Making a 1950s Dress – Simplicity 4270

I made another vintage dress... I knew I had to make it the first time I saw it on the pattern cover and I was so happy to find the pattern in the closest size to my measurements (the pattern is a size 10; bust 30", waist 25").

Sorry in advance for some lengthy comments and unnecessary pictures. I wanted this post to be sufficiently detailed if I ever want to refer to it in the future.

*Finished result and try-on pics are at the end of this post.

Fabric and notions I chose (I'm making the dress on the left)

I picked this waffle fabric that has blue, purple and yellow flowers with green leaves. I wanted something soft-looking for the summer and these colours reminded me of Winnie The Pooh Classic aesthetic. Moreover, it was only 4 $ CAD per meter. The fabric I bought for my previous dress was around 12 $/meter and I regretted my choice once the dress was finished, so unless it's love at first sight, I decided to favour lower-priced fabrics from now on.
My mom and I looked for small ivory rickrack, but there wasn't any and I found this adorable embroidered daisy trim. I got 3.75 meters. It was more expensive than the fabric which shocked me..

Unlike my previous dress, I took the time to read the instructions prior to starting making this one. I studied the steps from cutting the fabric up to sewing the sleeves to the bodice and didn't go further. I thought that reading the instructions in bite-sized portions would confuse and discourage me less than trying to understand the whole process in one shot.

All that fabric left and only one pattern piece to cut...

... which was nice cuz I cut two pieces incorrectly and had to cut them again...

Because I had studied the steps earlier, the start wasn't so rough (except for the little mistake above). There were surely times of confusion, but it was nothing like my previous dress.

Then I ran into a dilemma when making the sleeves. I would've thought that the rickrack would be a step only done at the end, but we had to fix it on the sleeves right at the beginning. With the daisy trim on the two sleeves and on the collar two times each, I felt that the flowers were too prominent. I wouldn't have worried if the flowers would've been smaller, but they were pretty big.

So my mom and I went to another fabric shop to check if there was something smaller, and if not, I'd simply go with the daisy trim (we hadn't gone to this store earlier because we wanted to buy all of our supplies in one store [doing errands during COVID-19 isn't very pleasant].) We found exactly what I was looking for initially: small ivory rickrack! And for 4 meters it only cost me 1.75 $.

Comparison of daisies vs rickrack on one sleeve. Considering that both sleeves

and the collar will be decorated as such, the rickrack is definitely a safer choice.

Following sewing the rickrack on the lower sleeves, I turned the sleeve facing inside and slip-stitched it (see pic below). I had never slip-stitched before and it was more fun than I thought.

After the sleeves were done, I realized why the instructions had said to trim the seams.

The seams are really visible.

So I removed the slip-stitch I had made in order to trim the seams (and slip-stitched once again).

RIP zigzag stitches

Comparison of untrimmed seams (top) vs trimmed seams (bottom).

The sleeve on the bottom looks much nicer.

It sucked having to redo some work, but it was worth it in the end.

Then I joined the sleeves to the front and back bodice.

Note to self: When sewing a garment that has been basted (for easing), sew with the basting on top (as in the above pic—that way it's easier to arrange the fabric gathers as you sew). Also, use a contrast thread for basting since it's easier to see and remove after.

Stitching the rickrack on the yoke

Sewing the lower rickrack on the yoke was such a burdensome step. Four reasons why:

• Both fabrics are different thicknesses;
• The rickrack strip is very narrow;
• The yoke is curvy;
• You have to sew the rickrack all over the front, sleeves and back (that's freaking long).

The rickrack kept moving while I was stitching it instead of staying in place, even with needles pinned. After sewing 3/4 of it, I peeked at my work and there were like ten spots where the rickrack was slightly lower so you could see the seam. It was horrendous. I had to unsew these parts and try to resew them correctly which required multiple attempts for some. The instructions had recommended basting the rickrack before stitching, but I went for the shortcut and didn't baste beforehand. I'm pretty sure it ended up taking me longer than if I had basted.

Finally. Finished and ironed.

The pattern asked for a 5" zipper, but there weren't any so I took this 8" one.

I'll cut it cuz the skirt will have snaps (btw it isn't fully zipped up in the above pic).

Now the skirt (already...!)

Making the pleats

Joining the skirt to the bodice

?? Not sure how to join both garments.

(Btw, look at the seam on the left that has double pleats... uh)

Still haven't found it

Still figuring it out

After a few hours of fiddling with the skirt, I recognized that I had officially screwed it up. I had noticed two mistakes during this time:

1. I had made the side opening on the right side of the skirt instead of the left (this probably happened because I drew the side opening with the pattern piece on the wrong side of the fabric when it should've been on the right side—though it wasn't mentioned in the instructions. 🤷)
2. I should've joined the three skirt sections together before making the pleats (I had only joined two of them since I wanted to make the pleats on a single layer of fabric.)

