Make and Mend vintage cotton dress reconstruction pt 2


Good morning lovely people. 
Let's get back to the dress, shall we?


As I last left off, I had finally laundered and pressed the pieces of that bonus dress I got a few weeks ago. I was debating if I was going to take the pieces and match up the patterns as the last seamstress of this dress either didn't know how to do or didn't have the fabric to do.

With my decision to make the dress with a color block, I freed up the three large back skirt panels that allowed me to match up the off pattern front pieces. I took one of the medium sized skirt panels and placed the front piece I wished to use on the skirt.


The front of the blouse side was pieced in only three pieces, one being on the diagonal. It's nearly invisible. I then adjusted the sizing by cutting down the front of the blouse by about 2".


Next was the construction of the back of the dress.


I cut the back out the exact same way as the old piece. From there, I laid it against my sloper and adjusted accordingly.


Now I was able to adjust the skirt pieces. The original skirt pieces were very long, so I cut the tops down by 2" and was able to add more flair to the skirt this way.


I also did away with the front center skirt panel and decided to add a zipper to the  front of the dress like those cute early 40s zipper front house/day dresses. As I constructed the dress, I reused the facing pieces from the original dress.


I thought I'd adjusted the shoulders enough, but I need to bring them in about an inch. Once I add the sleeves, and hem it, this dress will be complete.


Matched the pattern up pretty well, don't you think?


Another bit of flair I added was a tie belt on the side seams for the back. I thought it looked cute.

I'm hoping to finish this cutie this weekend. I will say I did cut the bust a bit snug, so I'll have to live with that. Other than that, I cut this rather well to my changing figure, and the tie belt was a good choice.

Alright everyone, I'll talk with you all later. I got sewing to do!

3 comments:

  1. I really do like what you've done with this; the process of 'finding' fabric in an existing item and improving/honoring the qualities in that fabric are really wonderful redo/reuse skills to hone. I've never rebuilt an entire dress..no, wait, yes I did, but not as well as I would now (after 'finding' enough to expand an old dress to fit a newer me). The back match is swell!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It looks good! I love the zip in the front and the color!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good work. Onda is looking pretty svelte (as you probably are too-since she's wearing your clothes). :)

    ReplyDelete

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