Autumn roses dress - part 2

Not only have I completed my October dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month, but I've even got pictures of me wearing it somewhere other than my own home! Woot! I also have several thank-yous to make.

Not my usual backdrop

Finishing the placket was easy if boring (so many fasteners to sew on), but when it came to the hem, I realised that I had cut the skirt a little shorter than I would like. I think that I must have lengthened it for the second CC41 dress, but forgot to make a note on the pattern pieces - tsk, tsk. Fortunately, I remembered that Susan Young had recently posted this article about different hem finishes on her blog, one of which involved using bias binding. The binding is attached to the raw edge of the skirt - I did this by machine - and then turned up and sewn in place like a normal hem.

The next problem was finding suitable binding. The binding I had used on the sleeves was quite stiff. This was fine on a sleeve opening, but too rigid for a hem. In another triumph of memory (I can't remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember sewing conversations from ages back!), I recalled Juliana of Urban Simplicity explaining that modern binding tends to have some synthetic fibres in it, which makes it stiff, whereas vintage bindings are pure cotton and softer. Sure enough, in my stash I found this beautifully flexible grey vintage binding which was ideal for the job. So, a big thank you to Susan and Juliana for their advice. I ended up with a perfectly hanging hem, which only required a small seam allowance.

The completed hem

I wanted to photograph the dress being worn with the 'matching' hat, ideally with a backdrop of autumnal trees, so enlisted the help of my friend D. Unfortunately, by the time we got a day when it stopped raining for long enough for us to go out, most of the leaves were on the ground rather than the trees!

With autumn leaves, just not on the trees

We went out quite early, and while the autumn colour might not have been quite as I wanted, we did get some misty autumn light on the canal.

Misty morning shot

Despite the use of two hatpins and multiple hairpins, the 'tilt' hat tilted rather more than I had intended - but this did produce some good pictures of the flowers.

Hat close-up

I must admit, I was quite nervous about enlisting photography help. I typically take a lot of photographs in order to get the handful which appear on this blog, and I was worried that D would get bored. Happily for me, however, he threw himself into it - suggesting backdrops and poses and never once hinting that surely I must have enough pictures by now. I put a lot of work into this ensemble, and really wanted better pictures of it than my usual back yard shots, so a huge thank you goes to him for his input. (He may come to regret this enthusiasm, when he finds himself called upon to photograph future projects!)

This was my favourite photo of the day

I bought this patterned crepe ages ago with the intention of making a 1940s dress from it, and finally doing so made another dent in the stash.

30 metres in credit!

The fabric was also one of my #UseNine2020 choices and realistically, it’s going to be the last one I use this year. The remaining four are very much spring/summer fabrics. My November dress is going to be another stash make, but in a winter-weight cotton - hopefully this time I will complete it in the month.

At least I used more than half of my fabrics

Vogue 5215

Well, that didn't go as planned. Mr Tulip would have been 70 on Thursday and, while obviously there have been a number of 'birthdays' since 2014, something about the roundness of this particular number combined with the general strangeness of life at present meant that the week ended up being pretty much a write-off. But I finally have a finished dress to show.

My August dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month was this. However I managed to turn what should have been simple project into a long and complicated one.

Vogue 5215, from 1961

I bought the fabric some years ago from Til The Sun Goes Down. The simple shape of the dress and the strong directional element of the print make the pattern and the fabric ideal for one another, but a couple of things put me off actually making it up, until now.

First of all, I thought that resizing the pattern would be a major undertaking. In fact, it turned out to be easier than expected.

The dress has a side zip and a waist stay, and the stay is marked with the position of the side seams and the centre front and back. The skirt has darts at the back and gathers at the front, and the bodice is slightly gathered front and back. Like Butterick 6582, the gathering is only at the sides. The stay also has marks for where the gathered sections should end, and the position of the darts. By increasing the length of the stay proportionally, I could then work out where the gathers and darts should be on the main pattern pieces. (It's also worth mentioning that the stay has a mere ½" ease added to the waist measurement for the size, not the ridiculous amounts which are added to modern patterns.)

The pattern pieces, with the waist stay in the centre

I made a toile to check my alterations, and to see if horizontal join on bodice needed moving or the sleeves needed widening. Either would have been tricky, as the yoke and sleeves are a single piece, but fortunately the only change required was shortening the bodice by 2".

