Mad men challenge - the Pensive Betty dress

After much debating over fabrics and discussion on Twitter, here's my entry to Julia Bobbin's Mad Men Challenge.

Pensive? Grumpy? Miserable? You decide.

I posted about my inspiration dress here. I used vintage Simplicity 4766 from 1954. I had originally planned to use the Anna bodice cut off at the bust pleats with a midriff panel added, but when I saw this pattern it looked perfect (and doubles up as a Vintage Pledge item!).

I loved working with this pattern. As it is a single size, there's so much information on the pattern sheets. I traced the bodice pieces to alter with my usual 1/2" FBA (and I did use a ruler this time!). I lengthened the bodice by 3" but I think that was slightly too much. 2.5" would probably have been fine. I made a muslin and other than needing a slight square shoulder adjustment it was perfect. I needed that after my Emery fitting fail!  Oh i also added 2" at the waist. Damn you slender 1950s ladies!

 

The fabric is a quilting cotton (I know, gasp in horror, but it's good quality and softened up really nicely after prewashing). It's Moda from the Vintage Modern collection. Although it's not a rose print, I think the red and pink flowers capture the feel of the original dress pretty well. It's surprisingly hard to find rose print fabric that's not just red.

It came together really easily. There was no mention of interfacing the facings but after consultation with Twitter I did (I guess convenient fusibles weren't around at the time). 

The pattern suggests using seam binding to stabilise the waist seam. After talking to the ladies on Twitter (again!) I decided to add a waist stay. It's just seam binding stitched to the waistline seam allowance and topstitched, fastened with a heavy duty corset hook and eye. I may add this into other dresses as it's really comfortable.

I used a side lapped zip as per the pattern and sewn by machine.

I made the skirt as per the pattern length but when it came to hemming I chopped a huge 5.5" off. Since I am tall I didn't think it would need shortening by that much! Worth checking if you are shorter and have limited fabric available as you could save a lot! I hemmed it to just below the knee as it was the most flattering on me.  The hem was hand catch-stitched - well you need something sto occupy your hands while you want Sewing Bee!

I love this dress and wore it to my sister in law's birthday party this weekend - I got lots of compliments!

Did you make a Mad Men dress?  Show me!

Mad Men Challenge number 3 - my plans

After much debate, here is the beauty I am planning to recreate for this year's Mad Men Challenge organised by Julia Bobbin.

I was planning to us the Anna bodice with a midriff panel and a gathered or pleated skirt, until I saw this beauty that Anne from Mercury Handmade was selling:

It's Simplicity 4766, a beauty from 1954.  Just look at that gorgeous neckline and those gigantic pockets?  The red one is a dead ringer for Betty's dress - she even looks a bit like Betty!  She certainly has the same feeling of ennui (and the possibility of a cigarette in hand).  No dickey or jumper underneath for her.

I'll be leaving off the pockets (but will definitely make one with pockets in the future - I think they use about a metre of fabric on their own!).

I have been scouting for fabric for ages before finally settling on this:

It's by Moda from the Vintage Modern Range by Bonnie & Camille.

Although it's not an exact match for the rose print, it was surprisingly hard to find something closer and I liked that this had the lighter pink flowers as well as the red.  I think it will give more of the impression of the original than some of the modern digital rose prints I found.

And it's number 1 of the 5 I have pledged to make for the Vintage Pattern Pledge!  Result!

Are you entering this time?  What are you making?

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:

Mad Men Dress Challenge - The Reveal

And here it is!  I posted a sneak peak (OK crappy camera phone pic) on Twitter but here's some better and clearer pics.

My dress:

Peggy's dress:

Peggy wore this dress in Season 4 episiode 11 (thanks Google!) when she won a big pitch - maybe it'll be a lucky dress!

I posted about my inspiration here and my bodice fitting tribulations here.  I've got another post coming with construction and pattern details and the insides (I love to see the insides of makes - I'm so nosy!).

Further adventures in fitting (with help from the #sewcialists)

This week I have enlisted the help of the fabulous #sewcialists on Twitter (why did I resist Twitter for so long?  I am addicted!) to help with some fitting issues I have been having.

