There are times when a pattern just calls your name.
You know what I am talking about. Those times when a pattern can transport you to a different life. In this case, one that does not include washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms. But DOES include wearing crinolines. 🙂
I don’t really have that many occasions to wear a silk “party” dress. But at a recent ASG dinner we were hosting some lovely ladies from McCall’s Pattern Company, and had been asked to wear a garment made from any of the McCall’s family of patterns. Vogue is usually my McCall’s pattern company of choice, and since I had the black silk dupioni, Bemberg lining, pattern, AND vintage mother-of-pearl belt buckle in my stash, how could I resist?
This pattern is really an easy sew. I have only made one other vintage reproduction pattern, and found it to be easy to assemble as well. The one change I did make was to fully line the top, rather than applying facings. I decided not to line the skirt, because as usual I was short on construction time and needed to get.it.done. I may go back and add a skirt lining later, but those big ole almost-circle-skirts take a lot of fabric and I am not sure I want to use up my Bemberg lining stash for this dress.
I hand-picked the zipper in place, mostly because I was terrified to machine stitch over the folds of the tuck on the bodice. That just seemed like a hot mess waiting to happen. With all the texture on silk dupioni no one could tell if my stitches are even and consistently placed or not. Winning!
Love the sleeve gussets. A little fiddly to set in, but not that bad. Of course because I lined the bodice I got to do it 4 times instead of just 2. Serves me right, eh?
The one fitting/wearing issue with this dress is keeping the upper front edges of the bodice laying flat and smooth. Part of this issue I probably created myself by pulling the stay tape a bit too tight. You know me – if a little is good, more is better, right? I added a small section of boning to each side after construction (stitched to the seam allowance), but I don’t think it helped too much. Maybe more boning? This is a good application for body tape, which I did wear at the Sew Expo dinner. I will try it once without tape, and see how annoying it is before attempting to redo the boning. Talk about fiddly!
I.LOVE.THIS.DRESS.
I would love to make it again in a light cotton voile for summer. A Liberty fabric would be gorgeous, but would cost a fortune to make up.
Have you ever sewn a vintage or a vintage reproduction pattern? Do you consider “vintage” part of your style?
Happy sewing,
Maris