I’m sooo late to the Mad Men Dress Party, but better late then never right???
(This is my best attempt at a straight-faced Mad Men pose.)
Outfit Details:
Dress: McCalls 6802 pattern, c. 1964 in a blue wool twill
Shoes: Cole Haan, Nordstroms (last year)
Accessories: Scarf, earrings and gloves from A Touch of Vintage
The last time I blogged about this dress was when I was encountering a bubble-dart issue in which all you smarties gave me some good feedback on how to solve it. :)
It ended up being a lining vs. fabric issue where I was only catching the lining as I was sewing up the tip of the dart and not the fashion fabric. You bet that I’ll be sure to baste down the middle of the dart before stitching it next time.
As you may have seen, I was quite taken with the powder blue version on the pattern envelope. So much so that when I saw the blue (twill weave) wool I nabbed it up. The wool looks like a twill weave, but feels like a light-weight gabardine.
Truth be told I’ve had this dress 99% finished for the last few weeks, but never completed it since I still feel a bit *mehh* about it. I could have had it done in time for the Sew Weekly challenge along with Julia Bobbin’s but it wasn’t quite right so I wanted to mull it over before finishing it up and taking pictures.
When I tried it on, I was expecting the skirt to be more A-line and less frump-line. What was happening was that the skirt wasn’t creating that early 60’s A-line shape, but was falling limp and flat towards my knees; hardly attractive for this design and for my pear-shape. I’m certain that if I used a stiffer, crisper fabric I wouldn’t have had this issue, but I still thing it should have been okay with my own fabric.
I went back to the sewing machine a week or so afterwards and stitched both side seams close to 4″ narrower, gradually towards the hem. This was a decent quick fix and solved the issue nicely. I added some narrow horsehair braid (1/2″ wide) to help the skirt retain it’s A-line shape at the hem also.
The last hurdle was to complete the hem on the lining, which I did this past Sunday morning, the main reason why the dress sat for an additional 2 weeks.
When all’s said and done, I’m still very *mehh* about it. I think it’s fine… it’s just not for me. This will most likely be a decent spring 9-5 (work) ensemble paired with a coordinating, cropped cardigan. It’s a shame since the design is great. I think I would like it loads better if I would have made the pencil-skirt version to create a wiggle dress.
Alterations for next time: Create a pencil skirt version, lower the side-seam bust darts by 1/2″ to 3/4″, and take in the front neckline a bit to prevent gaping or add in some twill tape.
I have a one or two more images on my flickr page if you’d like to see a tiny bit more. And I hope to add in some of the inside construction details there soon as well.
In: Sewing
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