The other thing which had put me off this project was that the fabric is very thin, so the dress would have to be fully lined. On one of our trips to Watson and Thornton in Shrewsbury Mum spotted a lightweight but firm black cotton which was ideal for the job. I also found the perfect buttons - yellow, with a horizontal black stripe which is created by cutting through a series of yellow and black layers at an angle.

Front and side views of the buttons

The buttons and lining were bought a couple of years ago, and when I took them out to start this project I discovered that in the meantime one of the buttons had got chipped. I contacted Watson and Thornton, and not only did they still have the buttons in stock, but they very kindly arranged to post one out to me! Note to self - always buy a spare button in future!

The picture I emailed to Watson and Thornton explaining the problem

The sensible approach to lining would have been to flat line each piece, and the pattern instructions state to do this if a skirt lining is required. But I decided to make life far more complicated by lining the dress is a way which left no seam allowances visible. This is why an "Easy to Make" dress took me so long to complete.

The toile, as well as being a fitting tool, enabled me to understand the construction of the dress and how to adapt it for lining. I omitted the facings, and instead attached interfacing the size of the facing pieces onto the inside of the lining. I made up the yoke/sleeve section in both fabric and lining, then sewed them together round the neck and opening. The pieces were positioned so that the edge of the fabric would roll slightly to the inside, and I then understitched round the join by hand.

The completed neckline and opening

Next I sandwiched the bottom edge of the yoke back between the bodice back and lining, and sewed the yoke and bodice together. This had to be done in two stages as the seam on the lining could not go all the way to the end. I repeated this step on the front, then machine sewed the side seams of the fabric. The side seams of the lining were turned in and sewn by hand - this was why the lining could not be fully sewn down in the previous step. Finally, I trimmed the lining on the sleeves, folded over the fabric, and slip-stitched it in place.

The completed bodice was then gathered and attached to the waist stay. The skirts were made up and gathered, the bodice sandwiched between them, and the waist seam machine stitched.

The completed bodice attached to the skirt and skirt lining

This, of course, had the effect of burying half of the waist stay inside the skirt. I had planned for this, and once the zip had been sewn in place I carefully cut out the tape I had used for the temporary stay (I had purposely chosen white tape, to make it easy to see) and replaced it with a black grosgrain ribbon, with a skirt hook and bar on the ends.

With the permanent waist stay in place

The lining was machine hemmed, and the main skirt hemmed by hand. Attaching the buttons was the last job, as I wanted to minimize the chances of them knocking against one another. There is also a tiny press stud (snap), sourced from my stash of vintage haberdashery, holding the point above the top right button closed. When I cut the dress out I had carefully placed the front yoke sections to avoid any yellow elements on the area around the buttons.

Allowing the yellow buttons to stand out

All in all it was a lot of work, most of which is invisible, for a simple dress. But oddly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a real challenge to work out the construction, and there was a lot of hand sewing involved, but it was immensely satisfying to take the time and make the effort to produce something so neatly finished. It also fits perfectly. The skirt back has four darts rather than two and, as I discovered on my first version of Simplicity 1777, this really makes a difference to the way it hangs.

Front view, with purchased belt

Side and back views, showing off the skirt fit

The fabric was one of my choices for my UseNine challenge, which brings me up to four out of nine.

Almost halfway

Unfortunately, I have realized that I made a basic error when I was making my selection back in February. At that point I was thinking about spring and summer dressmaking, and almost all of my choices reflect that. Even though the idea was to select fabrics for projects for March to December, I somehow overlooked the fact that lightweight cottons are not ideal wear for the British winter! I suspect that UseFive may end up being a more accurate description, but I will know for next year.

On a cheerier note, a fully lined dress means twice the fabric use on the Stashometer - although a combination of wide fabric and frugal cutting out meant that I only used 1.8m of each.

Another 3.6m out of the stash

Simplicity 2683 again

Before lockdown, I tended to do my shopping on a pretty much daily basis. The walk into town gave me exercise, fresh air, and a break from whatever I was working on. Then this changed to a single big weekly shop for both myself and my parents, done by car. I'm in the privileged position that I could spend the rest of the time indoors at home.

One result of this change was that I found I was wearing my 1948 housecoat a lot. It's comfortable, easy to put on, and smart enough that I could answer the door in it looking as though I wasn't wearing a dressing gown! I decided that I needed to make a second version, and this was my June dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month challenge.

