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!