My Summer Vacation

Started sewing again. It was my vacation last week, so I had all sorts of stuff planned. The first day I dislocated my toe, which means I had to spend a lot of time with my foot up, reading. Lots of books read, not a lot of other stuff done. So yesterday I settle down to sew, with the help of Kevin the wonder cat, of course. I went through my vintage patterns, and decided on this:

 I have a really nice piece of linen, but I decided to make it out of some of the cotton I had to see how it worked out. Going by the measurements on the envelope, there was no way it would fit, so I took the time to enlarge the pattern, and made just the top to check size. Then I had to undo all of the alterations because was too big, and had to start all over. Took me one day to make the dress. I did bound button holes, which I haven't done since home ec in Jr. high school. I even used sew in interfacing instead of iron-on. This dress dates from 1955. Haven't made the jacket yet.

 I still need to make the belt. Found belt buckles at the Fabric Warehouse for 6 for $1. Also got covered button packs for 3 packs for $1. The pattern called for covered buttons, but I went for matte black buttons. All the vintage patterns I've been looking at all call for covered buttons, so they will get used in a future project.

 Also did a side zipper, something I've never done before. Couldn't find my zipper foot, so I had to use the regular one. The zipper looks great, which is odd, because I'm really bad at zippers.

The notches on the neckline were one of the problem spots. Interesting detail, but hard to get open flat. Other then that, this dress was easy to make.