And with these mistakes in mind, I still proceeded to stitch the skirt to the bodice. 🤦 I had to place the skirt opening on the right because if I'd place it on the left (where it was supposed to be), there would be an ugly seam right in the center front of the skirt.

About time

What happened after split my heart. It was the same feeling as when I had ruined my camera with a rhinestone while decoden-ing it. But the issue here was that I couldn't get in the dress. My shoulders nor my hips could pass through the waist. After hours of trying to join the skirt to the bodice and finally working it out, I couldn't even try the bloody dress on and the only way to fix this was to detach the skirt and make a new one. \(T▿T)/

It might be obvious that the dress wasn't wearable since I had put the skirt opening on the opposite side of the bodice opening. However, I still wonder how it would have worked even with both openings on the left; the bodice having a 5" zipper and the skirt working with snaps, how would the waist "enlarge" for the shoulders or the hips to pass through?

Not sure why the zipper was drawn as such considering that zippers have a stop at the bottom?

Anyway, the following day, I unsewed the skirt, bought a longer zipper and supplementary fabric (thank God there was still enough available at the store) and restarted the skirt over. I felt I had gone through the 7 stages of grief within 24 hours.

The dress before I removed the skirt from the bodice

You can't see it in the above picture, but the skirt has two seams in the front on each side. Not only they took me ages to position symmetrically when joining the skirt to the bodice, but I also realized that these two seams popped up because I had made the pleats incorrectly at the seams (that also explains the double pleats at the seams noted earlier).

I had cut a slit on the left side to try the dress on and see at least what it looked like on me...

(and also because I thought I could arrange something with snaps but gave up on the idea).

The dress fitted well. Had it looked crappy I probably would've called it quits.

Skirt v.02

I used a pencil to make the pleats this time and it worked better than the needles.

Left open a part of the seam for the zipper (any seam on the skirt)

Skirt successfully joined to the bodice (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*) It was so much easier...

basically aligning the skirt's opened seam to the bodice's zipper and pinning it before stitching.

Stitching the zipper. Was quite dumb to place the needles horizontally as it's impossible

to zip up afterwards to check if zipper is okay. Vertically pinned needles work just fine.

After sewing the zipper, the bottom part on the right had its fabric slightly folded,

so I unsewed the seam down to the bottom, flattened the zipper, stitched, and resewed the seam.

Closing the hole by hand (I didn't dare using my sewing machine there.)

Sewed a "stop" at the bottom of the zipper, cut the excess zipper and did other small finishes.

Then I tried the dress on, and not only I could put it on, but it fitted me nicely.

The thing is, I wasn't even sure if what I had been doing was right (the pattern had never instructed to use a long zipper) and I hadn't found a lot of info on YouTube. I don't know why the pattern didn't suggest a long zip that went down the skirt. It would've personally saved me a lot of trouble.

My mom had seen these buttons at the store, but I didn't like them...

Still, I kept thinking about them and ended up buying them.

Buttons have been put! My mom sewed them hehe.

I prefer these buttons far more than the purple ones I had initially chosen.

Ironing the hem before sewing

Of course, the dress wouldn't be complete without its matching belt. I bought one for 2 $ at a charity shop. The colour was a dark purple, so before covering it with the fabric, I covered it with white cotton.

I'm using fabric glue.

Glueing the other side

I stitched one side of the fabric so that when it laps over the other, the edge looks more finished.

Glueing

Covering the buckle

Finished~

Darn it!

I accidentally put glue on the bottom... so I restarted over.

Done (´∇｀)

My mom sewed belt loops on each side of the dress afterwards. The dress would've been finished by then but... something had been bugging me for a while and I naturally had to point it out at the very end of the project. I thought it was a bit weird that the instructions didn't tell us to put interfacing where the buttons are, but I brushed it off thinking that the lack of it was justified. But now that I could button the dress, I could see that both edges were flimsier than my previous dress that had interfacing... so I unsewed the edges to put interfacing. Despite how necessary I knew it was, I hate having to remake something that involves unsewing something that has been well-sewed.

There was one edge that had the buttonholes already made, but my mom thought of a clever way to insert the interfacing by cutting half-slits so that the interfacing would separate where there was a buttonhole... not sure if this is clear...

