Thursday, May 21, 2009

WIFD Day 5 It's a Wrap





Sunshine!!! We finally have some lovely sunshine, and I am grateful! For today, I am wearing one of my new wrap dresses. Like many women out there who enjoy sewing, I have a fascination for wrap clothing, but in particular, wrap dresses. I have quite the collection of vintage patterns, for wrap dresses, that continues to grow. I seem to find a new treasure, all the time. One of those special wrap dresses that I didn't even know existed. It was about a year ago, perhaps a little more than a year ago, I came across a new treasure. It is from 1954, Simplicity 4682, and it's not a tiny size, so I didn't have to scale the pattern up, YIPPEE!!!

I did have to make a few adjustments, but not too bad. I did have to modify the bustpoint, to drop it, but only a little bit. With that, I made the front bodice into a princess seam, rather than the two darts they have. The princess seam gives me a much better fit. With the shoulder straps, I reversed the way they have them. I put the bodice top portion, over the back, rather than the other way around. I like the look much better. For the bodice skirt back, I used buttonhole elastic to keep a smooth closure for underneath the front of the dress. For the ties, I made narrower ties, as I don't like the really big puffy ties. I was able to squeeze the pattern onto the fabric, so I left off the front and back seam, which always makes me happy.

The fabric that I used for this dress is a brand new, lovely, lovely cotton sateen sheet. It truly feels like butter, it's so soft. I was looking for a fitted sheet for our bed, when I saw this lovely sale of sheets that was going on at Home Outfitters. I think they were clearing out this brand, so they had all these sheets on for 60% off. So with one, twin sized sheet, costing just over $5.00 in Canadian funds, I put together this wrap dress. I had the cotton gingham in my collection, but I figured with the amount of gingham I used, it cost me about $4.00 or just under. So the dress, altogether, was under $10.00. :) I went back to the store and purchased several more sheets. One twin sheet gives me about 2.6 meters, once the fabric has been washed and it's 1.75 meters wide, EXCELLENT for the projects that need more width. I have never seen this lovely of cotton sateen before, so this was a treat for me.

I will attempt to take more pictures of the dress, on the dress form, later tonight. That way, you can see more of the details. For now, I am just enjoying wearing this fun dress. I have plans to make a linen slip that will go with this dress, and a few other 50's styles that I am planning.

Now, off to enjoy that sunshine.......

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