We’ve had a few weeks of cold weather (well, cold to us warm-blooded Sydney-siders at least) and I’ve been working with wool. I love sewing with wool, it is my
Today I wanted to show a dress that was made from a very old piece of fabric. It’s always so satisfying to give something old and unused a new lease of life – this kind of sewing is among my absolute favourite kind.
This dress is from an old piece of beautiful quality wool from probably the 1940s. It was originally a pleated skirt for most likely a great-great Aunt. The fabric still holds the crease marks from the original pleats and has a slight moth-ball smell which remained after washing. What I should have done prior to sewing this up was
The bodice is my TNT true bodice that I nearly always use, it’s just a standard bust and waist darted bodice. The sleeves are my favourite triple darted Butterick 5813 sleeve, although I should mention the sleeve cap on this sleeve is very tall and unless you want a gathered, puffy shoulder, it needs a good lowering. I probably took it down a good 1/2″ as well as pushed the slope of it forward for a my forward shoulder adjustment. I talk all about that when I made my black wool crepe dress on this post if you want more information on that. I squeezed this dress out of the available fabric, which dictated the sleeve length, cutting it off just before the darts to elbow length. I also widened the sleeve slightly for a looser fit.
The skirt is my TNT Jenny Skirt from Burda, I use this as my basic block whenever I want a single darted pencil skirt. It is pegged quite dramatically, probably about 4″ reduced from hip to knee. The back is a simple vent . All the details on how I do both the pegging and the vent are all in my pencil skirts posts here.
I didn’t line this as the wool feels lovely against the skin and I plan to wear it with a silk slip. I made a facing for the neckline using the last remaining scraps. The neckline of the bodice I both staystitched and also added a strip of interfacing – the line of the v is on the bias and really easy to stretch out. I pressed the waist darts on the bodice and skirt to opposite sides to help reduce bulk, as well as pressing the waist seam open for the same reason.
The back has an invisible zip, and I stabilised the centre back seam using some strips of organza, I find the zipper area always needs a little something to get a nice finish, that plus plenty of basting prior to sewing. Overall, I am really pleased with how this dress turned out, and it’s going to get lots of wear.
