Party Dress! Butterick 3493 #vintagepledge

Thursday 13 October 2016





Hello,
I want to share with you a #vintagepledge shift dress I made for my birthday party two weeks ago. The dress was a last minute make as I picked up the fabric the week before my birthday and thought I should make a new party dress as the fabric was so gorgeous!
                                            
 The fabric was from My Fabric Place who have a great selection of fabrics online and in their Nottingham shop. I popped in as the shop is now opposite the new tram stop and within ten minutes I walked out with a bag of fabric for £6. My dress which is made of a double layer of crepe with a gold knitted top layer actually cost me £3. I cannot honestly believe it that in 2016 I can make a dress for £3! True vintage prices!
The pattern is a very faithful Butterick 3493 which is sadly out of print buy available on Etsy and Ebay. Both the shift (no bust darts and no zip) plus the strappy dress (with bust darts and zip) have been sewn time and time again by me since the 90s!


I cut the dress out first with a layer of pink crepe but it needed two to make it less sheer and more floatly. I stitched up both layers of crepe first and then the knitted layer as a separate garment and securing at the back seam and shoulders. Once I'd made it, I shared this photo over on Instagram .

Here are a few photos of my party dress with a 60s/90s vibe.

                                   

shoulder detail with the three layers attached together

nearly matching the gold circles at the seams

I love the way it whooshes with the three fine layers


I finished the dress just above the knee with the crepe as one hem (hand hemmed) and the knitted hem as a machined hem to get a tidy non-frayed finished.

You can explore more #vintagepledge sews over on Pinterest

Happy Crafting,

Samantha x