I made this dress from B5708, which I believe is a reprinted pattern from 1953. I made this with a lovely floral fabric that my boyfriend gave me before he left for school. I decided to make View B which is the one with a contrast upper bodice. I ended up modifying the pattern so that I still have a sizable amount of the 3 and 1/2 yards of floral left and plan on making a cute shirt or skirt with it. |
This pattern is adorable and I originally wanted to make it because of the way they tied it in front of the shoulder creating a bit of a cap sleeve. When I took the pattern out of the stack I had, I discovered that the instructions were missing! I decided to continue with the piece as it didn't look too difficult to figure out and I had gotten to where I am skill-wise by winging things. Cutting out the fabric was easy as there were only 5 pattern pieces(bodice front, bodice back, midriff front, midriff back, skirt) The bodice is fully lined and I didn't run into too much difficult putting it together except that the "v" of the midriff was very tricky. After I put it all together(minus the hem) I tried it on and discovered that the front neckline was gaping open and it looked horrible no matter which way I tied the straps. I was so distraught about this dress at this point. I was upset about ruining a piece that was going to look so nice with the fabric that Alex gave me and it didn't help that I was having a particularly difficult time with dealing with him being off at school with no communication with the outside world. I didn't touch the dress for a day and a half despite my mom trying to give me suggestions as to how to make it better. |
Yesterday I attacked the dress with an open mind and optimism. I got on such a roll that I forgot to eat lunch! I fiddled around with putting darts in on the bodice from the neckline to fix the gaping situation. I also finished the hem an had a dress that I was so happy with. It was a 180 degree turnaround from a day and a half before. I then wore it out to a couple of errands I had to run. As I was out I discovered that I did not like the way the bias cut midriff stretched into the waist of the gathered skirt and decided that a waist stay was necessary. When I went home I pulled out the ribbon that had wrapped the fabric when Alex gave it to me and sewed a button hole and a button to make an unconventional waist stay. I then attached it to the inside waist and used an almost stitch-in-the-ditch method on the outside to attach the waist stay. After trying it on, I was elated because it was exactly the look I was going for. I then decided to utilize the embroider feature on my mom's machine and machine-embroidered a carnation near the neckline. It looks adorable and the colors go well with the color of the floral in the skirt/midriff. I think the carnation really ties together the whole dress and makes it look finished.
I fought with this dress and reinforced the idea that patterns are not as simple and cut and sew following the instructions(or the missing instructions!). But nonetheless, things must get worse before getting better and this dress truly showed that.
I fought with this dress and reinforced the idea that patterns are not as simple and cut and sew following the instructions(or the missing instructions!). But nonetheless, things must get worse before getting better and this dress truly showed that.