Dress From the Limberlost

I listened to A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter while sewing this up, hence its name.

Pattern: Simplicity 1880

Fabric: Sheet from goodwill and leftover interfacing

Notions: zip form stash, 4 covered buttons form stash

First a note on this pattern.  Just looking at the cover I never would have gotten this pattern.  The colors and drawings just didn't catch my attention.  For some reason though I returned to the yellow dress and studied its elements.  Then I checked the other elements.  People!  This has some incredibly versatile pieces.  I am so happy I got it.  This dress that I made if fabulous and I have dozens of ideas running around in my head for other variations.

There aren't "views" in this pattern so buying fabric would really be a pain if you were going from the envelope.  Because I bought a sheet though I just had to figure out how to squeeze all of the pieces out of it while lengthening the skirt 2 inches at the same time.  By the way, this was a fitted double sheet, so there isn't a lot on it. :-)

While you didn't have to, I self-lined the front and back yoke sections for stability.  It just seamed (haha I love puns) like the right thing to do.  Wow, that was lame.  Anyway, it looks neater and feels better on the inside.  I had to topstitch to make it work.  You can see it in some of these pictures.

Covered Buttons!  I love the cohesive look that the fabric sash and covered buttons render to this dress. I lengthened the sash/tie thing by a foot because I like medium bows and lonnnggggg tails.

Because there is a side zipper (which I love btw) I wasn't sure how the opening would work but I was very careful and it is just swell.

Pockets!  My one modification.  Normally I do hidden pockets, but I had just done tried different method on my dressing gown and I thought is would work nicely.  So I drafted my own pocket shape and size, serged the edges, and attached it to the front panels of the dress with two neat rows of top-stitching, per the instructions from Simplicity 2739.

 I cut a 10 and when I tried it on I was afraid it would be fitted.  I wanted it to be a little looser and more comfortable but I had already made it up and sewn the buttonholes!  So I just extended the button holes toward the edge.  It fits perfectly but the buttonholes are abnormally long.  Thankfully everyone who has seen it so far thought it was stylistic and supposed to be that way. :-)

Cute little cap sleeves

Neat hem.  It is incredible how helpful the iron is in the hemming process. :-)  Double top-stitching like on the pockets.

 I'm so excited to try different views of this pattern with different fabrics. :-)

Thanks to 7 year old little sis for the pictures of me.  That is why some are accidentally artistically off center, blurry, or cut off.  I think she actually does a rather good job when you get her in a good mood. :-)