Revive and Thrive
It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Goodwood revival. Coming from a family who love and own classic cars and bikes – and having a life time love of all things vintage, it’s somewhere I’d love to go. I’m determine to go next year with my daughter, we’d both love designing an outfit before getting there too. My parents go every year, (jealous!) and I ask them to take photos of anything they think I would like, the Revive and Thrive area is something they always rave about. Bringing things like workshops, lessons in dressmaking, demonstrations of engineering, specialists in conversation and a community of influencers. A haven of vintage creativity, a paradise for someone like me.
There is no shame anymore in recycling, restoring or reusing things in different ways to redirect from the landfill. Instead, with the help of events like Goodwood Revival’s Revive and Thrive and The Great British Sewing Bee showing us every week what we can do to reuse items and make something new out of something old. If you haven’t tried it yet, I really recommend it, It makes you feel proud to be wearing something of your granny’s or something homemade that would have otherwise ended up in landfill. If someone compliments my dress, I can tell them ‘it used to be a duvet!’ and I will beam with pride. I’ve stopped looking at duvet covers as just household items, they are now large pieces of fabric and I can imagine the next garment I want to make. A design will pop into my head and I start thinking about what I could do with it. No table cloth or bedsheet is safe around me any more, I’m eager to get snipping!
The fabric
My latest revive and thrive make is a special one to me. When my grandad passed away and we were clearing his house, there were many things that none of us wanted to give to charity or take to the tip. One of them being a well used, cotton seersucker orange, cream and purple table cloth. It’s got to be from the early 1970’s as this was when their orange and brown decor obsession started, as it did with many households during this era.
Though one of many, this table cloth in particular is special to us all. It wasn’t bought out for Christmases or birthdays, it wasn’t the one laid out for guests, it was better than that; it was the everyday. It’s in the background of so many of my childhood memories and possibly my dad and auntie’s memories too. To me this is beetroot and boiled eggs on top of iceberg lettuce leaves, served with picky bits in the garden. It’s my grandad’s BBQ’s on hot sunny days surrounded by all his beautiful roses, sitting on his perfect stripy lawn. It’s Friday night fish and chips at their dining table, with Only Fools and Horses murmuring in the back ground, while we chat about day and scoff our faces. This table cloth would make a beautiful summer picnic dress, but it is a very well loved piece, with the wear and tear to prove it.
Covered in stains and patches where it’s been mended, it’s not suitable for a nice new dress. Since bringing it home, I have used it at our own dinner table, so even after 5 decades of family meals, it’s still got a lot of life left in it and can be the background to a new generation’s childhood memories. But seeing this table cloth again, it gave me so many ideas for a new summer dress, so I began designing!
The inspiration
It was important to me that the fabric represented my memory, a moment in time where I was a child in my grandparents garden, full of joy and delicious food. Whilst trying to find a fabric that would give that 1970’s colour palette – seersucker, summer picnic vibes, I could find cotton fabrics in the fitting retro colours but they weren’t seersucker, I could find seersucker but only in pastels, all lovely but not perfect. Before buying a lovely-but-not-quite-right fabric, I had one last look. Instead of trying to find the perfect fabric from haberdashery stores, I went a little off-piste and tried searching for table clothes that perhaps I could use instead. Well, the table cloth Gods were looking after me that day, I struck table cloth gold and won the table cloth lottery…I had found the exact same table cloth in excellent condition from vintage emporium, Lolapalooza! I’m in the design process with a photo of a Great Aunt in a stunning summer dress as inspiration. I just have to be aware that I have a limited amount of fabric to use and I have to get it right first time. NO MISTAKES!
For the pattern, I wanted a fitted bodice with a deep v neckline. I wanted this to be suitable to wear on a hot summers day, a sunny picnic in the park kind of outfit. I’d love to have a full skirt and large pockets, something that resembles the skirt of my Great Auntie Mary in the photo below. The pearls are just too perfect, such a 1950’s classic. I love dress she wears in this photo and I’ve been dying to recreate it ever since I found it.
When it arrived, I held it up against myself and instantly knew I wasn’t going to have enough material to work with for a full skirt. Disappointing, but we can save the swishing around in a full circle skirt for another dress. The condition was great, only very slightly worn if at all. The colours of the table cloth I had bought online were more vibrant than the one I have from my grandparents, what luck!
The Pattern
I knew that I wanted the fitted bodice, similar to the one my Great Auntie Mary wears in the photo shown previously, but I wanted a low ‘v’ neck as I feel like it suits me and the fabric a little more. I know it’s a table cloth, but I didn’t really want that to be the first impression when people see it, so I thought adding a little shape would cut into the checked pattern. For the pattern, I am using my trusty McCalls M8032 for the bodice. I have used this as a base for a few designs and changed the design in a couple of different ways, I like using it because I know it fits really well. The neckline is high on the original bodice block so I drafted a new collar. I’m also not adding sleeves to my design.
I made a toile to make sure the neckline was what I wanted and the shoulders sat perfectly, which it did, I really loved the neckline and I was very happy. When I made the bodice piece out of the table cloth fabric, for some reason, unknown to me…there was too much volume between the shoulders at the back. So as I can’t recut, I had two options, to create darts or pleats. I played around with the look and I actually really liked the pleats. The way the check placement fans out from the pleats is a lovely extra. I do find that these things happen with vintage fabric pieces, when you are working with every inch of the fabric it can be tricky! I do feel a lot of pressure too, I always think, this fabric has been around for decades and I come along, chop it up and ruin it and it ends up in the bin! I don’t want that to happen, so I try so hard not to waste any or make any mistakes.
Here’s a quick illustration of what I planned to do!
First fitting went well, now time for the collar! As I said before, I would have loved a full skirt, it would have looked so perfect with a bias cut circle skirt to swirl around in but that’s not an option with have with limited fabric. The beautiful pockets I wanted are also not going to happen, this has to be a design I revisit with the right amount of fabric…it’s been an ‘eyes bigger than my belly’ kind of design and I’ve had to scale it back.
After the collar had been added, there were a few tweaks to be made. Firstly, the tummy area had a little too much volume, so I decided, in an attempt to make it more flattering to my figure, to unpick it and slide the gathers towards the side seams. Only ever so slightly! But it seems to have made a difference and I feel better when wearing it now. I also added a slit to the back centre and bound the edges with some of the scraps I had left. This gave me more room for strutting around in it, far more wearable. Sometimes dressmaking is all about finding solutions as you go and throwing out the rule book.
the finished dress
Overall, I’m really pleased. I love the fabric. I love that I haven’t made any mistakes too, it’s always scary chopping up anything vintage, so I’m pleased the pressure didn’t get to me! I do wish I had more fabric to make a more full, swishy skirt with the pockets I wanted, but that’s not within my control. Plus it means I still have a design to work on when I find a fabric that would suit it.
I’d love to know what you think! Do you have any sentimental fabrics too? 🧡
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