Wyldehills Costuming: HSF14 Challenge #23

It's the time of the year for parties! For Halloween I put my Poetry in Motion dress to use, and this past Saturday I took out the Art Challenge dress for a Durin's Day party. This Saturday is the annual Christmas party hosted by one of my best friends. Last year we all decided to make plaid dresses for the occasion. It was so much fun we decided to do another theme this year. We decided on candy and/or food themed dresses. I decided to make my dress do double duty for the party and the HSF.

I had initially planned on using a fabric I'd spotted that had glittery Christmas donuts on it, but by the time I went back, it was all sold out. So my mother and Husband voted for a black fabric with peppermint chevrons on it.

I dithered about patterns for awhile, because I was picturing something rather slim-skirted in my head, but non of my period patterns seemed right. I tried a mock-up of a Janet Arnold pattern for this dress from 1938:

I have no idea what I did wrong, but it was singularly unattractive.

What the heck is that collar doing?

So I pulled out my trusty 1940 Evening Gown from Vintage Pattern Lending Library and decided to go with that. I had to take some of the volume out of the skirt, as I had only three yards of fabric, but I still managed to make it full length. And as seen above, slimmer skirts were perfectly appropriate.

You can see how much slimmer I made it.

The last time I made this pattern up, I used the bodice only, so I had to make a full mockup to make sure it fit over my not-insignificant hips. I almost started over during the mockup fitting, because I wasn't sure I liked it.

But I decided to keep going and almost everything went together smoothly after that. Almost. When I laid out the pattern to cut the peppermint fabric, I could not remotely get the pattern to match up on the seams.

I gave up and just cut the thing out anyway.

I wasn't too concerned about the side seams, but of course this dress had seams down the center front and back. The best solution I could come up with was to cover the seam with some red ribbon. The pattern still didn't match, but it looked a little less jarring. A cute bow at the top, and voila, I'm a present! Oh, and I inserted a lapped zipper, but this one would not lay flat, so I traded it out for an invisible one.

Not my best, but it will do.

Facing and straps

The Challenge: Modern History

Fabric: Quilting cotton

Pattern: VPLL F3680

Year: 1940

Notions: 3/8 in red grosgrain, black invisible zipper

How historically accurate is it? The fabric is 100% cotton,and the pattern is period. But there is a little serging on the inside, and the zipper is plastic.

Hours to complete: (Makes jazz hands and shuffles out of frame)

First worn: Should be this Saturday!

Total cost: $35ish

And the result: