There is a thread on the Fedora Lounge where the gals show off their craft projects. One of the Lounge Ladies commented on my post about the 30s Day Dress and my complaint about the lines of the dress vanishing into the print. She suggested adding contrast trim to enhance the lines. Within a couple of days, she posted two lovely house dresses, with beautifully executed contrast trim.
How have I managed 46 years on the planet without one?
Wonder no more! Here's is my first ever house dress. It's New Look pattern 6774. The pattern features different bodice style and skirt lengths, I chose the short dress with the cross over bodice, excluded the ruffle on the shoulders, kept the pockets.
The fabric is 100% cotton from the Pacific Fabric Outlet on 4th Ave South. It was in their quilting area with the other few shelves of Asian themed fabric. This one is tiny crysanthemums of yellow, pink, green on a burgundy background. For the contrast trim, I picked up cotton fabric in burgundy. A lot of interfacing was required, for the straps, bodice and midriff. Turns out, I didn't have enough. The fabric is quite stiff, even after washing, so I chose to exclude it.
For once, I pre-washed my fabric. Either fabrics or finishes are better now. I didn't have any trouble with managing this fabric through any of the stages of construction.
The sewing was straightforward. I could not quite follow the instructions since I was adding the contrast trim. The trim was 1 inch wide strips, cut width-wise.
For the pocket trim, I used my Clover bias maker #12 to make bias tape, which I sewed to the top edge.
I chose to self-fabric line the bodice and midriff. That caused some confusion with the trim. But nothing that couldn't be fixed.
I had a couple of issues with the trim. For one thing, I get a bit dyslexic and had some trouble with the bodice, so there's trim on the inside of one side. Also, I flipped one of the strips and had to add trim after assembly, when I noticed the absence of trim on that side.
The instructions were a bit odd in places. Specifically when adding the skirt to the bodice/midriff. Once assembled, the instructions say to baste the raw edge (bottom) of the midriff). I would, instead, sandwich the skirt between the right side and the lining, enclosing the raw edges. Since I didn't think of that during construction, I took a strip of burgundy and ran it through the Clover and enclosed the raw edge with bias tape.
I had a lot of fun with this project. The underarms may need a bit of a tuck, but it's certainly not noticeable when I'm wearing the dress, which is comfortable.
If I were to leave out the trim, this dress would probably take 3 hours to make from cutting to wearing. With the trim, it took me, oh, about 12 hours. Well worth the effort. I like the way the trim enhances the lines of the dress. I'm inspired to do more house dress research and include house dress on my Bonfit test list.
Happy crafting!
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