Vintage dress tips

Re: Vintage dress tips

• blabla89 member

  

  January 2015

  I don't have a vintage dress, but before you buy any dress I suggest making sure that the alterations you need can be done, and how much it will cost. I had an unfortunate experience when the sales lady at a bridal store told me "sure, all those things can be easily fixed" but then a seamstress told me that those things were expensive or impossible to alter. It's best if a real seamstress can look at the dress, because the sales people don't necessarily know much about alterations.
  

  

  
  
  

  
  

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• yogadevil member

  

  January 2015

  blabla89 said:

  I don't have a vintage dress, but before you buy any dress I suggest making sure that the alterations you need can be done, and how much it will cost. I had an unfortunate experience when the sales lady at a bridal store told me "sure, all those things can be easily fixed" but then a seamstress told me that those things were expensive or impossible to alter. It's best if a real seamstress can look at the dress, because the sales people don't necessarily know much about alterations.
  

  This particular store has an in house seamstress that specializes in old dresses that she personally preapproved before they go on the floor. Actually I think she'll be at my appointment as well as the consultant.  I was also told to tack on 30-40% of the dress for customizations, so I lowered my original budget to accommodate that. Glad I'm on the right track, thanks!
  

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• ohannabelle member

  

  January 2015

  I did this, for my daughter. 1955 dress. Don't know what store you're using, but hopefully they've already rejected merchandise that's too fragile or might have cleaning issues. 

  
  

  (I don't know your sewing history, or how familiar you are working with old fabric, so lots of this might be painfully obvious to you.) 
  

  
  

  Keep in mind that many vintage fabrics really are fragile.

  The existing seams, even if they look good, might need to be reinforced at different stress points- tight waistlines, for example. Look closely and you'll often see that little tiny holes are stretching into the fabric around the stitches on existing seams. You may need to add lining and create new stress points in places where the fabric hasn't been compromised.

  
  

  Use very fine needles, silk pins for pinning. 

  
  

  Don't hang the dress. It's amazing how easily old fabrics stretch out of shape. Weird dips and uneven hems can happen in just a few days. Store it flat. 

  
  

  If you need to clean it, be really particular about your dry cleaner. Old fabrics don't stand up well to modern chemicals and high temperatures. If you're hand washing, don't use detergent, for that reason. Cold water, gentle soap, soak in a clean bathtub without rubbing. If you need to spot wash, blot. Never rub. There's a product specifically made for antique and vintage fabrics called Restoration. It rocks. 2nd best choice is Oxiclean.

  
  

  Yellowing fabric might come clean, yellowed armpits almost never do. Beware the armpits.

  
  

  Especially reinforce all buttons with new thread. I knew a girl that did not, and after dry cleaning her dress, it decayed the thread. Buttons started dropping off as she was being fastened in her dress right before the wedding. Like, every single button.  Not fun. 

  
  

  Remember that all the way up to the 60s, women loooooved their corsets and girdles and padding. Expect to see a lot of dresses with ridiculously tiny waists and giant boobage. You may want to wear a waist cinching sausage casing thing to your appointment. Maybe not, if you're a little tiny waist girl.

  
  

  Buy big. So much easier to take in than let out, and very old seams can leave permanent visible dot trails in fabric. 

  
  

  Exciting!  Post pictures of the dress if you get one! 

  
  

  
  

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• yogadevil member

  

  January 2015

  ohannabelle said:

  I did this, for my daughter. 1955 dress. Don't know what store you're using, but hopefully they've already rejected merchandise that's too fragile or might have cleaning issues. 

  
  

  (I don't know your sewing history, or how familiar you are working with old fabric, so lots of this might be painfully obvious to you.) 
  

  
  

  Keep in mind that many vintage fabrics really are fragile.

  The existing seams, even if they look good, might need to be reinforced at different stress points- tight waistlines, for example. Look closely and you'll often see that little tiny holes are stretching into the fabric around the stitches on existing seams. You may need to add lining and create new stress points in places where the fabric hasn't been compromised.

  
  

  Use very fine needles, silk pins for pinning. 

  
  

  Don't hang the dress. It's amazing how easily old fabrics stretch out of shape. Weird dips and uneven hems can happen in just a few days. Store it flat. 

  
  

  If you need to clean it, be really particular about your dry cleaner. Old fabrics don't stand up well to modern chemicals and high temperatures. If you're hand washing, don't use detergent, for that reason. Cold water, gentle soap, soak in a clean bathtub without rubbing. If you need to spot wash, blot. Never rub. There's a product specifically made for antique and vintage fabrics called Restoration. It rocks. 2nd best choice is Oxiclean.

  
  

  Yellowing fabric might come clean, yellowed armpits almost never do. Beware the armpits.

  
  

  Especially reinforce all buttons with new thread. I knew a girl that did not, and after dry cleaning her dress, it decayed the thread. Buttons started dropping off as she was being fastened in her dress right before the wedding. Like, every single button.  Not fun. 

  
  

  Remember that all the way up to the 60s, women loooooved their corsets and girdles and padding. Expect to see a lot of dresses with ridiculously tiny waists and giant boobage. You may want to wear a waist cinching sausage casing thing to your appointment. Maybe not, if you're a little tiny waist girl.

  
  

  Buy big. So much easier to take in than let out, and very old seams can leave permanent visible dot trails in fabric. 

  
  

  Exciting!  Post pictures of the dress if you get one! 

  
  

  
  

  This is great advice, thank you! All the sewing will be done in house, with a lady that has specialized in vintage bridal gowns for 12 years.  I guess they reject half of all the dresses they receive due to a lot of the reasons you stated. I'm hoping I can find something workable.

  I'm on the smaller side of normal, but I think i'll bring a pair of spanx to make sure my waist fits into the silhouette properly.  I was told to wear a mega pushup bra because dresses back then had no boobage support.

  
  

  I'll make sure to examine the seems more closely for those little holes, I wouldn't have even thought of that!

  I will definitely post pictures! Its such a different experience than buying new and custom fitted, I'm loving it
  

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