Summer dress in vintage style

I am sorry, I’ve been absent from my blog. I have been too busy sewing, crafting and repairing stuff that I’ve had no time for my poor blog. However, today I got so great pictures from my most recent creation that I couldn’t wait to post them!

So here is my new dress. The vintage style pattern is from Finnish magazine Suuri Käsityö (4/2013). The dress has a nice 1940s style with a shawl collar and a side zipper. The fabric is probably 100 % viscose, if my fingers are correct. I found it in the fabric remnants section of the local fabric store, so it did not have any labels. However, it is very light and drapey and surprisingly doesn’t show many wrinkles.

I learned a lot while sewing this dress. First of all, I learned that the invisible hem foot is perfect for doing the decorative stitching around the collar or anywhere where you have to stitch very close to the edge, for that matter. The sharp turn at the bottom of the collar was a pain in the **** to finish. I sewed a bias strip at least five times and it still isn’t perfect. Luckily the knot in the collar hides it! The most important thing that I will remember the next time is to fit the waistband correctly. I finished the dress first without fitting the waist band, after the upper bodice fitted me well. When I tried it on, I immediately realised that the dress was loose in the middle and needed a belt. The belt made the dress quite OK , but I had to adjust the belt and the dress all the time since, without belt loops, the belt kept sliding down from the waistband. This is due to my long back which makes the waistband sit a few cms higher than my natural waist. I do not usually fix this since I like raised waist line, but without belt loops, the belt, of course, did not sit right.

I had to fix the dress, since I really liked it. I ripped the waistband off (which was annoying, since I had to rip almost the whole zipper, too) and chopped some 6 cm off the waistband. I first thought I had got rid of all the remnants of the fabric but finally found a small piece which I made belt loops of. I was lucky enough that the gathering stitches of both the bodice and the skirt stayed intact so sewing the waistband back was quite an easy task. I also took the chance to add an interfacing to the waistband, since I felt that the fabric needed some support.

The adjustments were worth the effort. Now the dress fits and I love it. My vintage 1950s hat goes nicely with it!

The summer has been quite rainy but today the sun was shining and it was really warm. In the afternoon our family decided to go for a picnic in Träskända park. The park is quite a way from where we live but I love the forest paths, the English style gardens and the gorgeous Träskända manor house. The whole area is like from an another era.

We ate fresh peas and strawberries and watched children running in the lawns flying their toy airplane. Even I couldn’t resist taking of my shoes and running a bit barefoot.