Thursday, December 26, 2019

The 1943 'Purple Star Gazing Dress'


This gorgeous fabric deserved to be made into a fabulous 1940s dress....


I made this dress using McCall 5384, a pattern from the year 1943.  It features an overlapped shoulder section onto gathers on the front bodice and a fairly straight silhouette with amazing pocket details:


I've made this dress twice before as I simply love the design.  The first time I made it in this synthetic linen (see the blog post here)--which is a great fabric for the dress.


I loved the pattern so much I made it a second time, again with a synthetic linen fabric. This time in my other favourite colour, teal (see the blog post here)!


Well, I've decided to make the dress pattern again, this time in a super luscious embroidered silk fabric that I got from Myanmar. This fabric is so divine and is one of many border prints--all in delicious bright and gorgeous colours that I got from Myanmar. I can't remember what state this is from but it's their traditional fabric.


The reason I chose McCall 5384 for this fabric was that I knew it would be perfect for a border print fabric such as this one--because the design of the dress is fairly simple. That way it allows the fabric to shine!


I really like the dress in a silk fabric.  One change I did do was to make the dress slightly longer in this version --not a lot but about 1.5 inches. I made the sleeves slightly longer too.


I knew I wanted the small star print on the bodice and the border print at the bottom of the dress. I didn't even think about the star placement but phew...it's ok. 1/4 inch lower and it might have been a bit pointed so to speak! lol.


We took these gorgeous photos (with my amazing friend and photographer Darja Balyik) in the small town of Culross in Scotland. There were these gorgeous orange and orange/yellow houses that were so perfect as a backdrop for the dress (and for also walking around and snooping around! lol)


The dress has a side zipper and a back placket with buttons. In previous versions, I was a bit lazy with the back placket and putting only one button or no button as in the pink version (gasp! hahaha). This time, because the silk is a bit less structured then the linen, I put three small buttons. Very proud of myself! haha.


Overall, super happy with the dress! I'm so glad the fabric really shines through! 


So I've now made this pattern for a spring dress (pink), summer dress (teal) and now this more autumnal dress (purple)...I'll have to think of a winter version in one of my other favourite colours (green? burgundy?) and finally do the 3/4 sleeve version and maybe in a lightweight wool? hmmm....what do you think?
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