Isn't it funny how ideas marinate together in your head without you even realizing it? Here is what inspired me to make this dress, in roughly chronological order.
- First I saw some gorgeous retro rockabilly dresses, some of them cherry print, like this one at Pinup Girl Clothing and this one at Daddy-O's.
- A dancer I saw at a recent dance in Rochester, totally cutting a rug in red shoes and a cream/red retro flowery dress kind of like the outfit on this page.
- notamermaid's lemonade dress and erin's post about it, suggesting we get ready for summer with, among other things, fruity print dresses.
- The perfect cherry print fabric was on sale this weekend. There were only 2.5 yards left on the bolt, so I took it all, not sure whether I could find a cute retro pattern for that amount.
- But rummaging through my patterns at home, I found the perfect thing! a Vintage Vogue (#2858) from 1944, with a cute neckline, simple construction, and only requiring 2.5 yards of fabric.
Here's my review of the pattern. I love this dress and plan on making more like it. I'm especially happy that I finished it in time to dance in it this weekend! I was considering using red piping in the seams, to make them stand out, but since I've never made this pattern before and wanted to finish it asap, I left the piping out. It would make more work for me if I had to re-sew the seams (and since I wasn't sure if the seams would all come out in the right place and right shape - maybe I wouldn't want to emphasize them!)
You can see that I made a few alterations. I removed the front gathers (I just re-drew the front skirt piece using the bodice piece as a guide) and I shortened the skirt a bit. If I have enough fabric left over, I'll add godets in the skirt seams to make the skirt flare out a bit more; the skirt is very straight and I'd like to have a little more room to dance.
This was my first successful attempt at a Vintage Vogue pattern! (my unsuccessful attempt was a 30s evening gown that somehow came out too big). I'm really happy with it and found the pattern easy to follow and the fit was perfect without alterations. I'm between sizes and this time I made the smaller size.
By the way, I totally need this hat to wear with it.