A "Wearable" "Muslin"

So, Simplicity 3799 from 1951.  Decided to finally give it a...try...

Hmmm...

No cuts/commitments have been made...yet...

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

Or, the way I do all-in-one facings on sleeveless bodices without center seams, because I dislike hand sewing.  (Although I don't dislike it as much as I used to...maybe someday I'll start doing this the way the patterns tell  me to.  Maybe.)

Franken Pattern that probably didn't actually need to be cobbled together

Since the 1990s, I've vaguely been searching for a simple sleeveless bodice pattern to use for dresses.  There are always scads of things like it offered by the major pattern companies, but, the few I tried, I just...didn't like.

Last year, I got a big bunch of vintage patterns, including Advance 8984.  The first time I used the pattern, I really liked the fit of the bodice, except for the way the arm openings weren't open enough and felt uncomfortable.  So, next time I made it, I enlarged the front opening a bit and all was well.

Since I haven't been motivated to sew anything for me lately (as opposed to sewing doll stuff, which I've been doing a'plenty), I decided I should just make something, and that using the Advance 8984 bodice might be a good start...but...did I really want that many dresses with the distinct "they don't really look like the pattern envelope illustration" cap sleeves?  Um...no.  No I didn't.

So I delved into the stash, pulled out Simplicity 3263, and started tracing bodice from the Advance pattern and the neckline from view 4 of the Simplicity pattern.  Like I said, nothing revolutionary, and I might have a pattern in my stash that has the features I was looking for, but...well...if a pattern's not already cut, my enthusiasm for dealing it declines immensely.  All that tissue paper can be overwhelming...

Anyway.

I used that really loud heart print I thrifted a few months ago, and a bit of a different print for the facings, since there wasn't much left of the heart print after cutting the bodice and skirt pieces.  When it came to cutting the fusible interfacing, I suddenly decided that this dress wasn't worth using up a lot of resources so I pieced the interfacing, like this

Once it's ironed in place, it works like a single piece.

I set the zipper into the left side seam.  It can be tricky to take off side-zip dresses, but it's nice, I think, to have less overall zipper length to deal with than with a back zip...and the zipper isn't so prominent, so the stitching doesn't need to be perfect. (Not that my zipper stitching is ever perfect, but...um...I don't have to feel so self-conscious about it...)  I used to have a big problem getting the waist seams line up when inserting a zipper that has to be open to be sewn like this, but I eventually figured out that I could pin the zipper, closed, to one side, then make a quick thread tack to the other side of the zipper tape showing where the waist seam should be.  That way, when the zipper is open, I still know where the waist seam should be.

(It really was marking the right place, I promise.) ((And this is the kind of thing that's probably all over the place, but I never happened to have seen...))

So, when everything was finished, I had this

Basic, but should be a good stashbuster.  (Side thought:  Is this a skater dress?  Just because I've been trying to get a pattern like this since the 1990s, and got here by mashing up two patterns from 1960, doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as a skater dress.  Do I want it to be a skater dress?  I'm so confused.)

A dress like this is entirely suitable for someone approaching her 40th birthday.

Today's thrifted fabric

$2.99 each, both just under 4 yards, both cotton.  The abstract auto print is 35" wide, so probably genuinely vintage, and the tartan is 45" wide.

I tried to adjust the color so the auto print would look more accurate on my screen--it's definitely not anything that I would call "salmon."  "Grapefruit" might be closer.  Maybe. Or a bluntly-phrased "excessively faded red."  Only not actually faded.  Maybe someone out there knows a precedent for this color?

I suspect the tartan may be at least edging toward vintage, too, based on the sticker I found as I was measuring it.  I know tags like that were printed in bulk and used for ages after, so it's not necessarily as old as that typography and expectation that all cloth would cost less than $1 per yard might make it seem...but...then again, it might be.

My recollection of the thought process upon seeing it: "Ooh, plaid!  Hmm, but...brown.  $2.99 per yard?  Hmm.  There's a lot of it, too--at least 3 yards.   But...brown.  Heh heh, just think of the wannabe Vivienne Westwood dress that could be made from so much tartan.  Even with brown?  Yes.  Even with brown."  So.  Will this hypothetical dress ever be made?

Um.

An Unexpected Pattern

In which I present to you a doll dress pattern I made this weekend.

...but you'll have to wait to see what a dress made from it looks like--unless, of course, you try it out for yourself in the meantime...

Quick, quick, thrift

Stopped quickly in a Goodwill this morning, got a few things including these

Not necessarily intended to go together--there's a bit over 8½" yards of the gray 60" wool (or at least wool-heavy blend)--definitely don't need that much for these skirts...  The wool cost $7.99.  As usual, I have only the vaguest ideas what I might do with it, but, if I need wool for a big project, I'll be ready...

I said I'd do this once I switched back to white thread

...I just didn't realize that would take almost six months to do.  Huh.

A few years ago I was inspired to make a Barbie-size version of Simplicity 8129, and I shared the resulting pattern

And in January I decided to photograph the steps to do a sew along...and finally did that a few nights ago.