Saturday, May 23, 2015

The Long Time A Coming Dress


Over ten years ago, I bought a big piece of olive jersey at a thrift shop for under $10, made a dress for my sister and a skirt for me from it, put the rest away and forgot about it, then rediscovered it some months ago when sorting through my fabric stash.

There was enough there to make a dress, so I looked for a suitable pattern for it, and decided that the one above, which is view D from McCall's 6612, would do if cut to above the knee.





Then I made this dress up one Sunday afternoon in less than four hours. I still have enough of the jersey left for a pair of shorts. I did run into one problem in that the jersey was so old it was discoloured at the crease, and that crease fell right down the centre of the front of the dress, but fortunately it was only on the one side, so that side became the inside of the dress. This jersey was a little on the heavyweight side for this pattern, but it's livable. And I have a comfortable, practical dress that will go nearly anywhere I'm likely to go this summer. I threw these two necklaces of mine (beads and an antique silver Art Nouveau aide de memoire on a chain) on the dummy because it was the only styling one can do to an armless, legless, headless dressmaker's form, but I think when I'm actually wearing it, styling this dress will be more about bracelets and earrings. I've got butterscotch-coloured leather wedge-heeled sandals and a handbag in similar tones that will look great with it.

And I'm sure this fabric is glad that it finally realized its destiny.