The Floral Frock (Simplicity #5780)

I finally got to photograph this dress I mentioned a few posts ago. So without further ado... Here it is; The 60s Floral Frock!

The 'I need to wee' pose.
Oh well.

This is a pattern from 1964 for a simple sleeveless, unlined dress with gathers at the waist and in the back. It has a back zipper closure. Meet Simplicity #5780!

source

The pattern is a size 16, for a 36" bust, 28" waist. As I am neither of those two measurements, and have a high bust measurement of 37" and a 30" waist, I redrafted the bodice, adding some wiggle-room by slash'n'spread. I also added 1.5" in lenght. I had a piece of brushed cotton sateen in my stash, just barely enough to eek out a dress, so no more for extra pieces should there be cock-ups! I made an effort to get the print to match in the back, and it went quite well. There was not enough for matching in the skirt pieces, but I am not very bothered by that.

Rather happy with that print matching on the bodice :)

The dress sewed up quickly. As I have no dress form, I had to sew the whole thing together (including the zipper) before trying it on for fit, and I was really surprised to find it was too big overall.
I unpicked everything, and made adjustments. I actually took away more than I added to begin with, so I guess ease is different in 60s patterns compared to the 40s ones. I did even measure the pattern pieces for a rough guide, but something has obviously happened underway. Maybe I am not as big as I think? Huh?!

The dress ended up not super fitted, but I really don't mind that much. It is better to have some breathing (and eating)room, than to look like a stuffed sausage, anyway!
The biggest problem with trying to grade down the bodice, was to preserve my stellar print matching! It would have been easy taking some out at center back, but now I had to shave off the armscyes and side seams instead. I don't think the fit around the arms is perfect, I could have taken more away. But I tried to calculate the bit that would go away with the binding of the edges, but obviously it was not enough.

The pattern instructed to make a self belt,
but as I didn't have a belt kit
it is currently sans belt.

The pattern said to use facings for the armholes, but after all that snipping and trimming , the precut facing pieces didn't fit anymore, so I bias bound them instead. I found a great tutorial that taught me how to insert bias binding to an armhole without getting a bulky seam where the ends meet. This was news to me, and worked wonderfully! If you don't already know this trick, I highly recommend it. Yay for new skills!

So, new dress AND a new trick in my sewing bag! That's a double win :)