Style 2911 completed

Something made in under two weeks, that doesn't happen often now. It's amazing the effect that an incentive can have - on Thursday I went to the preview of Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood, and had decided that an exhibition which included photos from the 1970s and 1980s really needed a 1979 dress. I even managed to finish it the day before the event!

From cut out to completed in a week - no wonder I look pleased!

The method of making the ruched sleeves - sewing front and back together, gathering up some of the stitching, and then sewing the gathers onto a length of seam binding or tape - seemed a bit bulky to me, although it may just have been down to the thickness of the fabric.

The inside of the sleeve, showing the tape

The outside

The back pieces were joined, leaving a split at the bottom, and then the side seams, complete with pockets were sewn. The next job was to sew in the sleeves.

Sleeves pinned in

The front extensions were joined at the centre back, and then sewn across the top of the sleeves and the back to form the collar.

The double notches show where the collar is attached

Finally, the fronts were joined, and a facing added. I chose to apply interfacing to the facing to add structure, even though the pattern didn't call for it. None of the construction was difficult, but it was quite different from most dresses I've made. Like some Vintage Vogue reissues, there seemed to be a lot of sewing without much happening, and then suddenly there was an almost-complete dress.

I absolutely love the end result. It's very early 1980s (the pattern is actually late 1979, but was still on sale in at least October 1980) but then, that is one of my sartorial happy places*. It's got pockets, and it's comfortable to sit in.

Pocketses!

#sewnshownseated

Obviously, the buttons are considerably bigger than the ball buttons recommended, but I think that they work. They are certainly ideal, colour-wise. I might make a couple of tiny tweaks if I make it again, but it's definitely a candidate for a second version. And it's a stash-reduction project to boot.

Another 2.7m out

* - It may be an eighties dress, but that doesn't mean it needs eighties styling. Much as I enjoyed the exhibition, I did look at the hair and make-up in the 1980s photographs with a certain amount of horrified recognition, and was more glad than ever that almost all pictures of me from that era were lost in a house move! I stuck firmly to my everyday look for these shots.