1940s Advance Dress - Winter Liberty LOVE (It Has Unicorns)

Pattern Description:
Advance 3929: 1940s basic dress with blousy bodice, straight 4-piece skirt, v-neck with neck tie and short, cut-on cap sleeves.

Pattern Sizing:
14 - 34B
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
yes

Were the instructions easy to follow?
i mostly left the instructions alone, since the construction was very simple, and used a completely different method of constructing and attaching the collar/tie piece. their method involved pressing and slipstitching, and i preferred to do it entirely by machine.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
it's a shape that i've come to associate with classic 1940s pieces and i knew the construction would be simple and the end result comfortable. i pictured it in a nice cotton as a perfect house dress or dress-down friday dress.

Fabric Used:
liberty of london tana lawn winter 2010 "Yoshi D" - B&J Fabrics, NYC

(image from True Up blog, Liberty Fall-Winter Swatches)

once i had selected this super-busy print, it was second nature to reach for this advance pattern with very little design detail.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
shortened the skirt significantly. i definitely prefer a shorter skirt, and this one hits me just at the knee. i took in the side seams significantly, which (unfortunately) has exacerbated the blousy-ness of the bodice. next time, flat pattern alteration instead of on-the-fly fitting!

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
i expect this dress to be a go-to (or TNT) for times when i have a cute cotton and just want a cute, simple dress. however, in future i will do better alterations to correct the amount of ease from the 34B bust size--i'm more of a 32, and an A besides, and there's more ease than i would like.

Conclusion:
love. and the Yoshi print has a unicorn on it. unicorns! and butterflies!



i love my red leather jacket, but then i remembered it was friday, and here in the tundra previously known as new york city, it's also pretty cold. and snow-covered. and i didn't have it in me to be all red-leather-jacket-y today. so i went with this:

i think it was one of the "queer eye" guys who put it best: doesn't everything feel better in cashmere?

Vogue 1160: Dress and Slip with Military Riff

Pattern Description:
Dress, above mid-knee (front), mid-knee (back), has fitted bodice, front pleats, midriff, flared skirt with side front and side back seams, side zipper and short, two-piece sleeves with mock bands. Bias, flared, pullover slip, above mid-knee, has shoulder straps, front darts and raised waist.

Pattern Sizing:
AA - 6-8-10-12 - i cut the 10 on top and graded out to the 12.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
absolutely.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
sleeve was totally wonky. once i decoded the instructions and the pattern piece, the instructions made complete sense--so others may have no problem--but it took me about 2 hours of fiddling to have the light bulb go off and get the sleeves done.

everything else was a breeze.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
it's a perfect little dress if you're into the tights, leggings, or boots trends, and i am into all three. i wanted to riff on the military trend of last fall (2010) and i pictured a very feminine, whimsical fabric with black tights and an army jacket.

Fabric Used:
printed cotton batiste from mood fabrics, NYC

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
N/A

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
i might sew it again, because i am a big fan of this style of dress--flirty, feminine, playful and easy to wear--but it would depend on what else i have going on. the sleeve might be too recognizable to use for repeat performances.

Conclusion:
great pattern, easy to put together, and the sleeves are gorgeous once i figured them out.

back view

with army jacket

Very Easy Vogue 8442: Pilgrim Chic

Pattern Description:
Lined, fitted A-line dress, mid-knee length has front and back yoke, short or elbow length sleeves, cuffs with link buttons and back zipper.

Pattern Sizing:
AA, 6-8-10-12. i cut a 12, but probably could have sneaked by with a 10. at the size 12, it's more semi-fitted than fitted.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
yes, especially because i didn't understand why the pattern envelope said "no stripes" when the photo had stripes--and i really wanted pinstripes.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
everything except the facing/yoke installation. granted, it was literally the second dress pattern i'd ever attempted to assemble, but the yoke/facing instructions completely baffled me. i ended up having to sort of reverse-engineer it, and i didn't know that it was possible to insert a yoke without hand sewing. frustration!

also, first project with fusible interfacing...exciting times. definitely part of the reason i have switched almost exclusively to sew-ins in the past year!

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
it had a simple, clean elegance that was appealing, especially when i got a vision in my head of this sort of suit-blouse alternative: oxford cotton shirting for the yoke and cuffs, and tropical wool suiting for the dress body.

Fabric Used:
blue tropical wool suiting with pink pinstripes, paron fabrics, NYC
hot pink acetate lining, paron fabrics, NYC
white oxford shirting, paron fabrics, NYC
lace hem trim for lining, pacific trimmings, NYC

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
contrast yoke and cuffs instead of main fashion fabric. i added some interior hand embroidery when i realized that i needed to sew the yoke/facing to the dress. i piped the interior yoke in contrast navy blue and ran a line of long basting with pink embroidery thread along the yoke/dress join edge.

finished the lining with a sweet bit of lace trim from pacific trimmings and covered the raw edge of my blind hem on the dress itself with the wright's hem lace stuff you can get at jo-ann's. LOVE that stuff.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
might sew again if the right fabric came along or i wanted something simple, but in general i have long since moved beyond this pattern. but for me a year ago (literally, when i started sewing the pattern) it was exactly the perfect task for a beginner with a long weekend to fill with a project.

Conclusion:
great little dress. no lie, i literally cut and constructed about 85% of this pattern in one sitting on MLK weekend, 2010...and then let it sit until the week before christmas, 2010...when i finished it in about an hour-and-a-half of hem wrangling.