Year of Vintage Sewing : January : Simplicity 4688

So here is the very first dress of my Year of Vintage Sewing challenge - Simplicity 4688. I like this dress. I mean I really, really like this dress. After all, you can't go wrong with a red frock. I only wish that the pattern had requested a pair of falsies bras would be worn with it, because seriously - those bust darts  in their original state really needed some filling out!

Not being in possession of either a falsie bra nor a ginormous pair of dangerously pointy bazookas, I had to do some fiddling before I got those darts to result in a more, er, natural shape. Trust me - I deeply regretted my choice not to do a muslin first as I unpicked and remodelled those darts for the tenth time! But I got there in the end by taking out the excess in the side dart and elongating the dart itself. Phew! Because this is just not my favourite look!

Nope. Never. Ever. Happening.

So darts were tamed, and once that was all sorted the rest of the dress came together quite easily. The pattern requested that the bodice be lined, but the technique involved sewing the lining pieces to each of the bodice pieces before doing the darts, which I thought would just be messy. Plus there were facings, so I skipped the lining all together. If I was making the dress in a silk dupion I would have lined it, but since it is made out of cotton I decided it really wasn't worth the bother.

How about the skirt, hey? Talk about rooooooomy! I was under the impression from the pattern illustration that the skirt would be tulip-shaped, but instead it was just a pleated straight skirt. They fooled me with the fancy pictures! There are many good things about this skirt: I can easily ride my bike in it, and I could totally eat all the burritos I wanted and nobody would ever catch sight of my protruding gut. The bad things: it catches the wind like it's trying to green power all of Melbourne, and the temptation to burrito binge whilst wearing it is substantial. However, for somebody who doesn't walk so much as stride with excessive vigour, it's a good skirt.

The hem is hand-stitched, as are the zipper and bodice facings. I did make the tie belt, but darned if I could figure out how to make it look right. All my efforts to tie it around my waist just made the bow look drunk, so I gave up and ditched it for the pics.

All in all, it was a fun project. Luckily my measurements (strange pointy breasts aside) matched up, so I didn't need to make any major alterations. All I need now is a pair of long white gloves and some decent helmet hair and I could rock da frock like the slightly-daft looking pattern ladies!

Project Notes:
Pattern - Vintage Simplicity 4688, size 12 bust 32
Fabric - 3 1/8 yards (2.8 metres) of red cotton with lycra from The Fabric Store
Notions - 35cm invisible zipper, iron-on interfacing