My week is a little scrambled. My department has always been divided between two locations, but we're in the process of combining them into one office space. This means shuffling offices. Not really a big deal; it just has to be done. Friday is moving day, so my boss gave me Tuesday off instead. That wasn't really a problem, either, but it does make for a weird week (is today Wednesday or Monday?).
I may or may not be going out of town this weekend--it depends on a friend's plans--and decided I really wanted a new dress to wear. A certain kind of new dress. I've been tossing the idea around for a long time but nothing ever really gelled.
Remember Simplicity 4727 (1943), the sundress that cost me weeks of refitting? Yeah, it's back. Hey, I put all that work into it; I might as well use it.
We've all seen the 1970's-do-1940's patterns, right? McCall's 4492 (1975) channeling Simplicity 3664 (1941), etc. Well, I'm doing a plot twist: 4727 is going Seventies.
The fabric is a Concord calico print, black with little yellow roses. Very 1980's-to-early-1990's. A family friend gave me four yards of it a few years ago when she was cleaning out some things of her mother's.
I've struggled with this print, even though it's a pretty standard flowery calico. It's too modern for most of my patterns, and black and yellow is actually not the easiest color scheme. I finally decided it would just have to be one of my 1970's or 1980's prairie dresses. Except I kind of wasn't feeling most of them. And I've had so many fitting issues with 1970's patterns.
But 4727 is already fitted. And it's a good basic sundress bodice. I also researched "period correct" 1970's prairie-dress embellishment online and decided I wasn't really down with most of it. Too frou-frou. Not that flowery calico isn't frou-frou, but this is going to get worn with boots and a belt and a black denim jacket. It can't be too busy and it can't be too frilly. But it's still black so it does need some detail.
Finally, it occurred to me that all it really needed was black neck and armscye binding. Duh. Detail . . . but not too much.
I don't think I'll have enough fabric to make a sash but that's OK. I'm putting buttons down the back. Buttons down the back are totally impractical but also, I think, slightly foxy, because--and I apologize now because you're going to be sorry you ever read this coming from me--they kind of imply that a girl might want help getting the dress off. I actually can manage back-buttoned dresses, mostly, and these will be big, easily-handled, buttons, but still. Also, buttons are nice design detail.
Out comes Photoshop:
(It's not really green, but yellow on black kind of reads as green from a distance. I was being lazy.)
We're going for a long, gathered skirt. It will have side-seam pockets.
I got a bunch of the bodice done yesterday:
The neckline has a facing in addition to the binding because the calico is pretty lightweight. I also got the outer waistband attached. Working on the skirt tonight.
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