Salvaged dress completed!

The mouse disease dress is completed! I suppose I should have shown you the pattern on my previous post, so you’d know why it was so important to me to salvage it.

Cute, isn’t it? The material is actually a vintage bed sheet from a thrift store – I love sewing with bed sheets, especially poly-cotton percale because it makes a dress you rarely have to iron! This one had a muslin-type weave, which makes for an interesting texture. I actually salvaged all of the bits I used for this dress – lining material cut from a length of muslin I used to use as photo backdrops, and vintage buttons from another dress of mine that sadly got irreversibly stained.

I let Betsy choose the style she wanted – she chose no collar, no waist sash, and a bow at the neckline. Since I dispensed with the collar I decided to line the bodice instead of facing – I’d have sleeve facings to contend with as well as the neckline, and kimono sleeve facings never lay right in my experience (unless you tack them down by hand – who wants to do that?) Lining it was incredibly quick and easy – I’ll always do it that way in the future.

I think B. was right on with her embellishment choices. It looks similar to the one on the pattern envelope, but it’s a bit less twee and a bit more sophisticated – not that there’s anything wrong with dainty little collars, but she’s nine-and-a-half and wants to look mature! As it is, this looks like something I’d make for myself, if maybe in a different print.

She’s even got the ‘vintage-pattern-haughty-lady pose’ down pat – the girl just needs an invisible chair or something to lean on. I am so proud!