Sewing Cafe

Patterns, Tutorials and Works in Progress from the Sewing Studio of Lynne Williams

Friday, May 4, 2012

Vintage Fashion - A Spectator by Guildford

I feel I must begin this post by apologizing a tad for my lack of enthusiasm for blogging...following blogs...posting....commenting ....etc.  
I have been working on some fun projects though and when my enthusiasm returned I could not find my camera!!  Seriously.....it's not like me to panic about these things....no matter how organized I am, I misplace things on a fairly regular basis.... usually they reappear eventually.  
My camera made it's appearance last night when my mother handed it back to me -lol

So first thing this morning I captured these pics of  a vintage dress of my mothers.



She purchased this dress in the early 50's when she was a girl of 15 to wear to a school dance.
She used multiple crinolines under it and wore it with a black patent leather belt and black pumps.
The belts chains on the dress are in black and would accommodate a 1 inch belt. I used a piece of velvet ribbon I had about.

The skirt is made in 8 gores and the hem circumference  measures 260 inches!
In these pictures I have 2 crinolines under the skirt and it could easily be double that.
Makes you want to dance doesn't it?



The cotton on this dress had a glazed finish on it, which has worn away due to multiple washing's.
My bad....I wore this dress frequently in the 80's and machine washed it roughly as young people will.
It zips up the side with a metal zipper and has one pocket in the skirt opposite the zip.


Love the details on this dress - These little appliqued roses are all tacked into place with a single rhinestone.
Additional rhinestones are scattered over the bodice.


The neckline and armholes are piped and faced.
I just love the elegant square neckline on the back


The hem is done with rayon seam tape and all of the seams are pinked...so simple


The inside label reads " A Spectator by Guildford" and is the only tag in the garment.
Does anyone have any information on this company?
There is a town by the name of Guildford in the UK...but I did not round up any info for this company.
So for those of you who like a good mystery....

I promise to catch you up on the 1912 project, my gardening overalls, my bra making adventures, the craftsy block of the month project, and Chucks latest endeavor an original scultpture of Adam West

3 comments:

  1. What a simply gorgeous dress, and it has worn the years very well. I love the appliqued roses, a cute idea; and the rhinestones would look glorious flashing as one danced about!
    Thank you for telling its story.

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  2. This is lovely Lynne - thanks for sharing! The diamantes and appliqued roses are so effective - are the edges of them finished at all?

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    Replies
    1. You are so welcome Sherry. The roses are finished with a narrow zig zag in pink:) Sew simple

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