My mom then resewed the buttons that I had unsewed. Let's say I'll always put interfacing there from now on, whether the instructions mention it or not... Oh and also at the zipper, cuz I realized that I should've also put interfacing there. However, I'll let that one slip by for this time, I don't want to mess with the zipper.

Well, the dress is done... at last.

I'm so happy with the result. I love the fabric and the design, I think it's really unique. 🌸 The making of the bodice went pretty well, but the skirt was the complete opposite. Nonetheless, I was lucky to be able to start over and learned from this experience.

I was relieved that the dress didn't need any additional alterations on my part. The pattern was for a 30" bust and a 25" waist and I expected I'd need to make the bust bigger for the dress to fit, but there was no need to.

My mom helped me take pictures with the dress on~

Anyway, let's jump to some pictures of food. Here's a Tropézienne brioche tart from Ricardo I made on Mother's Day... excellent and lightly sweet. The only thing is that my dough didn't rise as much as it was supposed to, but the taste was very good. ◝(⁰▿⁰)◜

This being said, I bought a real Tropézienne at a pastry shop a week later and it was so good and much better than the one I had made (too bad I didn't take a picture.)

Grilled cheese with an orange; by my mom

Salad (onion, cucumber, tomato) with green spices; by my mom

Edit June 6th 2020: My mom bought a Tropézienne tart from the pastry shop and I got to take pics of it!

The bottom layer of the cake has been lightly soaked in some liquid—like water and sugar? My description doesn't make it sound good, but it's a unique and delicious texture. The middle is a custard/whipped cream, vanilla-flavoured and light in texture. The upper layer is the same brioche cake as the bottom (but not soaked) and on the very top is some kind of dough crumble. Very unique too. This has become one of my favourite desserts.

Edit August 29th 2020: My mom washed the dress in the washing machine (delicate cycle) and a part of the rickrack on the left sleeve all ripped out...

Fortunately, she sewed a white patch under the sleeve and the dress was saved. (•́⌄•́๑)૭ Although more bothersome, I'll very probably handwash my dresses that have rickrack in the future.

You can see a bit of the patch through the upper sleeve, but I take anything over the hole!

Making a 1960s Dress – Simplicity 3852

Following the making of my first retro dress using a pattern from Butterick, I realized that sewing enabled me to make pretty much any dress from the 50s or the 60s. o(^∀^*)o

I had read about vintage patterns and how they were said to be more difficult to understand than modern patterns. That is why I had decided to start with a retro pattern for my first sewing project. But I was so eager to make a "real" vintage dress—and wasn't interested in other retro patterns—that I focused my research exclusively on vintage patterns for this project. I chose the pattern Simplicity 3852 in size 11. I loved the overall dress design (the one in green) and the price & shipping fees weren't very expensive.

Fabric, interfacing, pattern and notions purchased

It took me three visits to the fabric store (two to the same one) to find the fabric for my dress. In the end, I hesitated between this print and another similar to the one I had chosen for my first dress, except that instead of being purple, the little flowers were yellow. Although the buttons I had chosen looked better on the little flowers print, I wanted something different as well as the flowers to show from afar, so I ultimately went with the print that had the biggest flowers. I regret it a little now, well, that's too bad.

My mom and I didn't have much difficulty making the first dress, so I expected this one to be a bit harder. Turns out I had seriously underestimated the complexity of this pattern. I hadn't studied it in advance and didn't notice the side pieces on the bodice. Acknowledging their existence could have at least spawn a reflection on how to sew them and the potential snag they'd represent instead of starting completely unprepared.

The step with the two side front pieces that caused us the most trouble.
I could never understand that darn drawing.

When making my previous dress, my mom and I didn't rely on the instructions as my mom knew how to make the dress without them. However, because she didn't understand how to sew the side pieces either, decoding the instructions was our only way to go. Thus I learned some sewing lingo and tried to make sense of it in my pattern instructions and illustrations. I knew how valuable this was if I wanted to make other clothes, but my lazy bum just wanted to make the dress without having to search a bunch of words and terms online. I felt like I was constantly interrupted in my work and was only reading and searching, but never building the dress.

After three days of trying to figure out the step and two visits to the fabric store,

my mom and I finally ~sort of~ understood how to sew the side front pieces.

I think that's the same picture as above but with a focus on the armhole.

(I put the picture for future reference in case I ever make this dress again. Yeah I'm nuts.)

Onto the back now. Finally, something easier.

The side back pieces were thankfully easy to sew since they work the same as for the front.

Placing the collar on the bodice

We weren't sure how to sew the collar on the bodice, but it still turned out okay.

Bodice almost finished   ╮(￣▽￣;)╭

My mom sewed the sides of the bodice and the underarms.

