Olivia's Christmas Dress S&S Girls' 1958 Party Dress

For Olivia's Christmas Dress, I used the new, S&S Girls' 1958 Party Dress Pattern.  The fabrics I chose for her dress are:  Cotton velveteen, silk dupioni and cotton batiste.  In the picture above, you can see her petticoat that was made from crinoline and a t-shirt, to wear with this dress

Both the bodice and the skirt were lined with cotton batiste fabric.  I narrowed the skirt lining, by a little, but not too much.  I chose to pleat both the lining and the fashion fabric, for the skirt.

The main alteration I did to the pattern was to make the neckline more of a jewel neckline, rather than a bateau, but I also adjusted the seam on the shoulder.  When I made up the muslin for the bodice, I found the shoulder seam went towards the back, and with that, the neckline kind of pulled backward on Olivia, so by adding about 1/8-1/4" to the back shoulder, seam line, it brought the seam straight on the shoulder/neckline, providing Olivia with a nice fit and no pulling of the neckline to the back. ;)  I also changed the zipper from a centered zipper to an invisible zipper.

For a change in wearing of the dress, we decided to use one of Olivia's silk sashes to draw in some fullness as well as change the look a bit.  We have a few of these silk sashes form when we made up the 1780's dresses, and they work well with this dress on Olivia.

Thanks for stopping by.... Carol

Christmas Dresses S&S 1958 Girls' Party dress

Each year I like to make Olivia a Christmas dress.  This year, I used the recently released, 1958 Girls' Party Dress pattern. This year I made three Christmas dresses.  Two were for a couple of young girls I have never met, but wanted them to know, especially their mum, they are being thought of during this difficult time.

I am going to share the "sisters' dresses", first, and Olivia's next time.

These two dresses were made with a burgundy, cotton velvet.  This fabric is very soft and the pile is long.  Because the fabric is thick, I chose not to use the full width of the skirt pattern.  What I did was use two widths of the front skirt, cutting up the center of one, making room for the invisible zipper to be placed in the back.  Instead of pleating the skirt, I gathered the skirt.

I shortened the bodice length by 5/8", giving a little more of a higher waist, allowing to fit the child a little longer. I also changed the neckline of the bodice to more of a jewel neckline.  The bodices were lined with cotton batiste, the skirts were left unlined.

The sashes were made with silk dupioni.  I added thread loops so the sashes had a chance of staying in place and not falling off the girls.  My hope is that the dresses fit and that mum knew she was being thought of and prayed for in her time of need.  If these children are brought to mind for you, please pray for their family, thank you.

The Lovely bonnet and the beautiful corsage were made by the talented Dawn Luckham, you can see some of her work HERE, scroll down to see bonnets, but look at all the other lovely items she creates.  Don't forget to click on the 'behind the cut' to get more pictures. :)

Thanks for stopping by...

Carol

Happy New Year

I haven't stopped sewing, just took a time out to regroup as life dished out some important, altering events. :)

I'll start with my more recent projects.  Let's take a look at Olivia's Birthday Dress for 2013.

 This is made using the S&S Girls' 1958 Party Dress Pattern.  I made changes to the pattern, mainly the neckline.  Due to Olivia's developing figure, I chose to make the neckline more of a 'jewel' style, making it more modest so she didn't have to worry about bending over in play.  I also 'pinched out' some of the extra fabric in the bodice front, to make it a bit more fitted.

The bodice was placed on the bias, but I interlined the bodice, mounting it on cotton batiste, giving the bodice stability.  As with her Christmas dress (yet to be blogged about) I used an invisible zipper.  Originally, I was going to 'bag line' the bodice, in addition to the interlining, but chose to skip the bag lining, due to the fashion fabric having a tight weave and decent weight to it.  The inside is finished using a serger/overlock machine, giving the inside a nice clean finish.

 Olivia loves her kitty, Maggie, they are good friends. :)

 Olivia having some twirling fun.  What young girl or lady doesn't like a little twirl to her dress? :)

For the sleeves, I have the seam line down the center of the shoulder and arm.  I finished the hem of the sleeve by first stitching a basting line of 5/8", pressing up that edge, then tucking in the edge into that fold, which worked beautifully!  This was a technique I learned by using some of the Oliver + S Patterns.  This is a quick and easy way to finish hems that you plan to stitch by machine.  As with most of my dress/skirt hems, this was finished off with hand stitching.

 We used one of Olivia's silk sashes for these pictures.  We will be making another one, in red, to go with her red scarf and her lovely new red, wool hat. :)

My usual change for Olivia's dresses, is to added 2" of length to the skirt, giving her a bit more time to wear the dress.  Olivia is wearing her petticoat underneath, but this is the one I made to go with her silk 1958 dress, in which I did not want lots of 'pouf' to it.  I think with this one, I may just make another petticoat with a bit more pouf to it.  Not wanting more bulk around the waist, for the petticoat, I used a cotton, tank undershirt, adjusted it for Olivia's body, then made a couple tiers of crinoline.  Next time I think I will double the amount of crinoline to the bottom layers.

As you can see, the neckline and sleeves were finished off with a bit of trim ( I have forgotten the name of the trim).

Thanks for stopping by, I will try to catch up in the coming days and weeks with a few projects.

Carol