Where I'm At

My original pattern was this princess-style by Marian Martin.  The neckline was very high, too high for me so I've changed it to a v-neck.  Hopefully this won't change the character of the dress too much but it's way more comfortable and flattering on me.

I ended up having to make a FBA adjustment on the dress, only a 2cm one which was good, it's easier than having to try and manipulate bigger adjustments. I followed the princess seam FBA method from the Fit For Real People book. I also moved the bust point down by 2.5cm.

Cutting out muslin #4 of the bodice of the dress. That's the only part of the dress that is fitted and amazingly, I did not have to alter the back except to skim a small amount off the back armhole. The final, fitted 4th muslin.

All that's left is to alter the shoulder length by about 1cm but I will wait until I've got the dress together in 'real' fabric and see.

This is my thrifty year and I'm limiting my fabric purchases and using stash fabrics. I can't remember what this fabric is but it doesn't wrinkle and it's so soft and drapey. Perfect! It's a natural fibre, possibly cotton and something else - I bought it from Mood Fabrics last year. I have some pink cotton batiste which I'll line the dress with as well. I've prewashed the fabric, it's on the clothes line as I speak type.
This is the first dress that I've been really happy with my pattern adjustments and not stressing too much. It's also my first vintage pattern I've ever sewn.

Fabric & Pattern

Looking through my stash I found this cotton/lycra, very drapy, dark blue denim. Do you think I could use it to make my princess seam vintage 60's dress?  It's very lightweight, it drapes beautifully, my only concern is that the pattern takes approximately 2.5m of fabric and I have 2m.  Perhaps I will need to take a trip to my nearest thrift store.  In Australia we call thrift stores, second-hand shops. They mean the same thing.

My pattern finally came too!  I'm not sure if the stamped envelope is the actual cover of the pattern or not.  The previous owner had sticky-taped a cut-out of the dress on the envelope itself but I can't see where the picture came from.  It's not cut out of the instructions.  She has even written on the envelope that the short sleeve dress takes 2 & 5/8 yards of fabric, 60" wide.  I love holding that piece of history in my hands and wondering what her dress looked like, did she like it, what kind of fabric she used and where she wore it.

My Dress

 

My pattern is currently winging it's way to Australia from the US but you can see what it looks like from the above picture.  I love the shoulder princess style in blouses or dresses and so I snapped this pattern up as soon as I saw it.  This is my first time sewing with a vintage pattern (actually the first time I've bought a vintage pattern) and I think working with only a few pattern pieces is going to make for easier fitting adjustments than if I had picked a more complicated style.  I also had no idea where to go searching for vintage patterns however I did find this one on Etsy.   Since then I've found out about The Blue Gardenia which has an enormous amount of vintage patterns.  

For me, this is the year of being thrifty, not buying new patterns (vintage is okay), using my stash and only buying fabric if it's on sale or in a thrift store.  I have hardly any summer fabrics in my stash, there is mainly autumn/winter weight fabrics so I am on a hunt for something to make my dress with!!