I found an old 1950s photograph of my Grandma, and I fell in love with her dress. So I decided to make my own! This is the first full-skirted dress I've ever made. It tookme quite a while to find a pattern that matched the style of the dress. I ended up using New Look pattern 6886. I paired the sweetheart neckline with the off-the-shoulder straps, a combination that was not shown on the pattern package. I did have some difficulty getting the straps to lay flat, which is probablywhy that particular combination was not shown. I also used the largest size for the skirt pattern and gathered it at the waist to add extra fullness.I used the skirt pattern pieces from an authentic 1950s vintage dress pattern as a basis for the petticoat. Everything else from that point on was improvised. I wanted to make sure I could wear the petticoat with different length dresses so I created eight gathered ties to pull up the dress.
It has been so fun to make this dress in memory of my Grandma. I entered the dress in the SewStylish Dress to Impress contest, and it won first prize!I didn't realize it at the time, but my Grandma passed away exactly five years ago to the month I made the dress. This one's for you, Grandma!
I wrote about the dress on my blog, the Unfinished Project Party blog.
