Hello Birdie! Dress

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen! Christos Voskreese!  Voistinu Voskreese!

Another Sew for Victory project today!  (I promise I will blog about non-sewing things soon--I'm just sewing a lot right now to get ready for the season change).  I finished this dress at the beginning of Holy Week, but as I took last week off from posting, I'm blogging it now.  I present the Hello Birdie! Dress.

I got a rather nice deal on this New York 927 pattern from Vintage4Me2 as part of their Sew for Victory sale, plus an end-of-season sale, and it was the right size to boot!  I was a little nervous about working with a vintage pattern, as pre-1960s patterns are not printed and are pre-cut, with less detailed instructions, and you sort of have to know what you are doing.

But actually, I found the instruction sheet to be incredibly clear and understandable.  The illustrations were much better than modern patterns!  It is also true that this pattern was fairly straightforward--just seams and a zipper.  I did have to draft the facings as the instructions noted to do so late in the process, but it was okay--the neckline is square and it was pretty easy to figure out.  I used the back bodice as a guide to draft the back neck facing.

The pattern pieces were in very good shape, although the tissue was just a little bit brittle, so I didn't dare to use pins on it.  I used tailor's chalk to trace the patterns onto the fabric and then cut out with a pinking shears.

The downside of this method is that I didn't realize that some of the perforations in the pattern pieces were meant to be transferred instead of being grain line indicators, and so had to go back and figure out what I should have marked in the beginning.

And yes, since I'm sure you were wondering--I do sew in my kitchen.  Our kitchen table is the largest horizontal surface in the house, aside from the floor, and I find it easiest to do my cutting there, and I like having a large surface when I'm sewing, so I just set up my machine and iron there too.  I store my machine in a cabinet in the living room, so it works out well.  

I don't like having to clean everything up completely at the end of my sewing time--sometimes it would be nice to just leave everything until the next time I'm ready to sew, just for convenience sake, but I also realize that having to clean everything up at the end prevents me from keeping at the sewing machine beyond the point of fatigue and mistakes.  (I found this out the hard way last week when my husband took the boys on a trip to a monastery a few hours away, and left me with the girls, and I didn't have to clean up at the end of the day.  Let's just say mistakes were made.)

And so, here's my dress!  I needed some easy cotton dresses for the warmer weather.  When I started working on this dress, the weather was weirdly summer-like for a few days, but the day after I finished it, it dropped back below freezing, so I had a bit of a cold photo shoot on my back patio!

I could probably stand to take the bust in slightly, and possibly shorten the sleeves an inch, but otherwise, it is a pretty good fit! I took the shoulders in about an inch on the outer edge (just pinned it back and then pinned the top of the sleeve cap to the pinned in part and trimmed it after sewing) and that was just about right.  I also skipped the shoulder pads that the pattern called for (made with a square of fabric and batting, so not like the 80s versions, but generally, I don't like extra bulk on my shoulders).  

I did make the seams on the back skirt gores 3/8" instead of 1/2" because of my previous back skirt experience with the New England dress, although I think I probably didn't need it. I put the waist ties about an inch lower than ideal (one of those markings I failed to transfer and then had to drape in relation to the pocket to figure out); I'll fix it on the next go-round.

I've already got a plan for another iteration of this dress using a small feedsack from my stash paired with a solid Kona cotton contrast fabric.  I realized recently that the reason why Make Do and Mend sewing suggestions work well is that so many of the dresses of the period were constructed in ways that panels could be swapped out and freshened up with small lengths of fabric.  This pattern, for example, has a contrast yoke, plus princess seaming, so you could do a lot with colors and patterns in different fabrics in the various panels/pockets/sleeves.  After I finished this dress, and realized how much I could vary the pattern in the future, my brain really started click-a-clacking away, and I can really feel the creative part of sewing starting to get into me.

I've decided I love square necklines.  Another nice feature of this dress (and really the primary reason I bought the pattern) is the central zip, which means it is super nursing friendly!  I was considering a lapped zipper after watching the free tutorial on Craftsy, but in the end, I just went with a regular zipper insertion. The pattern called for a 21" zipper, but I only had a 14" one, and just went with it.  It is fine.  

Pocketses!!  They are zee best.  

I love this fabric, but I didn't realize that the birds were directional until I was sewing it together.  Oops.  The panels sort of alternate direction because of how I cut them, so it kind of looks like the pattern is more all-over than it really is.  At least the two front panels are going the right direction, so it is less obvious.

Sometimes you gotta use whatever props you can find.  In this case: a plastic squishy ball.  If I was really good with photo editing, I would stick some kind of glowing light ball in my hand.

New-to-me shoes.  I've been wanting to get some spring/fall shoes that are not clogs (much as I love my Danskos, I can't really wear them without stockings or tights), and found these Softspots flats on ebay.  They are quite comfortable, and the little heel is just enough so my high arches don't ache.  (I can't wear flats)

An old Acorn and Will bird brooch that doesn't quite match color-wise, but whatever.  It matches the pattern well, though!  And no, I didn't cut my hair--it was fresh out of a good wet set that day, and I wanted a more 30s look, so I tried to disturb the curls as little as possible before pinning them back.

There you have it!  Happy Bright Week!