Does it ever happen to any of you that you blog a garment just too soon? Well, I frequently do it, but this was one of my worst offences – my green linen dress.

Every time I wear this dress I take photos of it, and they just don’t work out properly. Finally (finally!) I ran a critical eye over myself, and decided to drop the darts by 3cm and take off that belt. I now have a dress I like, so thought I would reblog it.

The pattern is a vintage McCalls 2869  from 1971 View A.

This is actually a really nice pattern. It has darts that start at the hips and finish at the bustline (actually, they finish way above the bustline, which was my problem!).

As usual for the ’70s, it’s a simple A-line shape with a centre back zip and some long darts. I chose a lovely green coated linen (the linen is white with the green kind of striped on) and it came out of my stash. I only just had enough so the hem is finished with cobbled together bias binding.

I am wearing a vintage cameo in these photos but it somehow got turned over and I didn’t notice until it was too late. I need a stylist!

Anyway, here’s a pic, so you can see it – it’s rather lovely. It’s has flowers rather than the usual face (I do have one of those as well) and is Victorian. I like the simplicity of this one.

I decided to completely push the boat out on all things vintage and so my shoes are the ones I got married in.

They are Charles Jourdan and are made of the softest suede. They are quite delicate so I don’t wear them much, which is a shame.

To the details: The pattern is McCalls 2869 from 1971. The fabric is an overprinted linen from Potters Textiles, and the shoes are Charles Jourdan (I can’t remember where I bought them).