Admittedly, for someone that briefly worked as a florist, I’m not much of a real roses fan. Don’t misunderstand, I regard them as simply beautiful, and when in quantity add up to a good day’s total at the cash register. As a customer, though, they just wilt too quickly for their cost. Even the outdoor bush and plant variety always seem to soon enough become sick or mutated and die in our yard, sadly. Now I have the kind of roses whose beauty will last and make for a great deal! Heck with the old song, “Red Roses for a Blue Lady”. These are roses for a lady who likes vintage styles!
Here is yet another garment where I’ve repeated what I know I love in a project – channeling a feminine ‘Betty’ outfit from the television show Mad Men again (second season this time; other Betty dresses here and here) and also using a true vintage fabric (my most recent one here). As good fashion never really goes out of style, I do think this dress has the same qualities as the costumes of Mad Men, period-appropriate but also timeless and fashionable even to modern viewers.
I paid attention to details like I had all the time in the world, and did tons of hand stitching, even adding seed beads, for a dress which is my own perfect Valentine’s Day treat!
My fabric choice is a pristine condition, polished, printed cotton from the 1950s (surmised from many recurrent similar extant garments of that era). I found it as a lonely piece at a steal of a price thrown in the corner of an antique mall shop. How could I just leave it with its saturated red goodness at that cost?! So – a good fabric deserved a really great pattern…one that has intimidated me every bit as much as I adore it. I came upon a find, I saw a perfect project in mind, and I have conquered it! However, the finished wiggle shaping ends up making my body look like a very shoulder-and-hip-heavy hourglass ‘Joan’ silhouette that I really am not used to but am completely taken by nonetheless!
THE FACTS:
FABRIC: a true vintage cotton lined and contrasted in a solid black cotton broadcloth
PATTERN: Simplicity #2727, a ”Slenderette” pattern, year 1958 (I plan on coming back to this and making the jacket, yet!)
NOTIONS: The basics I needed were on hand – thread, interfacing scraps, a hook and eye – but the zipper (22”) and the beads I bought recently just for this as I realized exactly how I was going to detail it!
TIME TO COMPLETE: It took me about 10 hours to finish, but I actually spent a handful of hours just on figuring out the pattern piece layout before cutting out…there was no room for error…or the pattern pieces, really…
THE INSIDES: A fully lined dress means all inner seams are not to be seen…
TOTAL COST: This vintage fabric was only 8 freaking dollars, people!!! The cotton lining I received for free, and the beads were only $2. So this is an under $10 dress! Such a deal.
Why, oh why is it that the best fabrics I find seem to frequently come in small cuts? It’s like some sewing Karma wants to test me at every turn and always make sure my projects are a challenge. This rose fabric was in a ridiculously small 35 inch width (one of the reasons I can estimate the vintage) and was a hairs breath under 2 yards long. Under the envelope back listing for 35” width fabric, it says I needed 3 yards for this dress. Yikes!
The only way I could make things work was to piece together a full one side back bodice panel and to add a horizontal waist seam to what had been intended as a smooth center front. The print is complex I do not think the extra seams are noticeable but I know they are there, nonetheless (well, so do you now). The center dress panel change especially makes me a bit sad (seen or not) because I loved the streamlined look of it with one-piece, streamlined, princess-style drafting as on the original design. Not too shabby of a compromise, though, and at least the lining was cut properly without extra seams! Granted, every piece was butted up against one another when laid out, so it’s a lucky thing 
I did not have to grade up in size at all. The skirt had to be shortened by about 5 inches and the kick pleat eliminated to make things work, so I was literally left with nothing but tiny triangles of scraps leftover. Although stressful, even mind stretching, it feels so good to be super-efficient and determined with a project idea! If there’s a will, there’s a way, as the saying goes.
I am glad I had put off tackling this sewing project until now when my sewing skills are where they are at. The overall dress was not hard to make. It was the detail points that were the challenge, which was a difficult one that I have not had in a while. Luckily, I had some practice ahead of time to help me out on the trickier spots of this dress. A few of the projects I have made already have had some of same the details I encountered in making my red roses dress when all of them were in one project. The underarm bodice panel/kimono sleeve combined into one element reminds me very much of my 1955 Redingote, as does the belt attached in at a front waist dart. The side paneled bodice shaping is just like on my recent 70’s style Burda jumper. The pleats which cover up a seam, like the ones at my waist, are call to mind the pockets on my “Spring Green” Easter suit of 1954. It is good to challenge oneself, but at the same time I want to stress it is beneficial to work up to that scary hard pattern by finding projects ahead of time which prepare your skills for a successful turnout. A fruitful finished sewing creation makes all the difference in confidence and estimation of worth in time and effort.
