The Australian Wildflowers Dress

Although I do own a lot of original and reproduction vintage patterns and sew with them regularly, I do always try and pull them out especially in September for Sew Vintage September. Especially with Covid lockdown again it is nice to be able to see everyone's makes on Instagram and feel connected to others joining in the vintage sewing for the month.

Both the pattern and fabric have been in my stash for several years, although I hadn't really thought about them together. The fabric is such an amazing print but also very large, so it needed something that would do it justice. A full dress was always going to be the best option, but what sort of dress was the question, particularly how to make sure the skirt showed off the print. I had been thinking a circle skirt as it wouldn't hide anything in gathers, but the directional print would have meant some flowers ended up sideways or even upside down. In the end looking through my patterns and fabrics with both Sew Vintage September and the Whole 30 Fabric Challenge in mind led me to pull both fabric and pattern out together for the first time.

This absolutely beautiful fabric is one I picked up at a Sydney Spoolettes fabric swap a few years ago. The fabric design is called Australian Wildflowers and is covered in botanical drawings of different wildflowers, complete with common and scientific names as well as the states and territories they grow in.  There are flannel flowers, spider flowers, swamp and Sydney golden wattle, Cooktown, lemon and blue lady orchids, kangaroo paw, brown boronia, Sturt's desert pea and waratahs among others. The colours are wonderfully vibrant, and although a few arent' quite accurate to the flowers they depict they are all equally lovely drawings.

The pattern is Simplicity 4982 from 1955 and is an original, not a reproduction. It is a vintage size 12, measurements bust 30, waist 25 and hip 33. As an original pattern, there is a lot less ease than in modern patterns. The bodice is fitted and sits snug at the waist with maybe half an inch of ease. It could possibly do with an extra 1cm, but at the same time the closer fit probably helps to keep the bulk of the skirt from weighing the bodice down too much - the dress will pretty much stay in place without the straps because it simply can't sit lower down the waist.

Being an original 1950s pattern the shape of the upper bodice is very much designed to be worn with 1950s undergarments. The top edge of the upper bodice sat flat and correctly, but there was a lot of empty space between the top and the seam with the lower bodice. To remove some of the fullness I made the lower curve shallower and cut the sides of the piece straight rather than angled out to the lower edge. This kept the line of the top edge the same but reduced the height and width of the pattern piece so it was better sized.

The skirt is very wide and full. There are three 1.5m wide panels for a total width of 4.5m, while the bodice is only 66cm. This meant reducing down approximately 7cm of skirt for every 1cm of bodice. I gathered the skirt by hand in three sections, one for each skirt panel. It took approximately an hour to do the gathering and pin it in place, and then 15 minutes to carefully machine stitch it together. I had considered basting it together but ended up deciding the pins would be better at keeping the skirt from being pulled out of alignment while sewing. Because of the weight of the skirt I wanted to make sure the connection to the bodice was very sturdy, so I did a second line of stitching to make the connection more secure.

The bodice of the dress is lined, using a lightweight white lining. I sewed the straps in at the same time as attaching the bodice lining. To make sure I was still able to adjust the length each strap is two pieces: on attached in the front and one attached in the back. The zipper was installed before the lining was attached, and the lining was then machine stitched along the seam allowances joining the bodice pieces to keep the bodice and shell aligned, and hand stitched to the inside of the zipper tape and just inside the skirt seam. As with hand gathering the skirt this was a time consuming process but the finished product looks so much better for the effort.

The final step was to sew up the straps I had left open. As I mentioned there is minimal ease, so the dress sits close to the right spot when strapless. The original pattern actually has a strapless option where the bodice is boned, but I wanted this to be a bit more wearable so I included the straps. I pinned the two sides together at the shoulder before machine sewing at the top then trimming the excess and hand stitching closed. I probably pulled the straps up a couple of millimetres higher than needed, but it is to minor of an issue to be worth unstitching to adjust. 

Despite how big the dress is it only used 2.85m of fabric. The skirt is three panels 1.5m wide by 75cm long, with 30cm for the bodice and straps and another 30cm to line the bodice. The pattern actually suggests the skirt also be lined, but given the weight of this fabric I decided that was unnecessary. I haven't posted every make here on my blog - I may do a roundup post of the ones later - but this brings me to 15.15 metres or 16.5 yards of fabric from my stash used as part of the Whole 30 Fabric Challenge. Just over halfway through, a bit under 15 metres now to go.

