Tag: toile

Birthday Dress – In Progress

Overdress - in progress

This is the back view of the prototype version of my 40th Birthday Dress. So far, I’m very glad that I made a prototype, and didn’t take the scissors straight to the gorgeous shot silk dupion that I’ve got waiting!

The style of the dress is exactly spot on. The open back designed to give a glimpse of the layer underneath, the ridiculous bow inspired by a 1971 Style pattern (more on this later), and a high round neck at the front, deliberately kept very plain, to show off a big necklace or a pretty scarf.

Overdress - in progress

Unfortunately, I forgot something important. (No, not the ironing. Shush.) You see those drag lines at the sides, underneath the bust? I forgot the all important part where fabric is flat but bodies are curved, and I didn’t leave quite enough breathing room at the top. Fortunately my dress form is somewhat more generously endowed than I am, so the dress does fit. But it is a bit tight, so I’ll need to re-draft the front pattern piece before I make another. (I blame the fact that my pattern drafting books are already packed for the move, so I had to make the pattern up as I went along.)

I’ve been adding a lot of “Lagenlook” inspired outfits to Pinterest lately (you can see the board here), and the point is to wear a lot of loose layers, often with plenty of frills and asymmetry thrown in for good measure. The basic silhouette of a Lagenlook outfit is fundamentally triangular. As I am also fundamentally triangular, this seems like a great look for me!

Overdress - in progress

The annoying thing is, I’m so utterly conditioned to the “right” shape for a woman being an hourglass, or at least having some semblance of waist definition, that my immediate thought on adding this belt to the dress form was, “that’s better”.

Except that it’s not better. It’s not better at all. It pretty much guarantees that I’ll have indigestion after an hour, be uncomfortable all day, and generally be distracted by my clothes instead of focussing on whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing. None of which, however you look at it, can possibly be defined as “better”.

I think what I need to do now is take the belt away, make the next version of the dress much more wide and floaty, and try to step away from any and all forms of media that try to tell me that my body shape is fundamentally wrong.

(And work out how best to add the most ENORMOUS pockets to the front of the dress. Obviously.)

Simplicity 3968 – complete!

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

Please excuse the state of my garden. We’re in the process of moving house, so we finally had to do something about the terrible mess. The move has come about a little bit suddenly, so our plans for the garden have changed, but it’s all coming along very quickly which is nice.

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

So, you saw the toile of Simplicity 3968 the other day, and since then I’ve been hunting in my fabric stash to find something appropriate. This is a linen blend – I thought it was blended with wool, but the more I’ve handled it, the more I think it might be polyester. I obviously bought it before my self-imposed ban on man-made fibres. It makes a pretty nice dress though!

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

I’m pleased with the v-neck. It’s nice and neat, if you ignore the little wiggle on the right – that’ll press out with a bit of steam. I think it shows off the collar of the shirt underneath very nicely. I was a bit concerned that the neck would be so high that you would barely see the shirt at all.

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

The back, however, was nowhere near as cut away as I’d expected from a dress described as a “halter”. Once I had the neckline finished and the bodice and lining basted together, I decided to make an alteration to the armscye to make it much deeper at the back. I took the plunge and drew this freehand. I then used the piece I’d cut away to make the identical alteration on the other side.

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

The change was then translated to the pattern, so I can make the next one the same.

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

Much better! I like the waistcoat effect, which shows off more of the shirt fabric underneath, and allows for a greater range of arm movement without pulling across the back of the dress.

Simplicity 3968 (1952)

My absolute favourite part of this pattern though – in fact the entire reason I bought it – is the pockets. Look at them! They’re absolutely ENORMOUS. Despite that, I don’t think they draw an unnecessary amount of attention to themselves. They do stand slightly away from the skirt, which was an oversight on my part. I made the four panels of the skirt slightly narrower (to make the pattern pieces fit more easily on my sewing table!), but forgot to change the placement of the markings for the pockets. Next time I’ll try and remember to sew them on flat!


HEPZIBAH image © Fairysteps

The belt, for anyone who’s wondering, is the fabulous Hepzibah, courtesy of Fairysteps. I might have accidentally bought a turquoise one as well.

I plan to wear this dress to work tomorrow, so I’ll be able to see straight away whether it’s the right length, and is easy to wear. There’ll be the usual amount of sitting on the floor, rummaging about in cupboards and generally making a mess, so anything I wear to work has to be able to cope with a lot of abuse! I’m hoping this will turn out to be the dress equivalent of jeans – comfortable, but hard-wearing and practical.

Simplicity 3968 – Toile

This is Simplicity 3968, a pinafore (jumper) dress pattern from 1952. You may guess that I bought it solely because of the hilariously large pockets, and of course you’d be absolutely right!

I plan to wear it for work, over the top of my smart TM Lewin shirts. I needed the fit to be right, so I pulled out some plain polycotton fabric and made a test version. The added complication was that this pattern doesn’t actually exist in a size that’s quite big enough for me (a 1952 size 18 being significantly smaller than a modern one), so I had to make some alterations as I was going along.

Simplicity 3968 - toile

I’m very pleased to say that it’s come out really well! All the pieces fitted back together once I’d finished fiddling about with them, which is always a good start. The main change I need to make is to balance the front of the bodice, between the darts, so that the waist seam sits flat instead of curving upwards. The next challenge will come when I have to put in the zip at the side. The skirt panels are on the bias at the side seams, so there’s potential for it all pulling out of shape and going horribly wrong. I think a little bit of seam binding at that point, or perhaps a small facing, might help everything to stay in place.

Now I just need to decide on the perfect fabric. I have a few lightweight options in the stash, but nothing heavier. I know it’s supposed to be nearly summer, but somehow this lovely Harris Tweed from Merchant & Mills, or an organic cotton corduroy, seem much more appropriate than a shirt weight cotton right now.