Even though I don't make it full length, the long, full skirt still takes quite a lot of fabric. Fortunately I had a suitable printed cotton remnant in my stash, and it was one of my #UseNine2020 fabrics as well. And at 132cm/52", it was wide enough for me to cut out the skirt back without piecing it. I also had some large vintage buttons which were the perfect colour. This time I decided to make the long-sleeved version, but omitting the large cuffs.

The raw materials

I remembered that there had been all sorts of problems with the bodice length the last time I made this, and clearly I hadn't altered the pattern to reflect the shortening alterations that Mum and I made to fit it properly. Thanks to my recent changes in shape, the bodice of the 2015 version is now the perfect length at the back but slightly too short at the front. I cut the bodice pieces out to the original length, and marked where I thought that the waist seam should go.

The skirt was easy to make, and the bodice was fairly straightforward: I just had to taper the sleeves slightly from the elbow to the cuff. Then I basted on the skirt following the line I had marked - and to my amazement, it fitted! (And yes, I have marked the relevant lines on the pattern pieces this time, in case I want to make a fourth version at some point.)

Once the bodice and skirt were joined, except for the right front, it was time for the buttonholes. Oh, the buttonholes! The pattern instructions state that the bottonholes should be positioned so that the buttons are at the outer edges on both sides.

Illustration in the pattern instructions

Unfortunately this doesn't work: the buttons on the left of the diagram just slide to the other end of the buttonhole. The last time I made this, I had to add a row of press studs along the dart line to keep the under layer of the crossover front in place. The buttonholes all need to be positioned the same, relative to the buttons.

How the buttonholes should be placed

The lower buttonholes are made by leaving gaps in the waist seam, and the upper buttonholes are bound. Bound buttonholes should normally be done early in the construction, before the facing is added, but I had to leave them until I had got the fit of the bodice right. This made constucting them without accidentally catching part of the facing quite tricky.

Ensuring that the buttons, rather than the buttonholes, would look symmetrical when the dress is done up was also awkward. I had to check, double-check, and check again, because the buttonhole positions relative to the darts just looked so wrong.

Hard to believe that this will work

I used the organza patch method, to add some stability to the fabric.

Even completed, they still don't look right

It was all worth it, though, as I love the end result - in fact I'm wearing it as I type. Although the pattern was designed to be an informal garment, nowadays it looks like quite a formal 1950s dress.

1950s - with a net petticoat

I first made this pattern up in 1984, and clearly I was being unusually fashion-forward at the time, as it shares certain characteristics with these 1987 Vogue patterns.

l-r, Vogue 9874, 9875, 1855

1980s - flat shoes, big hair, and a miles-o'-ironing skirt!

The vital statistics:

The Stashometer - over 20 metres in credit

A completed column in my #UseNine2020 challenge

Finally (and well done for making it this far!) here's a slightly shaky picture of me with the original owner of the pattern, and the person who taught me to sew. Mum and Dad clocked up 65 years of marriage on 2 July, and happily lockdown in the UK is now sufficiently relaxed that I could spend the day with them.

With Mum

Vogue 7422 - part 2, completed

Well, that didn't pan out as intended. Not only did the 'last little jobs' to finish the dress take far longer than expected (when am I going to stop being surprised when this happens?!), but I also lost several days to a particularly persistent migraine. But Vogue 7422 is finally finished and photographed.

The weather here has been atrocious for several days, and while today was at least dry, it was also windy, so I did my photography indoors. This solved the potential problem of the dress blending into the yard wall and leaving only the collar, buttons, cuffs and belt visible! You also get a period appropriate sideboard in the background into the bargain.

Finished!

My constuction of the bodice diverged from the instructions a few times, but I also followed the instructions at one point to use a period technique which I'd never tried before. The main change was in making the button loops for the front. The instructions state to "Stitch and turn a bias strip of material so it is ⅛" wide finished". I've made rouleau before, but never as narrow as ⅛" / 3mm, and certainly not out of fabric as bulky as seersucker. I couldn't imagine this working at all, so instead I made the loops individually.

I eased out the puckers in the fabric to make it smooth, and then cut a series of pieces a scant ½" wide by 2" long (1.2cm by 5cm), on the bias. Then I folded these in half lengthways, and folded the sides in - 1. I secured the end with a couple of stitches - 2. (Apologies if these images look a little odd; I'm left-handed, so sew from left to right. Also, please ignore the terrible state of my nails!). Then I eased the strip into a loop shape, and overcast the folded edges together - 3 and 4. I found it was easier to shape the loop with the sewing on the outside curve rather than the inside, and shaping the loop as I sewed produced a flatter result than if I sewed it straight and then tried to shape it.

