In times such as this, it pays to have a brand new dress in the wardrobe. Admittedly, it can't be worn out and shown off (damn you, stupid corona virus!), and it may be quite some time before it can be taken out for a twirl on a dance floor, but having a freshly made, gorgeous vintage dress in the perfect shade of green in awfully good for moral - and frankly, we all need all the boosts we can get at the moment!
And the best bit - fabric and pattern were all from the stash, so it didn't cost me anything since our new straightened financial circumstances came about. Phew!
I made a muslin of the bodice first, and I'm very glad I did, as the front overlay gather gave me some grief. The instructions called for the centre seams to be pleated, then sewn together, then gathered up. Maybe you need the muscles of Thor to achieve this task, for my puny hands simply could not muster the strength to gather all those pleats up. In the end I compromised, and made a cord which I threaded through the seam allowances (which I had sewn flat), and gathered the overlay centre in that way. It looks the part, and saved me a lot of cursing and unpicking!
I also interfaced the bodice, and boned it for extra support. I'm really glad I did, as it sits beautifully. I'm a big fan of boning these days - if I can bone a dress, I will! (Please excuse the dubious nature of that sentence).
The skirt was meant to be much longer, with gathered sections at the back, but alas - fabric restrictions applied, so I redrafted it to be a simple circle skirt. Trust me, there's enough fabric in that thing as it, and I didn't really fancy gathers sitting over my derriere and subsequently making it look much larger than it really is!
The fabric, which truly is the most divine green I've ever come across in fabric form, is a viscose from Draper's Fabric. I bought it without a project in mind, but when you see that green you've got to snaffle it up as soon as you can! It's lovely fabric, but much slinkier than I'm used to sewing, and does have a tendency to catch easily on things, so this will be a special occasion dress only.
Except for twirling about in my bedroom. Hey, a girl's gotta fill her days somehow!
Project Details:
Pattern - Vogue S-4957, circa early 1950s.
Fabric - Viscose from Draper's Fabrics.
Notions - Iron on interfacing, boning, invisible zipper.