The bodice panels turned out the best I’ve ever done yet, happily, thanks to knowing what to expect. I do love the way such a design element in the garment provides the best ever shaping for ones bodily curves, besides being the most comfortable form of a kimono sleeve…better than one with underarm gussets. Look for something similar to try for yourself – you will love the way it wears! Only, I thought the bust for this pattern ran large until I put on the period-appropriate longline bustier. Then, suddenly I had that curvaceous 50s figure and a perfect fit that put me in awe. So, a word of warning – in a 50’s pattern, beware that their curving accounts for more than what modern women are used to with the lingerie of today. Unless you are willing to try a different style of underwear, or unless you find such a design element in a pattern from another decade closer to now, the wonderful shaping which you will find with a bodice panel/kimono sleeve combo might be more than you expect.
Those front waistline pleats where the belt is attached were the toughest part to tackle. It took me about 4 attempts to figure them out correctly…but just look at them! They remind me of the interesting pleats which can be found on some 50’s or maybe 60s couture garments. Two of the pleats that provide the slight hip poufiness are angled out and folded down. The pleat that encloses the belt and bodice side panel seam is perfectly vertical and folded towards the other two pleats away from the center front…so confusing on paper but awesome finished properly. The fabric makes it really hard to photograph these details as clearly as I see them.
I’m not complaining about this wonderful fabric one bit, though! Modern cottons are sadly missing out on the lovely sheen which vintage polished cotton has, not to mention the saturated dying process that makes it almost reversible. Yet, vintage polished cotton is a 
bit sheer and stiff on its own, thus another solid opaque layer was needed under my dress for a non-transparent and natural-bodied hand to the fabric. Besides, I am silly and would rather make a whole second dress as a lining so as to have an impeccable, second skin finish inside…not just to cover all the seams but mostly to eliminate the fussy neck facings. Having more than enough cotton lining gave me an opportunity to cut the dress out the way it should have been with no adaptations.
Except for the major seams inside, all else to this dress was hand stitched invisibly. This has been the first garment where I really sense that my hand sewing skills have grown to be similar to my machine skills – accurate, fast, and efficient. The lining is hand tacked to the zipper (which was also hand installed to the point it is as good as invisible); the neckline, sleeve hems (after a machine added ¼ inch bias binding), and skirt hems (after lace tape added to the under edge) hand finished. Not that it matters – who else but me really sees inside or even gets close enough to notice the details? Whatever. It’s that choked-up, happy emotion I get inside seeing the unnecessary extra particulars so fine as I’m dressing. It makes you feel special, and reminds me that the beauty inside a person, like a garment’s inside, although unseen, is the best part.
It’s these same sentiments and the urge to try something new that prompted me to add a bit of beading to the neckline. Not that the neckline is not a statement in itself! This is one of the best fitting boatnecks I have come across, and the little notched front heightens the neck and shoulder emphasis by centering under the pit between the collarbones. I merely added some clusters of 4 to 6 seed beads at a rose center which might be near the neckline center top edge, with a few smaller 2 or 3 bead accents on some petal tips as shading. I was tempted to go and add the whole package of beads so it would show up better, but there is something I love about the understated elegance to not going overboard. I do not want gaudy or distracting details to subtract from the dress and its 
fabric, and the more I bead, the more there is pressure to turn it into some sort of defined design…then my beading skills have to be better. I did attempt to make a simple 3-D flower out of strings of beads to add on the end of the back waistband. It’s not perfect, but pretty nonetheless, and just the perfect touch if I do say so myself.
Vintage is admired and long lasting because of its understated quality and beautiful ingenuity…these are the details I miss the most in modern ready-to-wear. So, if I can bring a small part of that back in my own life and be the example, then I am happy. If I can remind others they are worth feeling good in their skin by a wonderful dress, and that creating is good for the soul, than my garments are beneficial to more than me alone. Hopefully with the time, attention, and care I put in towards my dress project, this red roses vintage fabric will have a lovely new life for many more years to come! I know this dress will be seeing more than just a Valentine’s Day wear!
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