Vintage Fall Dress

A few years ago I found a few old, cut up patterns for 99¢. I had to get them, regardless of sizes. They might come in handy one day, right? I especially liked this one from the sixties:








It was a child's size six, which is my daughter's size now. See, it was worth the wait. :o) I planned to cut up an old lightweight gray wool skirt of mine to make the middle style dress, trimmed with magenta velvet ribbon. I would of course modify the length to fall somewhere between the impractical maxi skirt and the indecent mini. Seriously, girls of the sixties, what did you wear under those things? It looks like you'd flash somebody with every step.
The tissue pattern pieces were very fragile, so I covered them all, including the envelope and instructions, in clear contact paper. That took an entire afternoon and a whole roll of contact paper!
When I laid out the pattern pieces on the gray wool, I discovered I didn't have enough fabric. I went to my fabric stash, ready to scrap the gray wool idea completely. Happily, I found a dress shirt of my husband's that was white with tiny gray and pink stripes. Perfect match! I went back to the drawing board (literally - I traced the figure in the middle of the envelope picture, adjusted the length, and colored it in like the two fabrics) and came up with a design of a striped bodice with a gray skirt. I added light pink velvet ribbon trim.
I love how it turned out. I could have taken the waist in a bit more to account for my daughter being a skinny minny, but I think she looks adorable in it anyway.




























She wanted to show off the rose hair bow we made:








She got a little goofy after a few pictures:








And then snuggly. Love my girl! She may have a few more dresses from this pattern coming her way!