Just before Christmas, I (whisper it) bought a piece of clothing - a semi-fitted pinafore (jumper) dress in a pure wool check fabric. It's beautifully made, in a timeless style, and I know that I will get a lot of wear out of it. In fact, I have already worn it so much that I decided I wanted to make something similar, but this time in needlecord.
My first idea was to use this pattern.
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| Style 2188, 1968 |
But then I realised that apart from bust darts it has no shaping whatsoever, in either the front or the back.
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| Back view |
This is not a style which suits me, as I know from making Butterick 4384. Fortunately, when going through the suitcase of vintage patterns that I blogged about recently, I found this, from 1972.
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| Princess seams front and back, much better |
The pattern is for an unlined dress or tunic, with a neck facing. It is constructed by cutting out the facing pieces from sew-in interfacing, basting them to the constructed front and backs, stitching the shoulder seams, and then making up and attaching the facing.
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| 1970s constuction methods |
I wanted to make my version fully lined, and to use fusible intefacing. So I had to draft new facing pieces, based around the seamlines. I found a dark red needlecord remnant of the perfect length in my local fabric shop, and bought lining to match.
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| The lining, with separate interfacing pieces |
I've had a lot of problems fitting bodices recently; since I changed from a B cup (the standard for dress patterns) to a C cup, my tried and trusted method of just shortening the bodice by 5cm/2" all round no longer works. So I decided to cut out the lining pieces as per the pattern, mark the waistline, shorten the pieces to fit me, and then apply these alterations when cutting out the needlecord. It means that there is extra fabric around the lining waist, but it's not a problem.
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| The adjusted lining |
No matter how often I do it, I can never believe that the method of sewing the neckline and armholes right side together and then pulling the backs through is going to work, but it always does!
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| Magic! |
The one thing which I kept from Style 2188 was the patch pockets. I lined them, and after consulting with Mum over the best position, placed them along the princess seamline. As ever, the back zip was hand-picked and the hem hand-sewn.
I'm really pleased with the end result.
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| A completed item! |
I forgot to take a seated photo at the time, so here's one from my weekend catsitting for my friend. The semi-fitted shape makes it very comfortable to sit down in.
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| #sewnshownseated |
Because I bought all the fabric, there's no reduction on the Stashometer.
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| No difference to the total, but recorded anyway |
At least something has come in and gone straight out, rather than languishing in the stash for ages. Also, I'm hoping that this may coax my missing sewjo back into at least semi-regular appearances.
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