Do two 50s dresses make a century?

When I bought the peacock feather sateen for my first Butterick 6018 I also bought fabric for a second one. This fabric is also a sateen but it has a Very Big Floral border. This meant I would have to cut all the pieces across the width of the fabric instead of down the length. The border print has no clear straight lines so using it for a curved hem would not be a problem.

Before I started the blue dress I found another lovely rose floral satin. The satin is nice and sturdy and drapes beautifully. I decided to make the two dresses at the same time, assembly line style.

I had an evening of cutting, an evening of skirt seams and an afternoon of neatening edges. I took advantage of the automatic sewing feature on my machine for the neatening – press a button to go instead of constantly pressing the foot pedal. I still think this is an odd feature for a sewing machine – taking away your fine control – but it does have its uses (the other use is buttonholes).

I did interrupt my assembly line a bit as I didn’t cut out the bodice of the blue dress until the skirt was done, as I wasn’t sure which part of the print would look best for the bodice. I ended up going with the same density of vines as the top of the skirt, and placed the pieces to catch as many butterflies as possible. I used a plain section of the fabric for the collar; it nicely holds a butterfly brooch.

For the white floral dress, my mum found a perfectly matching pink fragment in the stash for the collar. It went so nicely that I decided to add it to the sleeves as well. Just not as a fold-back cuff like the pattern has because I want to be able to wear the dress comfortably with a cardigan.

Something I forgot to mention previously about the pattern is that I removed the skirt centre front seam. I find a skirt centre front seam is always at a great risk of puckering or skewing right where it’s most obvious. And anyway, I like a clean sweep of fabric in the front of the dress for a nicer look. To remove the seam from the pattern I had to straighten what was a shaped edge but I don’t think the reduced fullness is any great loss compared to what problems a seam have could wrought.

My other change was to move the side zip to the centre back. I thought the full skirt would mean I could use a shorter zip than do I for my 40s dresses but alas I still need an invisible zip longer than I can find in the shops. I have two hooks above the zip to allow for a longer opening. Next time, I must remember to extend the facing down for the full length of the opening above the top of the zip.

I feel very elegant wearing these dresses. There is something about the 50s that isn't quite me but I do like these dresses a lot.