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| Another 1979 Style pattern |
The fact that I am posting about the completed dress on a Monday rather than a Sunday, and on the very last day of the month would suggest that it wasn't that simple after all. Actually it was; it just took me ages to get round to starting - I seemed to have a bit of a sewing slump.
The pattern called for 2.8m of 115cm wide fabric, without nap. My fabric had a barely noticeable directional print, but there was 3m of it, so I was sure it would be fine. When I actually took the fabric out to make a start, however, I discovered two things. One: it was only 110cm wide, and 3cm of that was unprinted selvedges. Two: the last 50cm had a printing error - which may of course explain why it was a remnant!
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| The printing error (middle and right) shows more on the wrong side of the fabric |
So, it was back to pattern tetris yet again. The fault was that the fabric had been printed with too much dye rather than too little, so I reasoned that if necessary, I could always cut the pocket bags and yoke facing from the misprinted part. In fact, I managed to cut all the pieces from the section that was printed correctly, and with everything running in the right direction. Win!
There were a few things which were odd about the pattern. First of all, the ongoing interfacing question. There is interfacing in the cuffs but, as with Style 2630, no interfacing in the yoke. Meanwhile, Style 2912, which has a similar stand neckline to this dress, does use interfacing. I decided to compromise and use a very fine iron-on interfacing for both cuffs and yoke. The angled darts on the sleeve head are unlike anything I've seen in a pattern, but I did like the end result.
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| The sleeve head darts |
Because the yoke is shaped round the neck, it is in two parts with a seam along the shoulder. Although the instructions didn't call for it, I decided to hand stitch the yoke and facing together 'in the ditch' along this seam, to stop the seam allowances from bunching up.
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| The completed yoke, shoulder seam and sleeve |
As with Style 2912, I can get my hands through the cuffs without unbuttoning them, so I cheated and just sewed the buttons on through both layers of cuff.
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| Cuff cheat! |
The one thing I haven't done yet is the neck fastening. The pattern calls for a small button and loop just below the yoke, but this looks a bit meagre to me. For the photographs I used a brooch, and liked the effect. I think that either some sort of clasp or frog fasten would work, or I will reinforce the neck facings to that I can just use the brooch all the time.
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| The unfinished front |
I like the finished dress, but it is undeniably one of the most, if not the most, late-70s/early-80s dresses I have ever made. So inspired by the Style Pattern Book I decided to ham it up a bit in the photos with appropriate hair – all curls and combs!
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| 80s hair - go big or go home! |
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| It's got pockets! |
My careful cutting out means that only 2.5m are taken off the stashometer, and I know for a fact that the year's total is going to look less rosy shortly - full confession coming soon!
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| Looking good - but about to take a turn for the worse |
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