Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Vintage Dress... planning stages

I mentioned in my last post that there was a particular vintage pattern for a little girl's dress that I fell in love with.

83 vintage child's pattern

There is no date on the pattern, so I'm not sure how old it is.  Based on similar patterns in the batch, I'm guessing from the 40s or early 50s.  I am sure it's a mail order pattern, but there was no envelope.  I have searched high and low online to find out who might have made the pattern... I checked a few vintage pattern sights and no luck.

I decided to look to see what shape the pattern was in and this is what I discovered:

Vintage pattern

It's a pre-cut pattern!  And looks unused.  If you notice in the top left of the first picture, it reads "10 YEARS".  That's the size and the pattern was sent just in that size, precut.  Pretty nifty.  Also pretty inconvenient since my kids are nowhere near being the size of a 10 year old.  Isabelle has the largest chest measurement at 25".  There aren't any measurements with the pattern, so I thought, "let's measure the pattern."

Pattern measure

From the middle of the front to the side edge is around 9".  Doubled is 18".  Allowing for 5/8" seams, we're still looking at over 16", making a 32" chest, which seams big even for a 10 year old, but then again, I've never measured a 10 year old.  Maybe my math is screwy - it is late and I am tired.  Regardless... it's too big.  I may hold it up to the girls to get an idea of how big it is, but I'm pretty sure we're looking at more than just roomy.

But I think I can work with this.  The skirt is just a simple circle skirt.  I verified that when I laid out the skirt pattern.  I can work up the top with proper dimensions... I think.  I've never done darts before, so that might be a little tricky.

Then I need to decide how to handle the scallops on the neck and arm holes.  The pattern calls for them to be hemmed and then you work a buttonhole embroidery stitch around them.  I'm thinking some facing instead.  I just don't see me embroidering all that.  Yeah... not happening.

I'm up for the challenge.  I'm making this dress.

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