Pattern Mash Up Experiment (with a Weird Cheater Quilt Print)

I didn't realize how odd the cheater quilt print was when I picked it out at the craft thrift store--I mostly noticed that it was in colors centering around purple, and that was enough to charm me into purchase.

It wasn't until I started working with it for this project that I realized that it was basically made up of diagonal stripes, and fairly high contrast, too

 

So I played with that, and also encountered a problem with it.  However!  The main point of this project was to try adding the collar, from a 1950s pattern, to the old stand-by 1980s extended sleeve bodice, and that seems to have worked out nicely.

Granted, the way the print ended up on either end of the collar says that maybe the old pattern should have had a "not suitable for diagonals" note (which...I didn't check for until after seeing how the collar ended up, but, no, no diagonal warnings.)

 

I forgot to take a photo (and I'm using the old camera again, because the 50mm lens is just too long to frame things the way I like when taking finished garment photos in this room), but I had to piece the under collar.  It isn't visible during normal wear, anyway, and the print pattern is made of enough busy straight lines that the seams aren't obvious.  I kept things symmetrical and added the needed piecing in the center.

Given my recent adventures with visible facings, I wasn't eager to do a traditional facing on this.  A visible facing could be fun when combined with this collar, but I went with covering the neckline seam allowances with bias strips, pieced together from the odd bits f fabric left after cutting everything else out.  I used the print to guide where the strips were cut, and chose an angle that resulted in strips that contain both the the dark and light sections.

  

I used the facings from the 1950s pattern to trim the neckline of the pieces I cut with the 1980s pattern--well, actually, it was the modified version of the 1980s pattern that I made to standardize the curve of the front neckline, because I'm not generally a V-neck kind of person.  The front curve was just a bit wider than the cut fabric, but the vintage neckline back was significantly lower than the 1980s pattern.

 

I pressed the sleeve openings before assembling the bodice, so they were ready to just unroll when sewing the front and back together, then roll back up and stitch immediately, no need to return to the ironing board in the middle of the project. 

 

Once I realized the diagonal in the print was so strong, I wanted to intentionally play with it by having it reverse direction from the bodice to the skirt (unlike the accidental change of direction on the collar.)  That means I had to cut the skirt on the cross grain, meaning the length was half the width of the fabric...which was only 42", and the skirt, on the first pass, ended up a little too short for my comfort (even with my stubby little legs.)

There was absolutely not enough of the cheater quilt fabric left to piece together an extension, so I scrounged around in my trim stash and found a piece of "scavenged from a thrifted bed skirt (and not terribly high quality)" eyelet that I thought was the perfect length, but it turned out to be a few inches short.  I convinced myself to use some of the nice eyelet I got from the craft thrift store a few years ago instead. 

I didn't want to use the entire width of it, though, so I started by ripping off the header, which still left it wider than I wanted, so I clipped and ripped the fabric itself, stopping a few times to adjust and start a new rip, because the fabric was close to being on-grain, but not exactly on-grain.

Then, I used the narrow hem roller to roll a hem to the front...or, at least, what seemed to be the front--it's a decent quality eyelet, so there are no glaring differences between the sides.  Then I placed the rolled hem against the skirt hem I had already sewn (before discovering it was too short) and carefully sewed along the existing hem stitching from the outside.

It's not perfect, but it works.

There are pockets, of course--the 1980s pattern used here is my source for the pocket bags I have traced for many pattern hacks.  I did have to make them about an inch narrow, due to fabric limitations.  This photo was taken before adding the eyelet.

 

 I still have dark brown thread in the serger.  It's fine.

This project has issues, which I acknowledge, but I think it's great proof that I can add that collar to a lot of other pull-over dresses.  Probably.

I do feel like the result might be leaning into Twenty-Teens Twee, and I will always be tempted to wear a beret and mary janes with it.