Monday 22 April 2013

Mad Men Dress Challenge - construction details



The construction went pretty much as planned once I had the bodice fit down.

I used a thrifted navy fabric with a slight zigzag texture to it (no idea what you'd call it - jacquard?).  From a burn test, there's not a natural fibre to be seen, but it holds a crease pretty well which was important for the inverted box pleats in the skirt.  I bought 1/2m of red cotton, thread and a zip, which was the sum total of extra spends on this dress - it's a cheapie!

I used the bodice of NL 6000, as well as the short sleeve. 


I slashed the sleeve from the bottom and added a wedge to it to loosen it up - as my fabric was on the thicker side I felt the sleeve would be too tight otherwise.  I wasn't sure about the pleats in the sleeve head at first, as I have fairly wide shoulders and I thought they might not look great.  But I muslined and decided to go with them and I actually really like the result - the pleats kind of mirror the pleats in the skirt.



I debated lining it as I can be a bit sensitive to certain fabrics, but it's actually fine.  I ditched the facings and used bias tape instead and it was so much easier - I think I'm going to do this much more in future!



For the skirt, I started with Colette patterns Peony as a base.  It's an a-line shape with gathers instead of darts so I thought I could work with it (and I had already altered it for length).  2" wide pleats seemed about right to me so I went with that.  I traced another copy of the pattern and marked on the pattern where the waist darts (back and front) hit the skirt.  Slashing up this line, I added 1" on each side of the slash plus seam allowances.  I then drew out a contrast piece 2" wide (plus seam allowances) x the length of the skirt. 


I ended up with loads of skinny pieces to sew together so I used french seams as I thought it would look better.  Often the insides of skirts can be seen and with the contrast between the two colours, I wanted it to look neat.


I then marked the fold line on the navy fabric and pressed it like mad (pressing was a key feature of this make!).  I folded the navy fabric over and stitched the folds together and pinned and basted them flat, before attaching the skirt to the bodice. On the muslin, I had shaved a bit off at the waist to make it the same size as the bodice (taking out the width that the gathers would have in the original Peony pattern) but once it was stitched, I thought the skirt was a bit poofy so I took in the side seams by about 1/2" at the hips widening to about 3" at the hem.

I was cursing the french seams when I was hemming - that's a lot of fabric to stitch down flat!  But my little machine managed it fine.

As for the insides, I was undecided on seam finish as the fabric was too thick for my usual turn and stitch - it would have made the seams bulky and visible from the outside.  I was assured by the lovely #sewcialists on Twitter, that pinking was vintage rather than lazy, so I went with that!  French seams on the skirt panels, and I bound the waist seam (badly!) with the same red bias binding I used for the neck.  It's not my neatest zip insertion but I don't think the fabric would have held up to unpicking and restitching.


Finally I stitched on buttons at the top of the front pleats and made a belt which fastens on like the original dress:



12 comments:

  1. Oh, I like it even better seeing your indoor/less harsh light photos! And it's beautiful on the inside too! When I enlarge a photo, looks like it's a synthetic herringbone twill fabric.

    I rarely use facings myself. Bias edging is probably my number one substitute for them. Great job with your finishing details! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks brooke! hubby will always only take pics outside (and i know that's what they recommend) but i like indoor pics too as i don't end up squinting into what little sun we get! i am all about the bias facings from now on - so much easier and more comfortable to wear!

      Delete
  2. Hi there! I saw the photos from the V&A meet up and loved this dress the best - I was looking to see if there were names in captions but there weren't. But then lucky me - I was browsing on Kestrel's comments for her Spring Swap and clicked your website AND THERE IT WAS! That lovely dress!!
    It is just beautiful and now I am in awe that you made up the pattern yourself! Congratulations! Hope you had a great day out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. aaww thanks nessa that is so sweet of you! i am very chuffed with it. was happy to be involved in the mad men challenge this year - i had just started sewing last year and was so jealous of all the lovely dresses i saw popping up!

      Delete
  3. Ohh I love your dress Joanne. Very vintage but at the same time, it looks modern. The fabric looks like it would be warm to wear. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks kat! it's not too bad. some of the ladies at the meet up thought it was wool! but def synthetic. it was pretty perfect for a warm spring day, but not sure i'd wear it in the height of summer!

      Delete
  4. Love the contrasting colour on the pleats - very pretty!

    www.mancunianvintage.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's really nice... And v neat on the inside! Lovely work :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks very much tania! was sorry not to see you on saturday!

      Delete
  6. Woooah did this really start life as nl6000. Amazing!!!@

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it did! just as a basic bodice block with a nice neckline. must get around to making the actual dress as all my fitting is pretty much done!

      Delete

Thanks for your comment - it's great to hear from you!