Tuesday 29 July 2014

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 :)




20 comments:

  1. Very cute, it fits you so well and I love the color on you!

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    1. Thanks! I love greens, but haven't sewn much of it!

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  2. You've been super busy! I love the pattern matching on the back of the bodice - I have never managed to do that! I think the fit looks great as well.

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    1. Yes, I am on quite a roll these days! The pattern matching was really a case of thinking long and hard (several times) before cutting, and I was rather surprised after installing the zipper, and seeing it matched! Gotta love that feeling :)

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  3. I love everything about this dress Siri, the high neck, smooth line and it's green! You look lovely in it, well done :-)

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    1. Thank you so much!
      I love the colors too, goes well with red hair :)

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  4. Så flittig du har vært i varmen. Kjolen ble kjempefin, og den sitter veldig fint.Fargen er nydelig til deg. Her blir det ikke gjort stort på syfronten, er vel fullstendig i ferie-modus ;-)

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    1. He he, ja jeg fikk plutselig ånden over meg! Det hjalp da gubben intsallerte aircondition i heimen.... Det er godt med helt fri og ferie også, det skal du ikke ha dårlig samvittighet for :) Husk, vi har en laaang vinter foran oss til slik ting!

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  5. Looks great on you, really, well done! It reminds me a lot of the dresses my mom used to sew when she was very young… And the fabric, oh the fabric…. Love it!!! Best regards from Switzerland, Doris

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    1. Thanks Doris! I had this fabric in my stash for a long time, always wanted for it to be a dress :)

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  6. Good afternoon,

    Two things: 1) You brought this 60s frock alive, IMHO. There is NO WAY I would have looked twice at this pattern were it not for seeing it on YOU.

    2) I must seriously not be an attention-to-detail kinda gal because I think this dress is splendid on your figure.

    You're rocking it, girl. Thanks for the share.

    Cheers,

    Lyric
    http://www.sewcroandquilt.wordpress.com

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    1. Thank you so much for commenting :)
      Yes, this pattern doesn't pop out at you in any way. I think I chose it because I needed a simple introduction to dress sewing, and because the pattern contains two garments. Bonus :)

      I'm sure your attention to detail is great! A little secret; I pinched out a little in the back while photographing, nothing major, but enough to get it "fitted" ;) Yes, I'm a cheat.... heh!

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  7. Wow! Great dress, gorgeous styling and pictures -- you out-did yourself. :)

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  8. Beautiful fabric and great job on matching the bodice pattern :D Even though it was too big at first, you were able to fix it up and make it work great! You look great in it and thanks for the tip on the bias bindings :D

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  9. Thanks! The matching was my proudest moment with this :)
    Glad you found the link helpful, I thought it was awesome!

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