Second time lucky

I'm pretty sure that this is a first, not just for the blog, but for my dressmaking in general. Since I started vintage dressmaking, I've made up several patterns from the late 1970s, and re-acquired a number of patterns from that era which I had disposed of in various clear-outs. But until now, I had never made up a pattern which I had made previously, when it was 'new'.

Step forward, Style 2703, from 1979.

I think I previously made this in the very early 80s

I made view 2 and it wasn't a success, which was entirely due to poor fabric choice. Unusually for me, I can't remember the exact fabric I used, but I do recall that it was a cotton, and too thick and stiff for the gathers and ties at the shoulder.

Despite this, when I saw the pattern on eBay, I snapped it up to add to my 'Style 1979' collection. I didn't have any immediate plans to make it up, but when I found the crinkle viscose just visible above in the remnant bin of my local fabric shop, I knew that it would be a perfect match.

Resizing the pattern was easy; there is no shaping, so I just had to make it wider and move the pockets up a little. The front and the back are identical apart from the necklines, which meant that I could draft the front only, and add an overlay for the back neckline.

The main pieces, and the all-important pocket

The pattern pieces are for view 1, and the 7cm/2¾" 'sleeves' are removed for view 1. However, I've found that I greatly prefer the longer shoulder seam of Vogue 2787 to sleeveless dresses which end on the shoulder, which view 2 of 2703 appears to do.

Vogue 2787's extended shoulders

My solution was to keep to view 1 at the top, but taper to view 2 at the side seam. This gives me extra length at the shoulder, without the gathers ending up looking meagre.

My pattern alteration

I also cut the dress out as long as I could make it, partly for preference and partly to get maximum use from the remnant. The shoulder ties were cut from the plain mustard section of the print.

After posting last week that I never found errors in the instructions of my vintage patterns, it was probably inevitable that I would find - well, not an error exactly, but something odd. The dress pieces have extensions at the bottom, which form the facings of the side vents. But these are just folded back and then hemmed; there is nothing to keep the top of the facing in place, in the way that you would secure the top of a skirt vent. So I hand sewed the top of the facing to the dress with small stitches, to ensure that it hangs properly.

Really?

I made a tie belt out of leftover fabric, and I have an off-white leather purchased belt which will work with the dress as well. But I had a vague memory of owning a belt with a scallop shell clasp in the late 70s/early 80s, and thought that something similar would look ideal on this dress. So I went online, and struck gold (well, gold plated). I found a belt clasp in exactly the style I wanted, by Mimi Di N jewellery. Even better, Mimi di Niscemi dated her pieces, and this one was from 1979! The belt is made from cotton twill tape, and perfectly matches my original idea.

One half of the dated clasp

The completed belt

I'm very pleased with the end result, and can see it becoming my go-to hot weather dress.

Much better than my first attempt

There's not a lot to show in the seated shot, except how windy it was when I was taking the photos!

#sewnshownseated

As I bought fabric specifically for this project, there's no reduction on the stashometer, either.

2.9m in, 2.9m out

However, a successful make from a pattern which didn't work out previously has got me thinking about other past failures, and how they might be fixed. Hmmm.