New Look 6587 in Kelly Rosebud

Top of the mornin' to ya! This green shirtwaist dress was the perfect sew for St. Patty's Day. I hope you all enjoyed drinking green beer and general merriment yesterday.  The pattern is New Look 6587 view E, and the fabric Juliana Horner's Rosebud Kelly.

 I've actually sewn this pattern twice before (view A and view D), and I wanted to take another crack at it because I felt I never got the fit quite right. My first version was too big, and the second a little too snug at the bust. I wear those dresses all the time, and it seemed worth it to invest in getting the fit right on a new version.

I went back to my sloper, although in a roundabout way. I had a princess-seam bodice I liked the fit of from my Elisalex dress, and on my last version of the Emery dress, I had finally perfected the back bodice piece. Both of those I had made using my sloper as a starting point. So I used those pattern pieces, adjusting the neckline to match New Look 6587, and adding width to the bodice to make it a buttondown.

Normally I would have done a muslin first, with all that cobbling together of different patterns and adjustments on top of that to match the style lines, but I was out of muslin, and feeling like it had been awhile since I lived life on the edge. So I plunged forward, and went straight from pattern adjustments to the finished garment. It worked like a dream! I should fly by the seat of my pants more often.

The only thing that could make this dress more perfect is if it had pockets. Alas, I am determined to sew from my stash more this year, and I just couldn't squeeze out pockets from the yardage I had. In the end, I even had to seam together 2 pieces for my skirt facing to get it all to work. It was so worth it though. This dress is just lovely, inside and out! 

Plaid Advance 6426

It's spring! Well, it's March at any rate, which is close enough for me. Time to start the short-sleeve sewing. This spring, I'm kicking it off with Advance 6426, a 1950s pattern and the perfect blouse by my estimation. Paired with this plaid shirting, I feel like I could be an extra in the original Parent Trap.

There's no way I would make the perfect blouse just once, so of course, this is my second time to sew up this little number. What appeals to me so much about the 1950s style of blouse is the tucks at the waist that give it shape. It makes it easier to tuck in, to be sure, but I also like that it still accentuates my waist a bit when untucked. 

I only made one fit tweak from the first version, and I narrowed the shoulders by 1/4". They're still sitting just off my shoulders, but the more I looked at the pattern, the more that I thought that was the intended style of the time. Once I finished, though, I was back to wondering if I should reshape the entire armscye the next time I sew it. Always tinkering! 

My dear friend Whitney took these photos, and it makes me positively giddy to see all these touches captured so beautifully. It's sewing eye candy. I thought I'd keep my ramblings to a minimum today so you can feast your eyes on these details! 

Happy spring(ish)!