I can't remember if she sewed the bottom of the sleeves also or before/after.

That step was so confusing to me.

Bodice done

Making the pleats on the skirt

Skirt pinned to the bodice

We realized two issues when pinning the skirt to the bodice (and me trying on the dress):

• The skirt was too large for me. I picked a pattern with a 24 ½" waist and my waist is like 25", so I don't know why the waist was loose on me. Maybe there's something I haven't yet understand about pattern measurements though.
• The bodice didn't fit like the image on the pattern. On our bodice, the two front edges overlapped left a space like ロ at the stand-up collar, while it had to be this kind of V-shape:

I can't remember if we folded both of the front edges more (or if we folded just the one that overlaps the other one), but we folded at least one and cut some of its front edge fabric (because we didn't want too much fabric folded on the inside). In other words, we made the bodice tighter by altering the front edge(s).

I guess that the best would've been to try on the bodice before sewing the front edges for the first time.

Fortunately, the bodice still fit well (and even better) after this unpredicted alteration.

You can now see that the front edges buttoned will give the V-shape to the collar.

We consequently altered the front edge(s) of the skirt and removed the two pleats on the front, the ones on each side of the buttonhole. Yes, it's a big removal, but the skirt was really too large and it would've been weird to ease that much (especially after making the bodice even smaller). I have no idea if this was a wise decision, but it worked.

Bodice and skirt sewed (T▿T)

From the outside

Each buttonhole was sewed two times because I thought it looked too fragile otherwise.

Not sure if this was okay, but they definitely looked more sturdy after.

Marking where the buttonholes will be on the skirt

(forgot to take a pic when I did the same for the bodice).

My mom sewing the ribbon on the collar

Buttonholes, buttons, ribbons ✓

Then I realized I had made an irreversible mistake, as if I didn't have enough issues with this dress already  ヽ(ಥ∀ಥ)ﾉ

My collar is making the unwanted square shape when it's supposed to make a V-shape.

(I had altered the front edges precisely to correct that problem earlier.)

This happened because I didn't place the buttonholes further enough from the front edge. I made the error of thinking that the button would lay in the center of the buttonhole—when it rather goes towards the front edge because of the bodice stretching.

To fix this problem, my mom sewed three snaps inside the bodice, next to each button. The snaps adjust the front edges of the bodice correctly to make the V-shape collar. It works well and it's not noticeable from the outside, so I'm really satisfied. I was so disappointed when saw my mistake, especially since I didn't imagine re-doing the buttonholes once I cut them open.

Since the buttonhole mistake isn't visible on my skirt as it is on the bodice, snaps weren't needed.

At last, here's the dress completed:

I found that the kimono sleeves were too big on me, so my mom pinched the sides and sewed them.

In the beginning, I wanted a real belt with the prong and the eyelets. However, I wasn't able to find an (affordable) belt kit online and my fabric store doesn't sell them anymore, so we used the belt that came with a dress I had bought at Values Village a while ago. My mom covered the strap with the fabric and sewed it and glued the fabric onto the buckle.

Close-up of the belt. Love that it's the same print as the dress 💛

In the picture above, you can see that the seam on the skirt's left side edge doesn't match with the one on the bodice. I'm too lazy to be willing to fix it right now... so maybe one day. It's not really noticeable with the naked eye, fortunately.

I'm wearing a Liz Lisa sukapan underneath to add some poof to the skirt.

(A petticoat would fit better since the sukapan doesn't go all the way down to the knees.)

I'm so happy my mom and I finally got through this dress. The design is beautiful but we were faced with lots of issues making it. The side pieces put aside, the actual dress measurements didn't seem to be true to the pattern size (which was fit for a 31 ½" bust and a 24 ½" waist). My bust and waist measure a little more than these numbers, and without our personal alterations, the dress would have been too big by a couple of inches. Maybe that's because we followed a step incorrectly. 🤷 I could make another one of this dress in the future, but only when I'd be more experienced in sewing.

Update May 2nd 2020: We added a loop on the belt which was lacking:

Getting a First Hair Trim in Two Years

Just a short post to make an update on my hair...

The last trim I got was in February 2018, which is more than two years ago. I had tried to resist trimming my hair since then and was doing fairly well, but the partial quarantine got the best of me and after a couple of days pondering over it, I asked my mom to give me a trim today.

My hair before the trim.

(In fact, my right side is shorter than my left side.) >_<'

With picture brightness increased.

You can see better where my hair thins out.

My mom started to trim ½" to 2" of hair at the bottom (the hemline was so irregular). That was like 10 strands lmao. Then she cut a solid 1".

