Weekly Wardrobe

After the red suit, an uncomplicated and simple garment would be perfect. I wanted to use a piece of dotted border print fabric that I had in my collection which I bought at Jo-ann's on clearance last fall, I think. I also wanted to do something with the stripe effect due to the way the dots were printed, but make use of the border print too. You know that I love a good stripe or plaid to play with the effects of cutting and piecing the fabric. That's where McCall's 6340 came in:

Yes, that's a vintage pattern, but take a good look at the style. Many of you will recognize this style because all of the American pattern companies currently offer similar versions of this dress pattern. This pattern is from 1962. What's funny is that my husband came into the studio this morning and saw the dress on the dressform and said that he'd seen similar dresses on display at Ann Taylor and thought it would be a style I could wear.

I did make a few changes to the pattern. Most obviously, I put a seam in the front and back yokes so that I could cut them on the bias to take advantage of the "stripes" made by the dots.

The yokes were lined as per the pattern, but in a solid black, as I didn't have enough fabric after cutting out all the required pieces. The lining was stitched down by hand:

The original pattern had armhole facings, which I eliminated and bound the edges with bias strips. Since the dress is unlined, I also used French seams to cleanly finish the side seams - the only two seams of the dress body.

I eliminated the ruffle at the bottom. I am not a frilly sort of person, so it did not appeal to me, plus I wanted the border at the bottom. The dress is finished with a narrow machine stitched hem so that the hem ends at the black space just under the white dots.

Last but not least, here I am. I wore the dress to work today (with a sweater of course, the temperatures didn't get out of the 60 degree F range) and I love the fit and it is very comfortable.

Parting Shot: Shirtdress. This Advance pattern is from 1951. I bought it because I loved the big buttons on the front, plus I loved the way the dresses are styled in the illustration. The dresses themselves are fairly neutral in color, but the touches of red (shoes, hats, etc.) just really make the outfits. I'm thinking I'll save this one for next winter and make the one on the right - I like that collar much better than the one on the left.