Making the button loops

I worked out the spacing for the loops down the bodice, and marked the positions onto a strip of Stitch-n-Tear, which I then pinned onto the bodice front. Then I pinned the loops in place, and basted them just inside the seam allowance.

Pinning the loops in place

The instructions don't call for anything to stabilise the seam when attaching the facing to the bodice front, but I was concerned that because both pieces are on the bias, the seam could stretch. I used a selvedge strip of a firm but fine woven cotton (something else which I keep in my 'will come in handy' stash, along with silk organze selvedge) as stay tape, basted onto the facing over what would become the sewing line.

Unlike a modern pattern, there is no back facing for this dress. In the past I have drafted my own pattern piece from the bodice back, but this time I decided to follow the instructions, which were to "Baste a strip of bias to back neck as facing". As there was no indication of how large this strip should be, I erred on the side of caution and made it 7.5cm / 3" wide, and a good 7.5cm / 3" longer than the back neck seam. I trimmed off the excess (there was a lot of excess!) once the bias strip was sewn in place, and turned the edges under. Because I had interfaced the collar, there was no need to stiffen the back facing in any way.

Showing the collar, front facings, and back bias strip (with the dress back underneath)

The skirt is attached to the bodice before the facings and underpanel are added. The two are joined by the period method of turning under the seam allowance of the bodice, laying it over the skirt, and sewing through all three layers. Although I found this technique odd when I first encountered it, now I prefer is as it gives a stronger seam. I omitted the buttons and loops on the skirt section, and fastened this with press studs (snaps) instead.

Showing the different fasteners, and the waist seam

None of the buckles I had were right for the belt, but I did have a metal fabric-covered buckle which I was able to prise apart, so I decided to remove the original fabric and recover it. This proved easier said than done. It was impossible to get the fabric to stay in place while I pushed the back of the buckle on, so I attempted to glue the fabric to the inside of the buckle. Then it proved impossible to get the fabric to stay in place while the glue dried. Eventually I managed to clamp it with several kirby grips (bobby pins) with the ends chopped off. I could only do one section at a time, however, so it was a long process.

My kirby grip clamps

The belt needs a retaining loop, but apart from that, it's done.

Did I mention it has pockets?

The pattern includes a piece for making shoulder pads, but as I had a pair of raglan pads anyway, I used those instead.

The cuffs have a curved detail at the top

It's hard to be too smug about using stash fabrics at present, as there aren't many alternatives, but nonetheless here is the Stashometer.

Almost 29 metres of stashed fabric used this year!

May dress (Vogue 7422) - part 1

This month for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month I'm making up this 1951 pattern in a striped seersucker which I bought some years ago one of my trips to Goldhawk Road. It's one of my UseNine2020 fabrics.

The blue is for the collar and cuffs

I bought the fabric with the intention of using it for a 1950s Maudella pattern which also has the bodice cut on the bias. However on closer inspection of the pattern I realised that the bodice fastens with buttons and buttonholes, so the 'V' of the stripes meeting would not have been in the centre but slightly to the left, and I didn't want that. So into the stash the fabric went.

Vogue 7422 has an edge-to-edge front, fastening with buttons and loops, and a panel underneath to prevent any gapping. I'm not going to extend the buttons below the waist, however, as to me it looks a bit odd. Instead I'll fasten the skirt part with snaps.

Envelope detail showing how the dress fastens

The first thing I had to do was alter the pattern to fit me. Because of my recent body changes, it had to be both sized-up and shortened, which made redrafting the bodice darts quite an exercise. I made a toile, and to my astonishment it was pretty much right - woot!

When I moved on to my actual fabric, it struck my that I couldn't remember when I had last used seersucker. I think it was in school sewing lessons, which is a very long time ago indeed. I wasn't sure if there was anything particular I needed to know about working with such a textured fabric, and most of my sewing books didn't have any advice to offer. Eventually I found the information I needed in Dana Willard's The Fabric Selector. This also included a reference to Seersucker Thursday in the United States, which led me down the rabbit hole of seersucker suits, and just when and how they could be worn. . .

Anyway, dragging myself back to the job in hand - I had assumed that the stripes on the fabric were symmetrical, but when I looked at it closely I discovered that this is not actually the case. The orange and yellow parts are symmetrical, but in the grey sections the lighter grey is always on the left.

