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3.30.2016

Rosey Easter Dress

Well hello there, I blinked my eyes and suddenly the month of March was just about over. Must have been some sort of Easter candy induced coma.  My love for things coated in chocolate has no bounds other than my now too tight clothing.

Between scarfing down egg shaped treats, I got to work sewing up this year's Easter dress.  You might remember that there were two pattern contenders, Hollywood 1159 and Simplicity 4958. Well I got super cocky and decided to muslin both patterns. Then threw them in a ring and let the dresses battle it out for supremacy.....er I mean easy sewability?  The Simplicity pattern won by not needing any sort of major alterations and by flashing it's curved sleeve hem at me. Oooo pattern eye candy, Momma likes.
There's not too much to say about this this project because it was pretty much smooth sailing from start to finish.  The bodice of the dress has V shaped waist darts that radiate from the CF and the back is gathered at the waist instead of darted. This results in a semi fitted top that cinches in at the waist and then flows out in a narrow 4 paneled A-line skirt. All of that was easy to fit and assemble.
Most of my sewing time was spent is getting smooth curves on the neckline and sleeve areas. Usually I mark my own guidelines for scallops, but this pattern helpfully included them on all the facing pattern pieces. All I had to do was transfer the punch outs onto the fabric and get stitching.
Since a strong shoulder was such a big part of a fashionable silhouette in the 40's pretty much every pattern calls for shoulder pads. This sometimes gives me 80's flashbacks of the terrifying kind. NOOOO, linebacker shoulders everywhere!!!  Right now I'm making the shoulder pad decision on a pattern by pattern basis. On this dress I did end up adding 1/2" pads because the semi fitted bodice needed a big shoulder to anchor the blousines of the design. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Pattern
Simplicity 4958

Fabrics used
Cotton Sateen from the Gertie/JoAnn's line from 2015. I noticed she has this fabric for sale in her Etsy shop now if you're dying to have some. I enjoyed sewing sewing it and wouldn't make padding my stash with a bit more.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Bumped out the waist and hip 1/2" for my larger lower half

2. Made my standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment to the shoulder and sleeve.

3. Dropped the bust dart 1".

Confessions/Advice
Nothing to disclose on this project other than this rose pattern placement being entirely accidental. I loooove it.

Husband Comment
"Hey pretty rose covered lady, I like your sleeves."

My Final Thoughts
These photos don't really do the dress justice. It was one of those days where the sun piercing my eyeballs threw off all the picture taking mojo. This dress makes me feel pretty and comfortable, but I didn't feel that translated into these pics. Next time I bring some sunglasses and pick a different location that isn't a bunch of uneven steps. Future goals right? To sum it all up, enjoyable vintage pattern to sew/wear, cotton sateen is still my favorite fabric of all time, and shoulder pads are sometimes good.  See you guys in April!

3.09.2016

Vintage Pledge #1 - Hollywood 1032

After much blathering on about this pattern for many posts, I'm pleased to unveil my finished Hollywood 1032.  Not in red, as previously discussed, but PLAID! A lady has the prerogative to change her mind after all.
After "discovering" that Hollywood 1032 was drafted to be a blouse and skirt instead of a suit, I still wanted a jacket like feel to the blouse. Exactly how to do this didn't cross my mind until stumbling across this plaid cotton shirting. "Perfect!" I thought, "This totally reads as jackety blouse to me."

Perfect except for two things
1. The back peplum was impossible to plaid match along the side seams. If I'd started cutting with that pattern piece it probably could have been managed. Of course I started with the front like I always do because that's the area you really don't want to mess up.

2. Elbow darts and plaid are not the best mix. This honestly didn't even cross my mind until the blouse was done and I hung it on a hanger.  Ooops, weird biased plaid at the bottom of the sleeves, too late to fix that now.

But whatever, I'd probably do it again because plaid is awesome and I really like this outfit.
This was my first time sewing an unprinted pattern and it went pretty well.  Transferring pattern pieces to new paper is a bit tricky because they are hard to see through the paper. Then I got some good advice off of Instagram to put dark paper behind the patterns. What a difference this makes! You still need to do some "pattern braille" for the darts/other punch outs but it works wonders for everything else.
The pattern illustration compared to the actual drafting was mostly accurate. The only glaring difference was that the peplum length was drafted to be much shorter than drawn.  I added an 1" of length to make it match up to the illustration and because that's more flattering for my figure.  Sewing wise this one was easy to whip up after all that waffling over fabric.  I'd definitely buy more Hollywood patterns in the future. :)

Pattern
Hollywood 1032

Fabrics used
Stashed Plaid cotton shirting - Originally from Fabrics and Trimmings on Etsy
Stretch wool suiting maybe from EOS.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Graded the size 32" bust up to a 36" bust.  I used the same 4" grade described here. This worked for all the pieces other than extending the collar that becomes the back facing. Here I lucked out and was able to properly guess how much to add thanks to some notches.
BTW - It's interesting how extending the front facing and collar up to finish the back of the neck in this manner was a pretty standard drafting technique in the past.  Now it's something we only do for if there's a wrap around collar.

2. Added standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment to the shoulder and sleeve head.

3. Dropped the bust dart 1".

4. Added a scant 1/4" to the bottom part of the princess line seam. The placement didn't look proportionally correct on my body without it.

5. Shortened the waist length 1/2" above peplum.

6. Added 1" additional length to the peplum.

Confessions/Advice
1. Don't forget about your elbow darts when you pull out a plaid. Derp.

2. Confession - I might be addicted to hug a snug and need an intervention.  It's something I'd never ever bought until the Veronica coat and now I can't stop putting it on hems. But see, so pretty.

3. I also covered shoulder pads with self fabric for the first time. All the pretty insides!

Husband Comment
"Are you going to a fancy business meeting?"  Why yes, I like to meet my donuts at the boardroom before eating them.

My Final Thoughts
Great start to my Vintage Pledge year.  I like the silhouette of both of the pieces and love that I can mix the skirt with various other tops. This should be the last "winterish" project for awhile. Look forward to lots of flora patterns in the future.