I am working on the bodice for my Mad Men Challenge dress, using NL 6000 as a base.  I started with a tissue fit to determine length adjustment (always! In this case 2" which is less than usual - I have heard this bodice runs long) and correct dart placement (fine).  No point on making a muslin that definitely won't fit, is there?

I also decreased the seam allowances to give myself an extra 1" at the waist, and here is the first result:

Pretty bad, right?  I thought the wrinkles above the bust were to do with my square shoulders and so I added those strange flaps of blue fabric you can see in the first pic to test the theory of changing the shoulder, but to no avail.  To say nothing of the gaping armscye and wibbly neckline.  So I turned to the ladies of Twitter for advice, and as ever they delivered!

I was shocked to find out (as I have always considered myself to be amongst the small-of-bust) that I needed a small (1/2") FBA!

Here's the results for round 2:

A massive improvement I think!  Those annoying wrinkles are gone and neckline is lying flat (in real life at least - holding up the camera makes it look off in the top pic). 

It's not perfect though - there's still a lot of gaping in the armscye which needs to be addressed.  I thought about increasing the FBA but think it would have been too loose around the bust.  I might try a slightly larger FBA another time.

Following more Twitter advice from the lovely Rachel at House of Pinheiro (that girl is great trying to explain the process to me in 140 characters from her holiday in Brazil to see her family!) I pinned a dart at the armhole, transferred to the pattern and rotated the excess into the bust dart.

Minimal gapeage! (it actually does lie flatter than it looks when I am holding up the camera!)

I even tried a square shoulder adjustment on this to see if it made a difference:

I don't think it changed much in this case although I will bear it in mind for future!

But what a difference some great advice and a few muslins made to the fit.  From this:

to this:

Thanks to all the #sewcialists who helped, especially Laura at A Make-it-Yourself Mom's Diary, Rachel, Maris at Sew Maris and Brooke at Custom Style!  You guys...

I'm ready to start drafting the skirt now!

Mad men challenge - dress inspiration

I've been really looking forward to Julia Bobbin's Mad Men Challenge.

When I started sewing garments and reading blogs last year, everyone was participating and I was too new to sewing and still losing weight, so I didn't enter.  But this year I am definitely in!

I've had a pinboard since Julia announced the challenge in January.  I pinned loads of dresses and patterns, but only a couple really stuck in my head.
I have finally chosen the dress i am going for. I was keen to pick something I would definitely wear in future - much as I love a Joan-style wiggle dress or a full-skirted Betty frock complete with petticoats, they aren't all that compatible with my usual daily life or work/ commute/ sit on floor playing dolls with 4 year old!

So it was always going to be one of Peggy's dresses for me. I need it to be a bit cake like - not totally frosting! I love her peter pan collars and subtle patterns or solids.  I also wanted one that I haven't seen too many different versions of. So I picked this one:




Source:  Vanity Fair

  It's a lovely plain navy dress with inverted box pleats with lovely flashes of red inside them. It's a quite high at the neck as is common in vintage dresses from around that time I have tried. And by a happy coincidence I think I have a great start point for the bodice - the ubiquitous New Look 6000 aka the polkadot frock!

Source:  Pattern Review

 I bought the pattern planning to do Scruffy Badger's sewalong but the pattern was out of stock until mid February and I ran out of time. I'm thinking view E bodice with the short sleeves (on view A) - the slightly lower neckline will work better for me. And I'll draft a skirt. I have found a tutorial for the pleats and inserting the contrast panels.

You can see on this one that it's actually navy rather than black as I had originally thought:

And on this image, the cute buttoned side tabs are clearer - ideal that NL 6000 has a centre back zip.  Although I am now taking a closer look and realising the side tabs are actually a belt!

Can anyone help on how big the skirt should be? Am thinking maybe a half circle? I also need to choose fabric. Would you go for a stable knit or a woven (as the pattern works for wovens or doubleknits)?  Would the pleats work in a knit or would I be better to go for a woven?  Any help/ advice much appreciated!

Oh, and I'm now on Twitter and loving it!  You can follow me on the side bar on else find me on there @jolittletime