Clothes and dancing from the fifties

Textiles of all kinds appear in these posts and this week it’s all about the 1950s.

Each year, Beamish Open Air Museum (which is just a few miles down the road from my house) hosts a 1950s weekend. On Saturday, it was sunny and we had visitors staying, so bought our entrance tickets and took one of the traditional vehicles within Beamish to the events field.

Very imaginatively, there was a long rail of clever dressing-up-clothes, so our whole party were able to get into the spirit of the event. The garments were clever, because many were held together at the back with tapes to tie, so that one garment could fit many sizes.  I thought my full skirt was quite flattering, complete with its full set of net petticoats.

This yellow dress looked particularly good when modelled in front of a 1950s yellow double-decker bus.

Other vintage vehicles were on show too. My particular favourite was an Austin which had red carpets inside and red leather seats – lush!

In one marquee, several couples (who had clearly brought their own fifties-style garments with them, were demonstrating some fabulous rock ‘n’ roll moves. The big skirts, bold prints and full petticoats worked perfectly with the rhythm of the dance. Just look at this!

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This is my ‘Rock and Roll’ fabric design. You can find it here.

Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here