Another Adelaide Dress!

Yep, after the larger Adelaide Dress 8168 dress I made up the other day for Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge, I had to give it another go.

This time I resized it for my fit, because I really wanted to try this crazy fabric! The 8168 was a 36 bust, but I think it's a bit larger after it's made up, so I resized by:

1. Folding down 2 cms across the bodice pieces, horizontally, to shorten the shoulder to bust line (my shoulders are little!)

2. placing the pattern pieces that needed to be on the fold (in this case the bodice front, bodice back and bodice front waistband) a little over the fold. I decided 1 inch (that means I lose 2 inches in width) would be ok, so I moved the bit you needed to place on the fold a bit over so it hangs over the fold of the fabric.

So all up on the bodice, the top piece of the front (above) lost 2 inches of fabric width ways, and 2 cm lengthways... as for the skirt, the pattern called for 2 long rectangles on the fold as well (it's a side zipper garment - love them!) so I measured from my waistline to where I wanted the skirt to sit on my legs (about mid thigh) and added 5 inches just to be sure... then I cut two rectangles on the fold (almost making 2 squares) because the skirt is gathered anyways, no darts or anything.

The fabric is thrifted, and I've had it for about 2 years (STASH BUSTING!) but I have shitloads of it! I could probably make another 2 dresses with the leftovers! It's heavier cotton, and kinda has a barkcloth feel to it, but as for the pattern, WTF!? I absolutely love it, little trees, a little house, little windows and paddocks (that's the green bits in my mind!).

So anyways, here's the only trouble I found, the back piece! After I sewed up the bodice I tried it on (without the side zip of course, as that was the last thing to do in this pattern, apart from the hem) and it seemed to fit (as it is winter here I was wearing a few layers underneath - dur - lesson learnt, try on things as you want them to fit, ie in this case close to the skin!). I went ahead and made the whole thing up, but then tried it on to show Husbie and he was like 'It needs a belt, or something' and I was like... oh, those darts (that are in the pattern) aren't deep enough!

Instead of unstitching the skirt from the bodice (Please look away now if you hate bad seamstress confessions) I folded another dart and attached it to the existing dart... not sure if that makes sense, but I think it's kinda like doing another dart of the top of a dart... making it kinda two darts next to each other. Ummm... I can't think how else to say it (bad at lingo and good at shortcuts) but see the photo above (the two horizontal lines) because after a bit of ironing, it seems ok! It may be a bit bunchy at the back, but at least I know for next time that when resizing for me, I should just do deeper darts to fit my little back.

And a finishing touch on the Veronica Darling shortcut of using bias tape instead of facings (they just flop around anyways and need hand sewing YUK) is my name tag. YAY!

THE STATS
Fabric: heavy linen/cotton/barkcloth, I have no idea, from the Op Shop
Pattern: Brand unknown, # 8168 (from Amanda's Collection) and from Adelaide's local newspaper
Notions: Vintage thread, vintage bias binding tape, vintage green zipper
Time to complete: 1.5 hours
Year: not sure of exact date! Perhaps you know?
First worn: Just to try the fit, on Saturday and will wear it out for dinner this weekend with woolie tights and maybe a cardie
Wear again? Totally, great fit thanks to resizing!
Total Cost:  Maybe $1.50 with the zipper and fabric. I think the entire fabric was $5 and there's still 3 or 4 metres left!

xoxo