Skip to main content

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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reconstructing History RH017

This is review of RH017, 14th Century Kirtle or  Cotehardie. (Link to buy this patten at the end) I ordered it to make a new dress for the 2015 Medieval Fair of Norman. I had been playing a princess for many years, but decided on changing it up this year. I wanted to be a Bard, a poet/singer/general performer. Naturally, I could not wear the Princess gowns of years past.  It came in a timely fashion. I knew it had a booklet of historical notes, I didn't know it was going to come with a textbook! Seriously, this booklet is 15 pages long (including historical notes, bibliography, actual construction, and a section on period stiches) and is in an easy to digest format. The pattern is on regular paper, not the usual tissue paper, which I appreciated. I had trouble with setting the sleeves, but it was my own fault. I made it oversized purposefully to adjust down to my exact size, and didn't quite adjust the sleeves to match correctly the first time. My own fault. I will pos...
Post a Comment
Read more

Make it blue, make it pink! Medieval Edition

  Blue and pink is a common color combination you will find in Medieval manuscripts. It's not so common today, unless one is Disney-bounding Princess Aurora at Disneyland. Which is something I would do. Probably while singing “I Wonder” and “Once Upon A Dream”. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  This outfit is partially new, and partially new-to-me. The over dress and hood were made by a dear friend, and later passed to me. The Queen of my Medieval Fair made these two pieces so many years ago. They fit me pretty well, only a little bit big, so I have worn this ensemble to a few medieval and renaissance fairs. I had to wear a dress under it, of course. The only option I had in my costume wardrobe that worked was a cream dress. I made it for this costume, but I was never a fan of the look. So I decided I needed a new under dress. I searched my fabric stash for a good option. Eventually, I found a good length of plain blue cotton. (I am happy to say that I have used most of the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Disney's The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Blue Dress

    Anyone who has spent more than 3 minutes with me knows I'm obsessed with Disney. My three favorite movies are Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. So for Halloween 2011, I made a version of Ariel's blue dress. She wears during "Kiss the Girl" scene and when they are riding in the carriage around Eric's kingdom. . It was fairly easy to make. I used McCall's 4090 (View A), a simple skirt with a waistband. For the bodice/over corset, I used another McCall's, 4861 (view A). I didn't want side lacing, so I just traced each of the four pieces separately, then taped them together at the sides, overlapping the seam allowance. This left me with the back lacing only. When it was assembled, I roughly "eye-balled" the sweetheart-shaped neckline and cut it out. The shirt was made with Simplicity 3677. I just added cuffs to the sleeves instead of elastic. A couple things I lea...
3 comments
Read more