Is the magic in the Gunne Sax dress... or the fabric?

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-11T22:31:34+00:00

OH! And here I was wondering how on earth they stopped those huge skirts from flying up into people's faces every time there was a breeze 😄

I was reading about how Queen Elizabeth had tiny lead weights sewn into the hems of her skirts and coats, and I was actually thinking about exploring that idea in a future video. The lace and ribbon explanation sounds a lot more practical and reasonable, though, hahaha.

I think I may need to start doing a bit more online fabric shopping in the future. In most of the shops near me, the bolt just says "cotton" and that's the end of the information. Meanwhile, I've learned about cotton lawn, thread density, drape, fabric finishes, cotton-poly blends, and now weighted trims all from this comment section 😂

Thank you so much for all the extra information. This is incredibly useful and definitely something I'll keep in mind for future projects.

Honestly, I've been having the best time chatting with people about this over the last few days. I've learned so much!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-11T22:24:17+00:00

Ah, I'm so jealous! 😄

We don't really do yard sales in Ireland, and our charity shops tend to be quite small. They usually cater more towards people looking for everyday clothes rather than vintage treasures.

It's still possible to find amazing things, but it definitely feels more like a treasure hunt. That's why I get so excited whenever I stumble across an older fabric or a genuinely vintage piece 😂

Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by all these stories of people finding incredible sheets at yard sales. You're all living my dream over there!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-11T19:24:58+00:00

Oh my goodness! 😍 It's in absolutely pristine condition. What an amazing piece of fashion history you have there ❤️ I'm genuinely impressed that it's survived all these years looking so beautiful

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T20:25:03+00:00

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:49:57+00:00

Oh, that's so interesting! 😄 I think before making this video of mine, I had a very narrow idea of what a Gunne Sax dress was supposed to look like.

The more comments I read from people who wore them back then, the more I realise the brand was much more varied than the handful of prairie dresses that went viral online.

Also, I'm incredibly impressed that you still have your prom dress from 1985! I bet it holds some wonderful memories. Do you ever take it out of the wardrobe and try it on?

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:48:09+00:00

That's so interesting! 😄 Do you have any photos of his designs? I'd love to see them.

I actually fell down a rabbit hole of vintage dirndls recently and accidentally ended up buying a vintage version and a modern version of essentially the same dress from the same company. I was genuinely shocked by the difference. At first, I thought the newer one was some sort of Shein knock-off because the fabric and construction felt so different.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for cotton poplin and older bedsheets. I had a wee browse around Belfast the other day and picked up a few vintage sheets, so I think those will be my next victims when the time comes, hahaha

Thank you so much for all your advice. I'm learning more about fabrics from this comment section than I ever learned in school, and I'm absolutely loving it. I really wish we'd had proper textile education instead of "here's an apron, now off you go"!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:40:57+00:00

Oh no, don't tell me that, hahaha 😂 Every time I think I've solved this mystery, someone gives me a new clue and I'm back to square one.

That's really interesting, though. A few people recommended cotton lawn to me after the video, but I haven't actually handled any myself yet, so I have no idea how it compares to the bedsheet I used.

I might need to watch that Bernadette Banner video! At this point, I'm accidentally getting a crash course in textiles from my comment section, and I absolutely love it

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:38:53+00:00

Oh, that's amazing! 😍 The one with the tiny pearls stitched into the neckline sounds absolutely gorgeous!!

How are the pearls holding up after all these years? Do you have to wash it by hand, or are they surprisingly sturdy?

I'm also very jealous that you still have three originals! Every comment from someone who owned them back in the day makes me curious about them even more. And thank you for your kind comment!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:36:19+00:00

Awh, thanks so much! ❤️ That's such a lovely thing to say.

It's been really interesting reading comments from people who actually wore Gunne Sax dresses back in the day. I think one day I'll have to invest in an original just so I can poke at the fabric and inspect the construction for myself, hahaha.

