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A modern twist on the 1937 dress

Whilst I was making the Lutterloh dress for my vintage pledge, I made another one out of ponte, which gave it a completely different look and feel.

I really wanted to highlight the lovely lines of the dress and so I needed to use contrasting fabric. I was tempted to put a collar on this one, but didn’t think it would work that well in the fabric. Next time!

I made this one whilst I was camping and it was a bit of a disaster. I cut the bodice sides on the bias, as per the previous one, but this made the shape very strange due to the stretchy fabric. The gathers under the bust were also very odd. I was in despair. Naturally I took it off to my pattern making class and Sarah and I resolved all the problems by nipping and tucking.

Instead of gathers under the bust we put in tucks, which means that the line is a lot nicer. I worried that the length might be a bit frumpy but it needs the long line to show the gorgeous shape of the skirt, and this is the length it would have been worn back in the 1930s.

I put binding round the neck and cuffs using the contrasting ponte used in the diamond and the skirt. I did also make a plaited belt from the orange ponte, but decided that I didn’t really like it

so I substituted one of my favourite belts from the 1980s, thereby bringing together three different decades of fashion – today’s ponte with a 1930s pattern and a 1980s belt. I think it all works pretty well. 

The orange ponte came from Knitwit and the aubergine ponte came from the Morrison fabric sale which I bought when I fell off the wagon earlier this year. 

I did try to modify the tights to have a back seam as they might have done in the 1930s but they just looked odd, so they have the seam along the inside as per all my others. So, this is another make for my vintage pledge, and I have a few more to come before the end of the year.

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