Finding multiple needles in a tightly packed haystack

We have a lot of clothing in our stock in our costume shop.  Way more, in fact, than we'll ever need.  We started the potentially crazy undertaking last season of measuring, sorting, repairing (if needed), purging (if required) and organizing every single piece of clothing in stock.  It's been more than a little overwhelming, but I must admit that I enjoy this sort of work.  We made a ton of headway last season, but aren't even half done.  Sadly, most of what we've covered so far has been less than thrilling, but now we're nearing the women's clothing by decade.

Because our first show this season requires a handful of women's suits to fit teenage girls.  This is a challenge in itself, so I decided to pick up the project in the women's blazers and suits section to see if we had anything to offer our designer.  Two birds, just the one stone.

WHOA!  First off, the rack was so full there really wasn't any room to see what we had and boy howdy did I find some gems.   There's a chance that there may have been a parade of atrociousness this afternoon and I got shut down more than a few times by my shop manager today when I tried to dispose of a *few*, shall we say, "special," items.

I'm not even half way done with the women's suits and I just can't wait to share some of the beautiful, and I mean BEAUTIFUL pieces I found today.  Enjoy!


First off:

Super cute, right!!  So it needs a little lovin' from a steamer and an iron, but it's oh so cute.  Little kick pleat in the front of the skirt and the jacket just closes with that little tie for a lovely silhouette.  I'm a bit of a geek for 1940s pattern making and tailoring and the piecing on this is so fantastic.  Here's a close up:

RIGHT!?   I'm so in love with the teeny tiny roll collar and the angles and the grain change and all of it, really.  

Ok, this one is a real beauty:

The waist is SO nipped in and the sleeves bell out a bit at the hem and are just above bracelet length.  I may have made my first hand put the jacket on.  Also, real fur cuffs and it's in stunning shape. 

For this one, it was late in the afternoon and the lighting was terrible (we have such bad lighting at certain hours) and I really didn't feel like setting something up, as this WAS during work hours...so forgive the Instagram-y-ness of this photo, but it helped pop some of the detail, and boy was there detail.

1930s (?) as best as I can tell and in incredible shape.  This wasn't part of a suit, but functions as its own as a jacket.  It's super tiny, this is on a size 14 child's form (think skinny pre-teen for those of you who aren't parents or working in children's theatre).  There are like 16 ball buttons and loops that run down the front.  I did NOT button them all.  And here's the money shot:

*gasp*

Soutache braid and sequins for months.  So beautiful.

And to wrap up this tour of the first half of our women's suits section...the goldfish suit.  Behold the wonder:

EEP!  Yeah.  It's amazing, and yes, that's a goldfish print on the lapels....

 It's all made of a beautiful crepe so it has an amazing drape.  The label says "Vogue Couturier Design," and the design of the label indicates that it's maybe late 40's.  I have no idea.  But it's so beautifully made -- by a home sewer. That entire lapel is hand sewn around the edges with the tiniest of slip stitches, and the condition is impeccable -- like it was never worn.  Here's the inside:

Note the perfect herringbone stitches holding the ease pleat down at the shoulder and around the label.  

*sigh*

Such prettiness dictates that I have to wrap up this post with an amazing encounter from this weekend.  

I found this amazing example at my favorite store just down the street from my house.  I can't even fathom the amount of rick-rack used to create this 1950s blouse and skirt set.  I'm disappointed in myself for not having my tape measure on me that day.

Pardon the crap photo but I was on a time crunch and couldn't pass up the photo-op.

Yeah, that's a peasant style circle skirt, which means that what you're looking at is gathered onto the circle skirt hem and features...onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelve...TWELVE rows of rick-rack alternating glittery silver and white.  And another twelve rows up and down the front of the blouse

My head hurts.
One of our shows last season used over 100 yards of rick-rack on six dresses and three aprons total  (I'll feature those at some point on here).  This one outfit might even top that.