New England Day Dress - Lucky Lucille's Sew For Victory Sew-A-Long
Did you guys know that the super talented Rochelle from the blog Lucky Lucille and myself are best friends?
That's ok, she doesn't know we're best friends either. Whoops.
One day however she will be wearing my best friend chain around her wrist even if I have to break a few restraining orders to make it happen.
A few months ago I saw on her blog a 40's dress that she had just made and I fell in love with it! I went straight online and ordered myself a copy of the pattern called the New England Day Dress so that I could be more like Rochelle make my own version.
The pictures above are of Rochelle's version. Isn't it dreamy? Read about her dress here.
Rochelle is currently hosting a 40's dress sew-along called 'Sew For Victory' and my new dress and I are taking part. There's still time to get involved, so click on the picture below to check out the details. You'll want to check out all the participants amazing creations. Who doesn't love vintage for crying out loud!
So here's my review of the New England Day Dress:
Fabric
A cotton poplin from Spoonflower, 'Shabby Rose', designed by Kristopherk
Like
Easy to make with great easy-paced instructions.
I love the classic vintage shape of this 1940's dress.
The sleeves! I'm majorly crushing on these sleeves, with a 'I want to write his name all over my pencil case' sort of intensity. I mean would you look at that sleeve head?!!
It's a combination of small darts finished with a gathered stitch at the head to give the sleeve that structure at the top.
Fake bib top and skirt! How sweet does this look. I used contrasting mustard fabric on the facings of the bib for a bit of 'somethin-somethin'.
Don't Like
The dress isn't lined and uses facings instead. I'm not the biggest fan of facings instead of linings, but I do like that it's faster to put together.
Look Out For
Really cute babies ...
Put your button holes on you skirt bib before attaching it to the skirt. The instructions doesn't mention this step and I realised at the end of the dress that it needed button holes. This involved a bit of unpicking.
Have a good think about what edges need to be overlocked/serged before you put them together. The instructions only tell you to finish the edges half of the time.
The yardage! Almost every pattern piece is cut on the fold and this chews up a heck of a lot of fabric! Make sure you buy extra fabric as you don't want to be caught short. If I hadn't made the facings a different fabric, I would not have had enough!
Changes Made
I shortened the bodice by 3cm, my usual modification as I have a shorter torso.
Oh heck, here's just a bit more cuteness. Adorable much?
How's everyone going with their outfits for the Mad Men Dress Challenge?
Don't forget to get your Mad Men Dress pics to me by Friday, April the 19th, 2013
click here for the details. Need some inspiration? Check out last years contributors here.
There will also be some great giveaways including vintage brooches from Ruemiraldi, and a $25 gift voucher for Patterns From the Past store
And for those of you who want to let your readers know you are taking part in the challenge, here is a button with the HTML code
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