All I need is blues. And my new dress.

There's been a lot of dancing going on here lately. Fun as always! Besides teaching the intermediate lindy class, I and my partner have been working on something all new on Umeå's dance scene: a blues dance workshop. I've been sold on blues for about 3 years, and while we've had a few blues dance sessions (playing blues for an hour after the usual lindy social), we haven't had classes or any pure blues night. But now it felt like the time had come and there was a demand for it! So last weekend we held a blues dance workshop for two hours, and it was a very interesting challenge to teach a whole new dance... Lindy I'm familiar with teaching but this was all new =) Darn tricky, but so rewarding when at the end of the class it felt like everyone had understood, and really was dancing blues!

Yesterday everyone got a chance to test their new and/or old blues-dancing moves, as Swingum hosted a pure blues dance social! We were a small workgroup, and we tried to change the concept to differ from our usual lindy socials. Diveded off part of the room to make it cosier, placed the tables in the room next door to give space for that quiet, cozy blues feeling on the dancefloor. We got a lot of positive respons on the new "layout", so it feels like we're on the right track.

The "socializing" area. Refreshments were in the kitchen next doors.

Blues night (or slow drag night as it's called nowadays) at Herräng is the night when everyone dresses up in their faciest outfits. Black or dark coloured dresses are usually favored among the ladies, with skirts that tends to be on the slim side. A lot of the gents are just dashing, dressed in suits or even tux's.
For this our premier Blues night I wanted to wear something special, so I introduce to you my vintage little black:

I would guess it's from the late 40s, judging by the grown-on sleeves, the lapped metal zipper in the sideseam, the bustdarts and the gathers in the shoulders, in combination with the A-line skirt and the pleated "belt" that ties in the back.

A few detail shots:

Sleeve with gathered shoulder.

Three covered buttons secures it in the back.

Lapped metal side-zipper.

Pleated "belt"

And a last picture from the dance, where my fully fashioned vintage stockings also are visible =) I loved dancing in this dress, the sleeves made it easy to move, the material was light and I never felt warm in it, the skirt was the perfect shape for blues.
Unfortunatly, as you maybe can see from some of the photos, it's not in mint condition. The fabric is fragile and the seams have split on some places, like the neckline. I'll need to do some needlework on it before wearing it again, but on the bright side: the not so perfect condition of the dress means I can dance in it without feeling like I'm comitting a vintage clothing-crime =) Also, blues dancing is a lot less straining on the clothes than lindy hop...

Now I'm off to dream about more blues. We'll def host more Blues nights in the future, and hopefully there'll be more workshops as well. For now, my legs are burning from all the dancing yesterday, I've still got that slow, dreamy blues feeling in body and soul, and my mind is playing Fade to black with Dire straits.

Love, Erika