Having completed my first ever vintage dress straight from the 1960s – Simplicity 7672 - I smugly hung it on my dressmaker's dummy and contently went to bed. Sadly, my boyfriend then came to bed and after a lot of tossing and turning he explained, “There's something really sinister about that dress. It reminds me of something an evil nanny would wear.” As you can imagine, this has put me off wearing it, in case everyone else thinks it looks sinister and in case I get possessed!
Despite the difficulties I had with this dress – mainly having to unpick the waist and zip due to the torso being too long/baggy for my body - I am really happy with the improvement in my sewing, so once again it was a good exercise. Maybe I'll be third-time lucky and sew the perfect garment next!
Despite the difficulties I had with this dress – mainly having to unpick the waist and zip due to the torso being too long/baggy for my body - I am really happy with the improvement in my sewing, so once again it was a good exercise. Maybe I'll be third-time lucky and sew the perfect garment next!
It's a Scary Mary dress!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic
Seriously, though, this looks like a really neat job, and I love that mushroom print! Maybe it would tone down the evil nanny effect if you made the ruffles in hot pink or a sassy lace instead of white?
I love the mushrooms. I think we need to see it on you!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you ladies for the advice. I think I'll play around with it and when I hopefully get it to look a little less 'sinister', I will model it to get some further thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThis is just like an empire dress I made for myself in the 60s! I used brite white for the collar and 'cuffs' also as it made the little white doves in the green print 'pop.' (In fact, I think I might still have some of those fabric scraps.) Susannah has a cool idea to use a different accent color or maybe self fabric piped or accessorized in white--try it on a croquis to see if it helps! (It's a great excuse to play with paper dolls.) *smile*
ReplyDeletebtw, where did you go for the sewing classes? and where do you do fabric shopping in London? I'm looking for some myself. thanks.
ReplyDeletetry this- keep the ruffle in the collar. get rid of the sleeves and add ruffles there to match the collar. and add a big white belt...fitting looks great, just have to make it work...it looks lovely...have fun sewing
ReplyDeleteThanks for the latest comments, I promsie when I can muster the energy I'll have a go at some of these suggestions and post the results.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I go to evening classes at a local college, so check yours for similar classes. It's very laid back and we all get to sew whatever we want, the tutor just goes round and helps people individually.
I don't live in London, so I buy most of my fabric from my local market. I also buy from Fenwicks, John Lewis and from a few places online like eBay or:
http://dittofabrics.co.uk/index.asp
http://www.croftmill.co.uk/
Hope this helps!