Vintage Simplicity 4175 finished!

In my last post I mentioned that I have been working on a dress made from a vintage Simplicity pattern so, without further ado, here it is, finished!


Vintage Simplicity 4175

I used a Liberty of London silk fabric. The busy flower print makes it a little difficult to see all the details in a photograph so here’s how Simplicity describes it:

This “Simple to Make” dress is styled with soft pleats at the shoulder and at waistline of skirt front. A forward shoulder seam is featured and both views are sleeveless.

The pattern envelope is a bit worn and torn but the pattern pieces were in perfect condition.


No, my bust isn't 32" - this needed some grading up!

 
When I first started on this project I thought that I would make the view on the left with the tie at the neckline. However, as the work progressed, it became clear to me that a bow on top of everything else going on with this dress was going to be just a bit more than my short frame could carry. But, of course, I did put the buttons down the front.


Yes, that's 12 buttons!


These are also vintage (I blogged about their purchase here) and they are purely decorative. The pattern instructions tell you to use a lapped zipper or snap fasteners for the side opening but I used an invisible zipper. As is often the case with vintage patterns the armholes are supposed to be faced. However, as I was suspicious that the facings would flip out and annoy me, I decided to bind the armholes with bias strips from the dress fabric. Another change I made was to add a lining to the skirt.


Inside the dress - the skirt is lined

The unlined silk worked beautifully for the bodice because it needs a soft fabric for the pleats to drape nicely but I wanted the skirt part to be a little more robust. I think it worked well. Also, as you may have noticed, I chopped a good few inches off the length.

One design feature of the pattern that I did stick to is the self-made matching belt. This was my first attempt at belt making and I must credit Casey from Elegant Musings for her very excellent tutorial which helped me enormously.


Fabric belt made with purchased buckle

So, although I think my 1952 dress is in keeping with the intended style I have to confess that it is not perfectly authentic because I have given it a few modern updates in the construction – I hope you don’t find that too shocking? I enjoyed working with this pattern and love many of the styles from past eras. I do plan to make some more vintage patterns but I could never see myself going exclusively vintage - I am way too tempted by the latest fashions and relative ease of use of the modern, multi-sized patterns. How about you? Is vintage your thing or is it the 21st century all the way for you?