Thursday, April 2, 2015

A dress for March.

It has been ages since my last post and not all that time has been spent making my dress. I finished it a week ago but it takes me forever to get the photos done.

The dress is another old Style pattern. Number 1134 from 1975 again. I seem to have bought a lot of patterns around that time when I was looking at dresses in the shops and saying to myself  "I can make that!". I actually did make this dress a couple of times before and had wanted to make another one. The fabric has been in the stash for some years and was always ear-marked for this particular pattern. Now they have finally been united, but it was a long-winded affair.


First I dithered over whether I would be sorry after I'd cut the thing out. What if I didn't like it or it didn't fit, the pattern is 30 years old and my middle is 30 years older also. I spent hours measuring and re-measuring the pattern and myself. Then I allowed extra at the side seams just in case. This proved to be unnecessary so the finished dress is as the pattern size.

The only alterations I made were a forward shoulder adjustment, took the centre front seam in a little at the neckline to fix some gaposis and made an all in one facing instead of the separate neckline and armhole facings.

 Not too sure how flattering this dress is. I am lucky to be still slim at my age but I am rather shapeless having next to no waist or hips, a true column or rectangle. I love the colour, it's one of my favourite shades of  blue and I am currently building a holiday wardrobe around blue so it fits in with the general theme. Whether I will wear it is another story.




Next project is a pull-on  A-line skirt in stretch crepe with blue scribble. I only have 1 metre so a couple of the patterns I considered won't fit.


  I really fancied Style Arc's Gorgeous Gore skirt, but that needs 1.3m and will require major manipulation of the pattern and fabric. I enjoy that sort of challenge. Failing that there is always Vogue's 1247 leaving out the darts and zip and inserting elastic at the waist. I can do that, or finally an old A-line pattern with the side seam straightened and an elastic casing added which would be simplest. The options are endless as is the decision making.