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.
