Variations on a Theme

Lots of sewing bloggers are taking part in Tilly's great One Week One Pattern challenge and, though I'm not participating, it set me thinking again about a simple, 1920s inspired dress pattern that I have been meaning to draft for ages (story of my life).  It's a semi-fitted shape, with fullness at the hip by means of a slash, which is then bound and gathered. Comfortable, flattering and would easily lend itself to variations in order to make several versions.

I had a sketchbook for Christmas and due to my previously mentioned procrastination and my perfection complex, I had only managed to doodle on the front cover!

But today I decided to plan some variations of my design, to get a little closer to actually making them.

I have some lovely fabrics in my stash that I intend to combine to make the design more striking and quirky.

I have had this floral, shot-silk sari fabric for 20 years (!) and it was a present from an ex boyfriend's sister, who brought it back from a family visit to India.  The other fabric is a pale cream habotai silk, left over from a jacket lining, also years old.

Pale silk yoke, sweetheart shaped neckline, contrasting, bias bound neck and armholes and buttons at back.  The slash at the hip is bound in the pale silk.

The floral, slinky, synthetic print is actually beige, not pinky as it shows in the photo, and it was from Etsy.  The cream lace is from a charity shop.

This design has gathered pockets at the slashed, softly pleated hip, bound in off-white silk.  The sweetheart neckline is bound too and the lace yoke fastens at back neck with dimunitive, red buttons.

This final design and fabric combination is my favourite.  The 1960s bright orange, daisy print, cotton lawn fabric is from Etsy and I plan to combine it with white silk and spotted net fabric, both from charity shops.

The spotted net yoke has the neck line and armholes bound by the white silk and the silk is also used for a scalloped edged where it meets the bustline, which is echoed at the hip slash in the front.

I have, as ever, so many projects that are in various stages of incompletion, including two toiles of patterns from my German pattern magazines, which I hope to finish at some point, so spending time on the above plans does seem foolish...  BUT, I really enjoyed sketching and planning and it has ignited a small creative spark, which will perhaps spur me on towards actually finishing something!

Finally I want to say thank you to 3 wonderful bloggers who have recently given me blog awards:

The Makings of an Urban Rustic

Per bar one Penny

Adventures in Adventuring

All of these lovely ladies seem to like my inspiration posts, which is a bloody good thing as if they were mostly turning up here expecting sewing-related content, they'd be sorely disappointed...  I will do a post about the awards and who I am passing them on to in the near future, honest!

Spoilt for Choice

I have been busy with the tedious task of tracing patterns from a few of my magazines and, as usual, I am crippled by choices.  I choose a pattern but then cannot find a suitable fabric from my huge stash, then I get drawn to a fabric, but no pattern seems perfect for it. 

So, you can understand my ambivalence that the wonderful fabrics from the 1937/38 Fall & Winter Sears Catalogue (picked up cheap on Etsy) are not available to buy... I don't need more options, but these are vintage heaven:

These 'Tiara' Pebble Print Crepes are my favourite

I'm on a roll! I made a 50s frock from Simplicity 3505, view 2, a pattern I had been given and was going to sell, but after another look, thought the simple lines would be great for a day dress.  I have far too many ‘going out’ dresses. 

I thought the red 50s border fabric I bought from Etsy over a year ago would be perfect, so made a toile (muslin) of the bodice to check fit and was pleased it fitted great, and was also pleasantly surprised at how little ease the pattern had, pattern was for 26” waist and finished waist measurement was 26 ½ (breathe in).   Only problem was that I didn’t have enough fabric needed for the skirt, so I redrafted my own pleated skirt with these instructions, using 200cm of fabric (plus seam allowance).



I debated if to line it but decided against that as it would involve cutting, marking and sewing up practically another dress, so I’ve resolved (again) to make a waist slip, with just one hem ruffle that I can wear under all my full-skirted dresses instead. 

I used a centre back invisible zip, which was not my intention but as I only realised after I had constructed the dress that a lapped or centred zip would have had to be inserted BEFORE I pleated the skirt section, then it was my only choice.  I like invisible zips, but they are a bit fiddly without a zipper foot (which I don’t have) and they are expensive.  Ideally, I would have inserted it into the side seam, but the skirt was only one piece of fabric with a centre back seam.  I pinked the seam edges, ‘cos I’m lazy and figured I could get away with it with cotton.  I usually line things to avoid finishing a seam edge, which is probably far more time consuming but that’s how much I hate it!

I love the dress, there were no problems, no seam ripping, it went together beautifully and, along with the 70s top, has helped to reignite my sewing enthusiasm.  The only negative is the square neckline, it gapes a bit and doesn’t lay right, I’m annoyed I didn’t tweak it in my toile and I will fold out a diagonal section at each corner  (in the paper pattern) to tighten the neck for when I make it again. 

(Sorry about the photo quality, some were taken with a camera phone so are fairly low resolution.)