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Announcing the Dress Like Your Grandma Sewing Challenge!

The “Dress Like Your Grandma!” Challenge

The Idea

This is a vintage sewing challenge where family history can inspire your wardrobe.  Take a photo of your grandma (or your grandpa, great-grandma, mom, aunt, someone else’s grandma —  you get the idea!) and re-create an outfit or piece that they are wearing.  Many of us don’t have vintage garments to remember our loved ones by or perhaps we can’t fit into what they left behind.  Re-create that image with vintage patterns, reproduction patterns or modern patterns.  If your style is different from a family member’s or you want to evoke a different era, find a vintage photo with a garment that suits you and re-create that.  The idea is to study a vintage photograph (1980’s or earlier) and transform that photo into a garment or outfit that you’ve sewn yourself.

The Details

This is a non-competitive sewing challenge, not a competition.  We are not here to compete against each other in a sewing contest, we are here to challenge each other to create something, inspire and share it with others.  The challenge begins on March 6, 2017 and ends on April 17, 2017 April 24, 2017 (deadline extended).  After the deadline I will gather photos and links to blogs and/or social media in a post on this site.  Following the deadline there will be randomly drawn prizes for those who participated in this challenge.

How You Can Take Part

I have set up a Pinterest group board dedicated to this challenge.  To join the board and post your photos, please send me an email with a link to your Pinterest profile so I can sign you up to pin.  If you prefer, I can also pin your photos for you.  If you choose to have me pin your photos, be sure to send me your blog/social media link (if you wish) so they can be added to your photos.  Having a blog and/or social media links is not required to take part in this challenge.  My email is:  tanya@tanyamaile.com.  In addition to our Pinterest board, you can also use the hashtag #dresslikeyourgrandma on Instagram so we can socialize, talk about our plans and gain inspiration.  Don’t forget to tag me with my IG username @tanyamaile so I can see what you’re up to!  If you’re concerned with privacy, crop your vintage inspiration photo or black out the face so that it only shows the garment/outfit.  If you’d like to take part but do not want your photos on Pinterest, email your photos to me (tanya@tanyamaile.com) and let me know and I will only include them on the final challenge photo parade post on this blog.  This is an international sewing challenge.

*I have also set up a Facebook group where we can share photos and discuss what we’re making.

Sponsors

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or offering a discount to sewing challenge participants, please email at:  tanya@tanyamaile.com

Badges

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Comments

  1. What an absolutely brilliant idea. This sounds like so much fun. I wish that I had enough time to take part. I love vintage sewing. Don’t know if I have any photos of my Grandma’s though. I must ask my Mum (who was born in the early 30’s). Xx

  2. love this idea as there is a photo of my husband’s grandmother in a shirt dress she made that I’ve always wanted to copy 🙂 I’ll see if I can’t make time to join in. With spring and warmer weather approaching, I know I could use another shirt dress anyway 😀

    • I think her shirtdress would look lovely on you! I was just looking at a pic of my grandma in a pink shirtdress in the 60’s and thinking about making something like that.

  3. I love this idea. I’ll have to take a look at my older photos of my grandmas. I know there were a few fantastic dresses — including my Grandma Edie in the late 1920s dressed as a flapper, and also her teaching in the 1940s.

  4. I absolutely love this idea, however I’m not sure we have many photos of my grandma in her younger years. I know there’s 1 candid type shot from their wedding (they couldn’t afford a photographer) and a photo from a newspaper article of a dance they attended. I shall have to ask her and see what we can find 🙂

  6. What a fabulous idea! Osti frocks and knitted twin sets come to mind when I think of my nana!

    • How pretty! I mostly think of western shirts, jeans and clothes from Blair when I think of my grandma, but she was quite the fashionista when she was younger.

  7. This is a super-cute challenge! I don’t have many photos of my grandma, but I do have some of her clothes that I want to replace before they fall apart for good. This is just the challenge I need to get started!

  9. I also think I might just have access to 1980’s era photos of both my grandmothers in things that I’d rather leave in the 80’s. I’ll have to look again though since I really love this idea!

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Mrs. Hughes: A retro inspired, vintage garment sewing and plus-size dressmaking blog by Tanya Maile Hughes.