Fabric close-up

I already knew that I would have to cut out carefully, to match the stripes, but this added another layer of complexity. Fortunately, becase the pattern is woven in rather than printed, both sides of the fabric are the same. This meant that I could cut out one piece, then lay both it and the pattern on top of the fabric, align the stripes all round, pin through all three layers, and cut out the second piece. Once flipped over, it should be the perfect match. I had worried about whether I would have enough fabric, but because everything was cut from a single layer, there was very little wastage and I managed it with a little to spare.

Pattern piece cut out once, and laid on top of the fabric

When sewing together pieces where I want the stripes to match, I found it easiest to pin along the white stripes. They are easy to see, reasonably spaced, and narrow enough to pin through the centre and be sure that they will match properly.

Pinning along the white stripes

I sewed the bodice back first, and all the time and effort spent in cutting out and pinning proved worth it.

Matching stripes

Can we just take a minute to admire this in detail?

Yes, I am pleased with this!

Seersucker is tricky to press without flattening it altogether, but fortunately I have recently made myself a seam stick. It's just an offcut of thick dowel wrapped in several layers of felt, but it's perfect for pressing seams open without squashing the fabric on either side.

DIY seam stick

The skirt pieces are on the grain at the sides, and somewhere between grain and true bias at the centre front and back. Naturally, I added pockets in the side seams. I was worried about two extra layers of seersucker under the skirt adding extra fullness, so I decided to make the pocket bags out of plain fabric, with just a strip of the patterned fabric at the pocket opening. Then I discovered that it is possible to ease out the puckers created by the weaving process, so I did that on the pocket strips to reduce the bulk even further.

The pattern doesn't call for interfacing at all. I considered adding it to the facings, and experimented with an offcut. Ironing on interfacing flattens the fabric completely, which I didn't like.

Pocket piece, untreated seersucker (top), and with iron-on interfacing (bottom)

However because the bodice front openings and their facings are all cut on the bias, I do think I will need to stabilise them in some way. The underpanel is cut on the straight grain, and I have applied a fine iron-on interfacing to it as I'm quite happy for this piece to be flat. The underpanel is attached to the left side of the bodice, and will stop it from stretching. For the right side, I will add a stay tape when sewing the bodice and facing together. There is also the small matter of all those buttons and loops to add!

April dress (Butterick 2535) finished

It's a little late (which I'm putting down to scrubs-making), but I have finished my April dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month, and I'm really pleased with the end result. The pattern envelope describes it as a "casual frock . . . so wearable for innumerable occasions", and I'm inclined to agree. It would be just as suitable for nipping out to the shops as for afternoon tea with friends - when we're able to do all these things again.

Better late than never

I forgot to mention last week that when I laid the fabric out to cut it, I discovered that there was a hole in it - it's an occupational hazard of using remnants. Because the print is so dense it was easy to miss, especially when the fabric was folded double. I was worried that I would somehow forget about it when I was cutting out, so I made it noticable by tacking an obvious patch over it.

There was no missing this

The hole meant that I had to go for the short-sleeved version of the pattern. However, the fabric is a Liberty Tana Lawn, so lent itself to a more obviously summer dress anyway.

And the answer to last week's button dilemma? When I tried the bodice on, it was obvious that it needed a contrast button; otherwise it was just a flowery mass. So green it was. Thank you Lynn, I shall refer all my button queries to you in future!

I was so pleased to find these vintage green buttons in my stash

In order to get the dress done, I used ready-made shoulder pads. The pattern does include instructions for making your own, and I may well do this at some point. One thing which I really noticed was how much the bodice fit was improved by wearing one of my What Katie Did bras underneath it, rather than a modern bra. I shouldn't really be surprised that something made from a true vintage pattern fits better over a vintage silhouette, but as I often use vintage rather than reproduction patterns, it's worth remembering.

Along the same lines, if I want to dress things up for a proper vintage look, the colour scheme of the print goes with lots of my coloured-seam stockings; pink, purple, green and claret to be precise, as well as black and neutral. On top of that, the dress is a perfect match for this fabulous cardigan, knitted from a vintage pattern, which I commissioned from the very wonderful Crafty Elsie. Knitwear which actually fits me, yay (and it has amazing buttons, too)!

Made for each other

Making this dress has removed another three metres of fabric from the stash - although obviously the arrival of 18 metres of scrubs fabric has ruined my progress on that front!

A big fat zero

Finally, this was the first of my #UseNine2020 fabrics. Vogue 7422 and the striped seersucker are lined up for my May dress, but first I have some more scrubs to make.

One down, eight to go