Jersey maxi-dress

When we were in New Zealand I bought some jersey with the intention of making a maxi-dress. I wasn't sure where I would get a pattern from but I knew I wanted such a dress. Then I did a performance-wear sewing class and made a fitted-to-me leotard pattern. I used the leotard pattern as the base of my maxi-dress pattern. I widened it a fair bit, because a dress doesn't need to be as snug as swimwear. The leotard pattern came with long sleeves so finding sleeves was no problem.

During my sewing classes I learned a) that I had broad shoulders and b) how to adjust a pattern to fit them. I did the adjustment on the maxi dress pattern (all by myself) and it worked beautifully. I had often found clothes tight in the shoulders but I hadn't realised it was a 'thing'.

For the skirt I got all the pieces of McCall's 6608 and laid them out to match with the seams and waist of my bodice pattern (adapted from the leotard) and traced around the edges. I then went round with a metre ruler and tried to make the skirt roughly the same length all the way round. I should add that this is an incredibly unscientific method and I wouldn't rely on it to be anywhere near accurate.

The resulting skirt pattern was huge so I then folded it in (pivoting from the hip) until the pattern would fit on my fabric. The amount of skirt left in the dress is very nice and I don't think I would want it to be fuller.

The dress has a knee-length viscose lining to prevent the weight of the jersey in the skirt from stretching the bodice too much. The neckline and sleeves are finished with folder-over elastic .

I am so, so happy with this dress. The fit is just right and it's very comfortable.

Winter Blast

By the time summer ended I had enough 40s’ dresses to allow me to dress like Bioshock as often as I wanted to. Unfortunately, it soon got too cold for short-sleeved dresses. (Actually, my air-conditioned office had always been too cold for them but it has become too cold for dress + cardigan)

So I started planning a winter 40s dress. I wanted my new dress to have bishop sleeves and a tie neckline and a longer skirt. I also decided to go with a belt rather than a waistband. This meant that even though this was supposed to be a new dress from a pattern I already had, I ended up having to redo every pattern piece.

 I found this extant pattern image which verified the authenticity of my design - source

It took many goes to get the bishop sleeves right. The (short) sleeve pattern I was using is puffed and I decided to keep the puff and the thin upper sleeve before expanding the sleeve again in the lower arm. The final pattern looked like this:

The bodice adjustments didn't all work properly at first; it took a fair bit of fiddling with the final garment to have an level waistline and it still dips a bit in the back. I have tried several times with this pattern to have the bodice gathered into the front waist seam but it never looks right. I ended up using a single pleat into the waist seam. There is still gathering at the shoulders. Now that I've done more pattern-fitting classes I think I might be better off completely redrafting this dress because, while it works, there are plenty of places where the fit is fudged or poor in ways that I now know how to adjust properly.

The fabric is a rayon print I bought in New Zealand. I bought about 5 metres of it with no project in mind. Buying substantial lengths for the stash is a new thing for me but it's pretty good for when I want to make something now and because my needing fabric and shops having good fabric cannot be relied upon to coincide. The rayon was a bit jelly to work with so I starched it before cutting but I couldn't say for certain whether it helped. I also underlined the bodice with black faille to make it a bit more stable.

I inherited the belt buckle from my great aunt's stash; it is likely to be old but has to be after 1966 - it still had a price tag attached in decimal currency (25c). The colour goes so beautifully with the fabric. I wasn't sure about the authenticity of the print at first but I did come across a couple of examples of black 40s’ fabrics with largish floral prints so I think it's close enough.

I started this dress on a Sunday and decided that I really wanted to wear it on the Friday night. I worked pretty constantly on it through the week but still had to be sewn into it 5 minutes before leaving because I hadn't had time to sew on the clip fasteners. The belt wasn't made yet either.

 The dress is finished now and I am glad to have 40s’ clothes as a viable wardrobe choice this season.