My alternate titles for this post were '50's dress and ignore the mostly dead rhodendron' and 'Stripes! Pay no attention to the weeds in the pathway'
I was spontaneously decided on spending the afternoon taking pictures of some of the things I've made this summer (I've had this week off from work! Yay!)....then my battery ran out after about 10 pictures. And my other battery was already totally dead. I obviously didn't plan it out enough. I got a couple picture of one dress though! Probably best that my camera died because the pictures were turning out awful, lol. But alas, I rarely take pictures now that I won't even assume I'll get back to taking more of this dress. I have others to get to! Anyway. Here we are :)
I love this dress! The fabric is ultra thin and soft, I'm not even sure what it is, it seems like cotton but I don't know if they make cotton that thin and airy. Anyway, it was bought ages ago on fabric.com and I always knew I would make this dress out of it, I just never got around to it. My main delay was because when I ordered the fabric it had gotten wet in shipment and the colour ran like crazy and stained the white areas pretty badly. I threw a handful of those colour-trapper sheets in the wash and crossed my fingers, just so I wouldn't have to worry about it bleeding if I got caught in the rain or something. Mostly a success! Mostly because I tried a bleach pen on some of the darker stains and that was what actually messed up pieces of the fabric in the wash. Whatever, I got over it, it isn't horribly noticeable. But lesson learned, don't use bleach pens on stripes!
It's actually been a while since I made this dress that I don't really remember many specifics about making the pattern. Most of my difficulties came from deciding how to lay out the stripes and which buttons to use. The only pattern change I made was leaving off the pockets, even though I love them. The stripes just made it too busy. I have them cut out though, so if I ever change my mind, I can just sew them on. I don't think it would work well with such flimsy fabric though. I'm really glad that the collar worked, I was a little worried about that too. This fabric is really thin (have I mentioned that already?). I made it a few inches shorter too, just to make it a bit more wearable and modern.
Check out the stripe match on the bottom button placket! Woohoo!
But the pattern was great, no problems at all! I added some elastic to the waist because it stretched out a bit while I was sewing and the fabric was too thin to support a waist stay. Very comfortable now though! And I have a couple of slips to wear underneath it too! I made Gertie's slip pattern from Butterick to go underneath. I'll do another post about that later. Pictures will be on my dressform as the fabric I used is basically see-through...
Anyway, I'm happy with it! I'm definitely holding onto the pattern to use again as well, not a lot of fitting issues with this one! And a great 50's style dress without having to use 5 yards of fabric in a skirt.
Woohoo! Another dress post done! I just finished a dress today and I'm so in love with it, I can't even explain! 30's style shirt-dress. So in love. Makes me wish I had made a better pattern for it because I want more of them! Maybe a future project :) It did remind me how much of a pain making things without bought patterns is though! Can't wait to share!
~Nikki