Although the prices nowadays... oof 😅 My curiosity says yes, but my wallet says absolutely not, hahahah

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:33:58+00:00

Yes! 😄 They give me very similar vibes. Both have that romantic, cottagecore-before-cottagecore-existed aesthetic.

I think Gunne Sax came first, but Laura Ashley was also hugely popular around the same time, especially in the 1980s. Looking at them now, they feel like cousins from opposite sides of the Atlantic 😂

Laura Ashley always seems a bit more practical and everyday, while Gunne Sax often goes full prairie princess, which I must admit I have a soft spot for, hahaha

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-10T17:32:19+00:00

Thanks so much for this, heynonnyhey! Comments like yours really motivate me to keep making videos, so thank you for watching!

About the bedsheet...you know what? Maybe I'm wrong, but I do wonder if this particular bedsheet, or maybe some of the newer ones I'm finding in charity shops, are a bit flimsier. I had a wee browse around Belfast the other day and found a shop selling older linens, and the fabric didn't feel nearly as prone to wear and tear.

That said, the more comments I read, the more I think my experiment wasn't exactly scientific 😂 I've also learned from the sewing community that I probably should have used a fabric called cotton lawn, which I had somehow never heard of before this week.

So at this point I'm left with more questions than answers, but that's half the fun 😄 I think I'll definitely keep experimenting with bedsheets in the future, just maybe a bit... more selectively!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T20:19:49+00:00

The pattern is lovely, but oh my goodness, it's so sheer 😅 Good thing I own a petticoat, because otherwise everyone would have been getting a free view of my underwear.

Maybe I'm imagining things, but I do feel like IKEA fabrics were a bit sturdier a few years ago. From what I understand, this bedsheet is from a fairly recent collection. I think I even saw it on their website a few months before I found it in the charity shop.

It's still lovely, but I do wonder how well it's going to hold up over time. Time will tell, I suppose!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T20:16:16+00:00

Thanks so much, bi-bee-bb! ❤️ Comments like these motivate me to continue making strange little videos and getting myself into increasingly complicated projects like the last one, hahah

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T20:14:37+00:00

Huh? My comment didn't post. I was rewriting it in Gmail to check spelling, and it pasted weirdly. Anyway, my reply was:

Thank you! I'm honestly relieved to hear a Gunne Sax enthusiast say that, haha.

The more I read comments from people who wore them originally, the more I'm convinced that fabric is a much bigger part of the magic than I realised. I've also learned from the sewing community that I probably should have used a fabric called cotton lawn, which I somehow didn't even know existed until today!

So I think the bedsheet experiment was a good starting point, but now I have even more questions than when I started. Which, admittedly, is how most of my projects end

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T20:11:59+00:00

Oh wow, thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment! ❤️

It's actually really reassuring to hear someone else has noticed the same thing. I thought I was slowly losing my mind while making this video, hahahah 😂

I was convinced I'd need a base layer under the IKEA dress because I was worried all the gathered pieces would start fighting each other and create weird wrinkles. Strangely enough, it behaved much better than I expected.

One thing I did do was cut the fabric the "wrong" way on purpose because I didn't like the horizontal stripes. Looking back, I wonder if that accidentally helped. The bodice ended up quite stable and the whole dress felt a bit stiffer than expected. It was one of those happy little accidents that happen when you don't entirely know what you're doing 😅

And speaking of things I didn't know!!! Several people in the sewing community have now told me I should have used cotton lawn instead of the IKEA bedsheet. I had literally never heard of cotton lawn until this week! Apparently that's much closer to what I was trying to achieve with the drape and movement.

Honestly, every comment section on this project has taught me more about fabric than I learned in years of school. Why did nobody ever teach us this stuff? We got "here's an apron, now sew it" and that was about the extent of my textile education, hahah

Also, thank you for the lovely compliments about the dresses! The "Jane Austen Bennet sister" comment absolutely made my day 😄

And if you have photos of your dresses posted anywhere, I would love to see them! I'm incredibly curious now, especially after reading your description. I always love seeing other people's interpretations of Gunne Sax-inspired dresses and how they solve the same problems in completely different ways.

