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