Summertime Shift

It's scorchingly hot here in London at the moment, and I'm terrible at dealing with it. All of my clothes feel too heavy and restrictive. This weather calls for something light and less fitted, something like this:

Vogue 7372, 1960's.
I love how the girl in the beret looks impatient, like she's thinking 'Hurry up , b****es, I've got my driving gloves on so I can drive to Paris in my E-type and steal a painting with Peter O'Toole'

The envelope drawings look pretty structured, and the instructions recommend it to be underlined for stability, but I decided to skip this or it would have been too heavy. 

And here it is:

I used a navy cotton I picked up on a recent diversion to Abakhan's with Katie of What Katie Sews. It's super light without being see-through, and is even a little stretchy on the weft. Best of all, it's sprinkled all over with little apples:

The dress appears pretty straightforward, but being a Vogue Pattern, and therefore aiming to emulate high-end designers, there's more to it than your average shift. Where other dresses would have stuck with a couple of darts here and there, this dress has princess seams front and back, pockets in the seams, tiny little bust darts, and a side zip. There's also a tricky button placket which was a pain to do, but I got there in the end:

And I love the apples so much I even made covered buttons emblazoned with them:

From this...

...to this!

I cut the pattern as is, without any adjustments - the fit seems fine:

This is me doing a 60's model pose

A few construction details-

French seams are my preferred method for finishing seams, but that was never going to work with the curves of these princess seams. Instead, I stitched them as plain seams, finished them with a 3-step zig-zag, then top stitched them close to the seam so they would lie flat:

Inside view of seams

Top stitching detail, with a bar tack at the base of the pocket.

It was a bit of a squeeze fitting the whole dress into the fabric I had - I bought it without knowing I was making this dress - so I had to save space by making half of the pocket with some scraps of red lining fabric:

Pocket detail

And finally the hems - I turned under the raw edge about 4 mm, machined this, then attached the hem to the body of the dress with a catch stitch:

And that's pretty much it!

Have fun in the sun, and see you soon!

The Vintage Pattern Pledge - Simplicity 9330, 1971

When I saw Marie's Vintage Pattern Pledge, I was happy to see a challenge that I could get on board with. No real rules or deadlines, just make up 5 vintage patterns this year. Easy! I sort of already do this anyway. Here's my first contribution, Simplicity 9330 from 1971:

I used a lovely polyester (I think...) crepe which I had in my stash, purchased in the summer while on a trip to Walthamstow with Amy from SewAmySew . I used it previously as a lining in my By Hand London Victoria Blazer:

The dress is a simple shift with bust and waist darts for shaping, and a simple neck tie which threads through a little loop to create a bow:

The fabric is pretty lightweight, and a bit see-through on its own, so I lined it with a pink poly lining fabric:

This dress went together quickly and fits pretty well. The only thing that bothers me is the facing, which insists on curling out now and then, despite under stitching - you can see this happening a little in the picture above. But this is a minor thing - I'll probably just put a couple of tacks in to stop it happening.

I've been calling this my 'Bewitched Dress' because it has that groovy housewife vibe, like something Elizabeth Montgomery would have worn in the 1960's series:

Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha in 'Bewitched'

If I was a full-time homemaker, I would dress like this as often as I could!

 

And to add to the 70's look, I teamed the dress with my new Orla Kiely for Clarks platforms:

They are my new favourite shoes - I want to wear them with everything! 

And so there's the first of my Vintage Pattern pledges done - that was easy! See you soon!