After the trim

Although this is a very small improvement, the ends are better than before. Obviously, I'm sad that my hair is shorter. I wanted it to reach knee-length before getting a trim, but my ends had been in dire need of a cut for a while, so I expected my wish to not come true.

To end this quick post here is other delicious food that I enjoyed for the time I'm staying at my parents' house:

Beef skewers with green pepper, onions and mushrooms;

all grilled on the BBQ and served with rice and pepper sauce

Rice with green onions, celery and edamame;

yellow walleye cooked in Panko with tartar sauce (not shown); broccoli

Little Sewing Projects

It's been a little over one month since I've posted here, yet I feel like it's been longer than that. Maybe this is because of the events happening worldwide and evolving at a fast pace, I'm not sure. But I just came back on Blogger now, and I immediately noticed the layout makeover of the Posts page. I'm not fond of it, especially the wide white space at the left of the posts, but maybe that will get fixed eventually?

Writing right now, I can see that this compose page has also changed. I like it. I think the info is less crammed and I like selecting my labels from a list. I'll have to get used to writing in such a large space (I feel like I was writing in half of this space before?) I'll need to get my bearings since some functionalities seem to have had their icons changed... and some new functionalities popped up (like inserting tables?!)

I just realized that you need to develop the three dots to get access to some further options like text alignment. Not a fan of this though it involves the same number of clicks. I took a quick peek at the HTML view and it seems easier to read. I'm wondering if there are other changes I haven't discovered yet.

I'm staying at my parents' house during the pandemic and count myself lucky to be able to work from home. I kind of missed writing here. I've caught a cold on March 21st that has kept hanging on ever since, but I've been getting better. It started as a typical cold, with a sore throat and a stuffed & runny nose. The sore throat didn't last long and my nose was the worst. Then towards the end of the week, just as I was starting to get better, my throat said otherwise. It was tightening every time I took a breath which made me cough and gave me slight trouble breathing. There were better days than others, but the pressure in my throat was persistent and I would sometimes feel exhausted for unknown reasons. I've improved now. I'm not on meds anymore, seldom cough and sneeze normally. I'm knocking on wood, but I believe that the "toughest" days are now behind. This was such a bad time to get hit by a cold. I questioned myself so many times whether I had COVID-19, although I didn't have a fever nor coughing spells (If you aren't part of the medical staff, you have to be hospitalized to get tested i.e. be really sick.) Now, I don't think I had coronavirus, but I would have appreciated a test response to give me that reassurance during those past weeks that I was sick and constantly thinking that the worst was yet to come.

I'm not sure what I would've written about if I would have had the energy to come here, so it's not like there's a lot to catch up on. I finished watching Caliphate yesterday with my mom and even though the plot isn't the type of story to pique my interest, I was surprised by how good it was. Apart from watching Netflix, I also sewed. After making a first dress with my mom, I found sewing to be truly enjoyable and not intimidating anymore.

Our government hasn't made it mandatory to wear masks when going out, but I made some for my family in case they come in handy and after reading this article (in French) from Le Pharmachien. I might wear one on the subway or the bus when I go back to Montreal.

The masks have three folds and a microfiber cloth inside. I followed this video (in French) to make them. Even if you don't speak French, the instructions are very clear and the technique to make them is super simple.

Other patterns of the masks... the HK one is so cute.

I still have to cut the microfiber in small rectangles to place them inside the masks. I also need to finalize the elastics... we've been looking at every place for smaller elastics, but they're all gone, so I used elastics my mom already had. They aren't meant for this use, but they work just fine.

My mom had a small ironing board that she gave to me. Because the cover was old and a bit disgusting, we replaced it with a Hello Kitty pillowcase.

First, we removed the board's cover and foam. Little wood scraps kept falling off the board.

Then I painted both sides of the board in white.

This not only made the board cleaner but also kept the wood scraps from falling everywhere.

I pinned the old board cover to the pillowcase (altered beforehand).

The fabric was cut around, with a couple of inches left to fold the edges under the board.

My mom ironed the pillowcase to the shape of the old cover and stapled it in place to the board.

She also added another layer of foam.

We initially thought about using an elastic or a rope to fix the cover under the board (so it could be washable), but staples were way easier and faster. I'll iron pretty much only clean clothes or fabric on this and I don't think I'll change this board cover for a long time anyway.

Ta-da! 

I absolutely love it. And it makes a cute home decoration.

And finally, our menu on Easter:

Ham, mashed potatoes and yellow beans. I don't eat very balanced meals at my apartment,

so it's been great to get my daily dose of veggies since I'm at my parents' house.