January 27, 2012
I'm planning this outfit for my costume guild's visit to the Titanic exhibit in San Diego and luncheon on May 5 this year. I've just started this outfit and because its a new pattern for me, and one of those vintage 1914 ones, its going to be a struggle. Besides not having familiar pattern markings, it uses different terms for things, like foundation, waist, shirring, tunic, regulation or high waistline. You get the picture.
The pattern I'm using is McCall's 6053.
The front page & instructions are just a photo copy of the original pattern owned by the company I purchased this from. Sadly the lower right corner of the pattern was torn and the person who copied it didn't consider taping it back together before copying it. So it's almost illegible, and the pages have been copied so many times that the printing is offset, making it even harder to read the instructions. It has an entire back page of instructions but they don't seem to be in a chronological order, according to my brain, and seems to jump around from piece to piece.
You may think at this point I was ready to give up. I did set it aside for a few days but kept looking at fashion prints of dresses similar to it and falling in love with it again. So I kept reading the instructions, & asking around to see if anyone else had made it or was familiar with the old McCall's patterns. I got a bit of help with some translations of the terms but on my pattern piece for the collar/vestee, which is one long piece, it has so many circles (originally perforations) that I can't connect the dots. That's what this is like, connecting the dots. And those dots can mean anything from straight of grain, darts, pleats, whatever. The three +'s means cut it on the fold. It also says there is only one half of each pattern, so in my modern mind that means cut two. Wrong. Getting further into the pattern, apparently I have to cut 4 of some of them but alter the width to be used separately as either one of the two vest styles or the foundation. In other words, the outside bodice and the inside bodice, which is mainly just a shell with a collar and a skirt attached to it. Confused? Me too. And I haven't even gotten to the skirt yet.
My first confusion was with the dress itself. I couldn't tell if it was a dress with collar and sleeves w/ two skirts, or a bodice with a separate skirt. It doesn't give much information on the skirt/tunic. I'm assuming tunic means the skirt. If not, I'm in big trouble.
To make the pattern clearer to me, I photocopied the front & back pictures and colored in what I think are the two separate pieces. The one on the left shows the outside bodice and tunic. This middle is the foundation dress that has the bottom part of its skirt that will show on the outside. I still don't know how to make the foundation garment because I can't tell if the under bodice is just a repeat of the outside but very long, or somehow you attach the foundation skirt up into the collar/vestee.
In reading more on the outside dress, it sounds like the belt is sewn on to the bottom of the bodice, and the other half to the skirt/tunic. I'm doing the one that has a large sash-type belt so I may do it my own way and have them separate. The last part of the directions faded off the photocopy so I have no idea what that part was.
I had a specific fashion print and color I want to make but decided to try and use fabric from my stash before buying anymore just in case I screw this up. I had a very pretty lavendar linen blend but the pattern calls for 7 yds (40" wide) and I only had 4. The 7 yds doesn't even include the foundation fabric for the part of the skirt under the tunic that doesn't show (which can be a plain cotton) nor the contrasting fabric for the collar/vestee. But luckily when I laid out my lavender it was 62" wide, so I had enough fabric as long as I made the back bodice with a seam instead of on the fold.
I first made up a muslin to try the bodice out and see if I was doing it right. Its pretty loose but according to the picture its kind of loose anyhow. It has some shirring/gathering in the lower back. Yesterday I cut out my lavender, and just to rest my brain a bit, sewed up the side seams on the skirt/tunic. I've left the pleating part of that till later. Last night I sewed up the outside bodice with its front pleats and the side seams. So here it is just loosely hanging on my dress form.
It still looks very loose under the arms but until I put the shirring/gathering in the back, I'm not altering that. I'm so used to form fitting Victorian dresses that I keep wanting to do that to this dress. The skirt/tunic has groups of wide pleats around it so I need to figure out the markings for that.
Now I need to decide what kind of white fabric I want for the collar/vestee to be. The fashion prints I've seen look pretty plain. But I feel some lace calling to me.
I'm planning this outfit for my costume guild's visit to the Titanic exhibit in San Diego and luncheon on May 5 this year. I've just started this outfit and because its a new pattern for me, and one of those vintage 1914 ones, its going to be a struggle. Besides not having familiar pattern markings, it uses different terms for things, like foundation, waist, shirring, tunic, regulation or high waistline. You get the picture.
The pattern I'm using is McCall's 6053.
You may think at this point I was ready to give up. I did set it aside for a few days but kept looking at fashion prints of dresses similar to it and falling in love with it again. So I kept reading the instructions, & asking around to see if anyone else had made it or was familiar with the old McCall's patterns. I got a bit of help with some translations of the terms but on my pattern piece for the collar/vestee, which is one long piece, it has so many circles (originally perforations) that I can't connect the dots. That's what this is like, connecting the dots. And those dots can mean anything from straight of grain, darts, pleats, whatever. The three +'s means cut it on the fold. It also says there is only one half of each pattern, so in my modern mind that means cut two. Wrong. Getting further into the pattern, apparently I have to cut 4 of some of them but alter the width to be used separately as either one of the two vest styles or the foundation. In other words, the outside bodice and the inside bodice, which is mainly just a shell with a collar and a skirt attached to it. Confused? Me too. And I haven't even gotten to the skirt yet.
My first confusion was with the dress itself. I couldn't tell if it was a dress with collar and sleeves w/ two skirts, or a bodice with a separate skirt. It doesn't give much information on the skirt/tunic. I'm assuming tunic means the skirt. If not, I'm in big trouble.
To make the pattern clearer to me, I photocopied the front & back pictures and colored in what I think are the two separate pieces. The one on the left shows the outside bodice and tunic. This middle is the foundation dress that has the bottom part of its skirt that will show on the outside. I still don't know how to make the foundation garment because I can't tell if the under bodice is just a repeat of the outside but very long, or somehow you attach the foundation skirt up into the collar/vestee.
I had a specific fashion print and color I want to make but decided to try and use fabric from my stash before buying anymore just in case I screw this up. I had a very pretty lavendar linen blend but the pattern calls for 7 yds (40" wide) and I only had 4. The 7 yds doesn't even include the foundation fabric for the part of the skirt under the tunic that doesn't show (which can be a plain cotton) nor the contrasting fabric for the collar/vestee. But luckily when I laid out my lavender it was 62" wide, so I had enough fabric as long as I made the back bodice with a seam instead of on the fold.
I first made up a muslin to try the bodice out and see if I was doing it right. Its pretty loose but according to the picture its kind of loose anyhow. It has some shirring/gathering in the lower back. Yesterday I cut out my lavender, and just to rest my brain a bit, sewed up the side seams on the skirt/tunic. I've left the pleating part of that till later. Last night I sewed up the outside bodice with its front pleats and the side seams. So here it is just loosely hanging on my dress form.
Now I need to decide what kind of white fabric I want for the collar/vestee to be. The fashion prints I've seen look pretty plain. But I feel some lace calling to me.
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