I love how this dress turned out. The waist seam is snug so I can't slouch in the dress but the fit is close to perfect. It's feminine and fun and the weight of the fabric makes it very wearable. Although for now it can only be worn at home, this dress is brightening my lockdown days.

unseasonal skirts

I've done quite a bit of sewing during COVID working from home, but have been slow to post things here. I aim to add a few of my makes before the end of the month, starting with these two skirts which were both made about three months ago.
First up is the Dolores Skirt from Le Maison Victor magazine in May Gibbs Flannel Flowers fabric in midweight cotton from Nerida Hansen. The May Gibbs print is lovely, and such iconic Australiana. This is the midnight shade - the fabric also comes in pink, summer blue and lemon, but I felt those paler shades did not show the print as clearly. This deep blue allows the flowers and bush babies to stand out.

This skirt is a very simple style and straightforward make, just a gathered button up skirt with a waistband and pockets. The gathering is uneven and almost pleated at parts, but because it's relatively full I felt the imperfections don't really show up enough to be worth redoing. The attention is drawn to the print, rather than the size of the gathers.

The buttons are dark wood from Spotlight. I considered white buttons to fit with the print but in the end the wood buttons suited the fabric better, by matching both the tone and feel of the print. 

I really like the length of this skirt. I have a few skirts in this below the knee length, all with moderate fullness. They're relaxed and easy to wear and dress up and down.

This second skirt is from Burda magazine, issue 12/2016, pattern 105. The pattern is a very basic fitted skirt shape, but with the curved zip closure. The pattern actually suggests also having a hidden side zipper, but it isn't necessary so I omitted it. The zipper is a double slide zipper, with slides at top and bottom. I've had it in my stash for a while after picking it up for 50c at an op shop a few years back. When I bought it I didn't have a pattern to use it for, but it really seemed like it would suit a skirt. The zipper is slightly shorter than the pattern asked for so doesn't quite reach the hem, but it didn't affect the making of the skirt.

Construction was mostly straightforward. Inserting the zipper along the curved seams was a bit fiddly, but mostly just required careful pinning in place and sewing slowly to ensure it remained even. It was slightly bumpy when I finished sewing it but that was easily fixed by pressing the stitching. The harder part was attaching the facing behind the top of the zipper curve. The extra bulk meant that the front of the skirt sits about half a centimetre above the back to accommodate the seam allowance even after it was trimmed back. If I'd thought beforehand I might have made the right front (the lower curve) finish half a centimetre lower to help the waist align properly, but it's a minor imperfection.

The fabric is a Liberty of London cotton twill bought from the fabric store, although I can't remember the name of the print and it doesn't seem to be available on their website anymore. The weight is perfect for the pattern, because it has body and holds shape but was still able to handle curved seams. I liked the print as well - it's colourful but still pretty simple and versatile and works well with a lot of things.

Wagtail Dress

It's been a while since I last blogged, but it's not because I haven't sewn. I made this dress back in August and have worn it a dozen or more times since. It was even photographed in December, just waiting for me to get around to writing about it on here.

The fabric is a Jocelyn Proust design from Spotlight, with a Willy Wagtail print. Jocelyn Proust makes great fabrics, mostly with Australian flora and fauna prints. The pattern is Vogue 9199. It's a Very Easy Vogue pattern, and I don't think I've made one before. I was looking for a simple knit dress pattern and this was what I could find. I almost dismissed it because the illustration on the front isn't great, but I was wanting a pattern to make a dress to take on holiday so had to go with what was available.

Because the print is directional it turned out I didn't have enough fabric to make the dress exactly as it is in the packet - the pieces were slightly too wide and the fabric slightly too narrow, and the print wouldn't work with some upside down birds. So I decided to cut the bodice half using the pattern and then use the leftover fabric to do a simple rectangle skirt. It wasn't enough to be able to do even gathers around the entire waistline, so I just did gathers at the four princess seams - two at the front and two at the back.

The fabric is lovely to sew with. It's a relatively thick jersey with moderate stretch that retains its shape well but isn't too hot to wear. It goes through the machine smoothly, and has kept its colour and stretch through multiple washes (the benefit of not writing a post until six months after finishing a make is I can review how it holds up in real life). 

 The pattern is a slightly looser fit than I had originally planned, but I do still like it. I think it works better with the rectangle skirt than it would with the full length princess seams as it gives it that slight bit more shape. But I really like the neckline and the sleeve shape and length. A good cap sleeve that is fitted but still allows movement is often hard to find in sewing patterns - too many are restrictively tight or far too long but these are just right.

Given I've worn this dress many times I'm obviously happy with the outcome. It's a comfortable, easy to wear dress, and the print is fantastic. I'm not sure if I'll make the pattern itself again, but might use it as the basis for making t-shirts, removing the princess seams. At the very least I will use the sleeve pieces in the future.