Tiki Dress – WeSewRetro.com

1950s

Birhday Bombshell

By missmaddysews on August 22, 2016

A little late to the party here, but this ensemble was my take on the I-Dream-Of-Tiki sew-along earlier this year – a 50s Shaheen-inspired dress and bolero, made for my 21st birthday!

Also check out my amazing birthday cake, courtesy of my talented grandmother!

The dress was made using patterns from Gertie’s books, altered to suit the design I had in mind. The bolero I made using a free pattern found online. I sewed the whole thing on my vintage singer 201P, using vintage techniques such as bias-bound edges and a waist-stay.

It came out even better than I’d hoped, the perfect outfit for a wonderful night! You can read more about the design process and construction, and see more photos here on my blog 🙂

Until next time,

Miss Maddy xx

1 Comment

Butterick Patterns by Gerite B6354 – Bustier to Skirt Pattern Hack! #RetroTikiCollab

By The Crafty Pinup on August 11, 2016

Hi everyone!

As promised, here’s the second part of my Butterick Patterns by Gerite B6354 – Bustier to Skirt Pattern Hack post! Part of the very exciting #RetroTikiCollab I’m participating in with fellow vintage style sewing bloggers. You can see the first part of this post HERE, all about my rather sassy Wanda Woodward style wearable toile.

But for my main post, this pattern just had to be tiki, so I went for it 100%! I picked up my Hawaiian style fabric a while back in my local Textile Express store in their bargain bin. At the time I had no idea what to use it for, I just knew I needed it. Then this collaboration appeared and it was meant to be….

For my full pattern review & images, check out my blog The Crafty Pinup.

Thank you!
xo

“I dream of Tiki” Hawaiian dress sew-along!

By RocksieBelmont on April 7, 2016

Aloha, my fellow vintage sewing enthusiasts! A couple weeks ago I posted an inquiry on the We Sew Retro sew-and-tell Facebook page regarding a Hawaiian dress sew-along. There seems to be enough interest to make this a fun little activity, so here we go!

The rules:

1. It must be a Hawaiian dress. It can be a full skirt, sarong, or whatever floats your boat, it just needs to be Hawaiian/tiki themed!

2. You can use whatever pattern makes you happiest, (or draft your own!), but it should be vintage/vintage reproduction/or styled after an actual vintage garment.

That’s it!

In order to make this as fun and engaging as possible, take pictures of your progress and post each week before we advance to the next stage of our sew-along! I’ll post details on each step as we progress.

If you are having troubles at any point, post for help! This can be in the comments on the blog post itself, or on the sew-and-tell page on Facebook!

We’ll start May 1st, so everyone has a chance to gather supplies 🙂

Post your pattern and fabric choices in the comments for inspiration!

I can’t wait to get started!

Xoxo Rhandee

18 Comments

A Fish Trap Tiki Dress

By Bex on November 2, 2014

It’s just about summer down here in Australia – and that means it’s time to start sewing summer dresses!

I’ve just finished a ‘Design by Clothilde’ pattern 3170, and it’s from 1960 (although I tried my darnedest to make it looks 50s).

And the pattern – isn’t the neckline killer?!

The fabric is an Indigenous Australian design called ‘Fish Traps’, another Babbarra Women’s Centre print from Spotlight. Thank goodness I got it for $7 a meter on sale, as this sucker took five meters! (The fabric was originally $20/m).

I’m in love with these Babbarra prints, they looks really ‘tiki’ in my opinion!

I had to re-size from a 36″ bust to a 40″ bust (and the waist of course), but it worked out fine. I completely lined the bodice and added some side boning for stability.

I also changed the skirt from a pleated circle skirt, to box-pleated skirt cut straight on the grain – the fabric pattern would have looked a bit odd otherwise.

If you’d like to read further, I have more on my blog!

5 Comments

Dresses

Gertie’s Tiki Dress

By ErikaMadeIt on June 18, 2013

I’m back with another sweetheart sundress from Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing! This time it’s the tiki variation I made from some Marc Jacobs flowered cotton from my stash. This fabric was meant to be a tiki dress! I did another shirred back, because I’m obsessed now, and I draped a faux sarong piece that goes on top of the pencil skirt. I LOVE IT!