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Purple Florals on Dotted Swiss Cotton Dress and Bolero

    I’m kinda funny about my vintage style dresses. I love them and I sew them, but I don’t actually wear them. I need to change that. But I only wear dresses to church, and I wear choir robes every Sunday. I always feel like it’s a waste to dress up nicely when it’s only going to be covered up. This is, of course, nonsense. I need to be wearing pretty dresses more. I need to make some fall and winter-appropriate dresses. The only vintage style dresses I have are very much spring-only dresses. This needs to be remedied soon. I’ve been dreaming of a 1930s velvet number for a Christmas dress for a couple years. Maybe this is the year?

    The fabric came from Joann Fabrics, as usual. It’s a dotted swiss cotton. Purple is my favorite color, and I especially love this particular shade of maroon-ish purple. And of course, florals are classic for springtime. I don’t know how many yards I bought all those years ago, but it was at least 7 yards. My plan is to make my niece a dress. Maybe both of my nieces? We shall see how much fabric I have leftover. I think there’s quite a bit left.

    This dress is probably 6 years old at this point, but I still love it. It was made with McCalls 5094. View D. It is out of print, unfortunately. From what I can remember, it came together quickly and with little drama. The top is flattering to my body shape, I feel, and it is super cute. The skirt is not a true circle skirt, but it is very full at the hem. The dress zips up the back seam. If I recall correctly, this was one of the first times I installed a zipper and was actually pleased with the result. If you have trouble with zippers, don’t worry. Just practice and practice. I used white piping in the waist and underbust seams, as well as the shoulder straps. It’s lined throughout with plain white cotton, since the floral is a bit sheer. It’s a super sweet dress. 


    So, as I have mentioned before on the blog, I don’t like bare shoulders. It’s a personal preference. So in June 2021, I made a bolero for comfort. This is the bolero from Butterick 6354, also sadly out of print. I have used this pattern before for my Belle dress bolero. The blog for that is here.  It’s just two pattern pieces, with one or two darts on each piece. And that’s it. Since it’s such a simple pattern and I had used it before, the bolero only took a few days to whip up. Again, it is lined with plain white cotton. If I would have thought about it, I might have piped the edges to match the dress, but I’m not taking it apart again. I’ll deal with it.


    Yours in hard work, creativity, and a dash of Pixie Dust

    Sarah

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