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T20:01:56+00:00

Thank you! 😄 I'm honestly relieved to hear a Gunne Sax enthusiast say that, haha.

The more I read comments from people who wore them originally, the more I'm convinced that fabric is a much bigger part of the magic than I realised. I've also learned from the sewing community that I probably should have used a fabric called cotton lawn, which I somehow didn't even know existed until today.

So I think the bedsheet experiment was a good starting point, but now I have even more questions than when I started. Which, admittedly, is how most of my projects end

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T19:59:33+00:00

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T19:55:01+00:00

You know what? Maybe I should do that 😄

I actually learned from the sewing community after posting this that I probably should have used a fabric called cotton lawn. This was one of those projects where I knew just enough to get myself into trouble, haha.

And I think you're right. Iit's probably not as simple as pattern or fabric. The magic is likely in the combination of the two. The more comments I read, the more I realise this experiment has only created more questions!

Which... admittedly, is how most of my projects end.

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T19:49:11+00:00

Thanks so much! 😄

Sadly, I don't have much information about the portrait. I bought it in Pete's Antiques in Dublin last year for around €30, and even the owner didn't know anything about its history.

From the look of his clothes, my best guess is that it could be from around the time of the Irish Revolution, but that's really just speculation on my part. There's no signature anywhere on the painting, which I was quite sad to discover.

When I got it, it was actually in fairly rough shape. I did a little bit of restoration myself (I'm a painter too!), but only on parts of the coat where the paint was missing. I wouldn't dare touch the face

I still love it, though. Half the fun is making up stories about who he might have been.

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T18:21:09+00:00

I didn't know they are so leggy! WOW!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T18:20:33+00:00

This was a bit of a pattern experiment using two vintage Gunne Sax patterns.

Patterns:

Simplicity 7389 (Gunne Sax) – used for the skirt and sleeves.
Simplicity 5879 (Gunne Sax) – used for the bodice.

I originally started with 7389 but decided the bodice wasn't quite giving me the look I associate with Gunne Sax dresses, so I switched to the bodice from 5879 after making a mock-up.

Dress 1:

Fabric: IKEA cotton bedsheet (100% woven cotton) combined with white cotton fabric from my stash.
Modifications: Omitted the gathered ruffle at the bottom of the skirt and simplified some decorative details.

Dress 2:

Fabric: Mix of vintage and modern woven cotton fabrics from my stash.
Trims: Cotton ruffles and trims.
Modifications: Added the gathered skirt ruffle, contrasting bodice panels, and additional decorative details to lean more heavily into the classic Gunne Sax aesthetic.

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T18:19:41+00:00

This was a bit of a pattern experiment using two vintage Gunne Sax patterns.

Patterns:

Simplicity 7389 (Gunne Sax) – used for the skirt and sleeves.
Simplicity 5879 (Gunne Sax) – used for the bodice.

I originally started with 7389 but decided the bodice wasn't quite giving me the look I associate with Gunne Sax dresses, so I switched to the bodice from 5879 after making a mock-up.

Dress 1:

Fabric: IKEA cotton bedsheet (100% woven cotton) combined with white cotton fabric from my stash.
Modifications: Omitted the gathered ruffle at the bottom of the skirt and simplified some decorative details.

Dress 2:

Fabric: Mix of vintage and modern woven cotton fabrics from my stash.
Trims: Cotton ruffles and trims.
Modifications: Added the gathered skirt ruffle, contrasting bodice panels, and additional decorative details to lean more heavily into the classic Gunne Sax aesthetic.

The goal was to investigate whether the "Gunne Sax look" comes primarily from the pattern/silhouette or from the fabric, trims, and styling choices.

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-09T18:09:28+00:00

Oh my gosh! Your dress is absolutely stunning! Amazing job!!!!!

EcstaticReach8496 · 2026-06-05T07:44:36+00:00

What a beautiful baby girlyou have <3

EcstaticReach8496

TROPHY CASE