. So while moving with no notice really stunk, at least I'm liking the new place. 

Whipped up a quick shirt with my new 'Hawaiian' shirt pattern. Something about the facing is not quite right though, I need to tweak it. Anyway I made this one in plain white because I'm going to try ice dying with it. I demoed it for my class tonight, and hopefully I should be able to wash it out tomorrow. 

And this mess of stuff will soon become seven white jumpsuits for my students, that's my weekend project.