Thank you for the dress love! I appreciate all of your lovely comments and find your enthusiasm entirely motivating. (I have another dress to be in the queue of which I’m super excited about and only hope it’ll turn out as well as I envision.) I answered a few questions regarding the ruffle and belt in the comments sections so take another peek if you were wondering about these as well.
I also wanted to let you know Miss Polly Danger has posted a little interview (of yours truly) on her blog! She is quite the sweet and talented lady (check out her scalloped bag pattern — you know how much I love scallops!) and I enjoyed talked to her a bit about le shop. So stop by and say ‘ello for me!
I’m so glad to be finished with another dress – it seemed like ages since I made one, haha! This one is made from 2 matching feedsacks, probably from the 1930s. Luckily I had enough fabric (just enough, really). When I acquired the feedsacks, I didn’t know I would use them to make something to wear; this type of feedsack fabric is thicker and more loosely woven than calico. As a dress, I thought I might literally look like I was wearing a sack but the print was too pretty to languish in my stash for much longer so I went for it. And in my own small way, I was paying homage to all the women back in the ’30s who really had no choice but to use their feedsacks to clothes themselves and their families. (It’s amazing the pretty and eco-friendly frocks they created with similar sacks.)
The pattern I used is New Look 6889. I decided on a simple, modern pattern because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time fitting the little pieces together that one often finds in vintage patterns, plus I knew this dress had to be 2 things: easy to put on without a closure and quick to make.
This pattern fit the bill although I laugh and laugh at their “2 hour” claim! I must be the slowest sewist EVER because it took much longer than 2 hours. (Even if you exclude the time it took me to make the ruffle and the belt.) Thankfully, the fitting of this dress was fairly uneventful and not difficult to do. Based on the given garment measurements I cut out the pattern 1 size smaller than my own. I also took in the center front an extra 1/2″ (total 1″) and the center back 1/2″ (total 1″) at the neckline because it pooched out (extra width, I suppose, to allow for slipping it over one’s head). I added some back darts to reduce the tent-like shapelessness which really helped.
To give it a ’30s vibe, one of the things I added is a ruffle around the neck made up of cotton/silk voile (my favorite fabric) that I edged with green thread using a zig-zag stitch. A little green velvet bow tops it off.
I added elastic to the waist, the same way I did to my Built by Wendy dress. Much to my surprise I had enough to make a belt! At first I thought I might go with a vintage red bakelite buckle but opted for this sweet mother of pearl one instead.
Then I added some decorative mother of pearl buttons to the pockets.
(Don’t you love this print?!)
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