I’ve made this pattern before and love the retro styling of it, so when I was faced with trying to find a suitable pattern and fabric for the Make a Garment a Month Sewalong Jazzy January theme I thought it would be perfect. It takes very little fabric and I had less than 90cm of a black and white Marimekko fabric I bought in Vancouver in 2017, so I felt both fabric and pattern fitted the theme perfectly, and it used a precious piece of fabric that I’ve had for far too long.
The fabric was designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi, one of the two leading designers at Marimekko, so I used the selvedge with her name on it as a false hem because this dress is short. The other piece of selvedge has the washing instructions, just in case I have a brain meltdown!
This is, of course, home decorator fabric so is quite thick with almost no drape, which is perfect for this pattern. I did attempt to pattern match but it was impossible with so little fabric and all those different shaped rectangles, but in the end I don’t mind the pattern matching imperfections. The front is in two sections with the pockets placed in the seams and the back has three sections. I spent a long time fussy cutting but it really was a waste of time.
I wore it out and about and then I had a play with styling it à la the jazz era. I did do a bit of the Charleston, but I’ll spare you that!
I found a length of fringing in my stash, which was a donation from a very old lady, and it’s fun, so I had to wrap it round my head.
I braved the garden hoping not to attract the attention of the neighbours, who do enjoy my photo shoots!
Here is a closeup of my headband, which is made of very elongated sequins sewn onto netting.
The jet bead necklace was given to me by an elderly relative, and I have a black onyx ring set with marcasite, which is from the 1930s. The cuff is modern but I feel is has the right vibe. After I took the photos I remembered all my MiL’s marcasite jewellery, which would have been perfect, but I’ll get it out next time I wear the dress.
I had thought that I might not find anything to make for MAGAMSewalong this month, which would be terrible as I’m one of the hosts. Can I tell you how much I love this dress? It’s so easy to wear and will take me from morning coffee to a casual lunch or dinner.
As I was rather short of fabric I used a piece of tablecloth for the facings, and some recycled gros grain ribbon for the zipper fly. I had to add my hand made label too, of course.
Whilst I was faffing around in the garden I was visited by two little girls in their pink car. How is Miss E’s relaxed pose? She absolutely loves going for a drive with her big sister.
and I’m more than excited to introduce you to Pepper, my new granddog. She’s just arrived and I’m away for a couple of days so I haven’t met her yet. She’s 12 weeks old and is a cocker spaniel. I think she’s been named for a certain pink pig, but thankfully the spelling of her name is correct.
