Slice of Saturday Night. 1960's Dress. Making of the Outfit in the Final Chosen Fabric.

I was not involved in the selection of the fabrics for the 1960's dress that I had to make but am aware due to the outfit I was making was for one of the leading roles the outfit needed to be a bit special and it was decided to have a bit of a sparkle to it.

 

(Semi finished costume. Looks complete but am going to add a belt and adornment on the back)

The Fabrics that were chosen was a Black Jersey for the top part which was stretchy and had to be sewn with care not to stretch it whilst sewing it. I had to use a loose stitch so it would have a slight give in it whilst worn. I set the machine on a zig zag stitch on setting 1 with a stitch size 3.
The skirt part was a Black and Silver Brocade which again had its difficulties to work with. It would fray quite considerably and needed to be zig zag stitched all round before using. The fabric was able to be used either side and I chose the side that had the most silver showing rather than the black. I chose it that way round to give the outfit a bit more sparkle. I also suggested that the cuffs were to be made in this same fabric and I also suggested that the dress could benefit from a collar and after researching 1960's collars decided, along with the agreement of the tutor, that the front part of the collar being made in the same Silver Brocade fabric and the back part of the collar made in the Black Jersey. I felt the dress could benefit from a collar as after trying the dress on the actress I felt that it would finish the neckline off.
The sleeves were made of Black Chiffon which was slippery to work with and again all the edges had to be zig zag stitched to stop it from fraying.
The skirt was lined with Black Lining, which again was slippery and again also needed to be edged with a zig zag stitch to stop it from fraying.
I felt that making the cuffs and collar in the same Silver Brocade as the skirt helped tie the whole dress design together and I am pleased with the final results. I know the actress I was making for also liked the design and combination. She seemed to be pleased with the collar and especially liked the cuffs.
Even though at this stage of coming to write this, the dress though looking complete and finished, is not, as I feel something needed to be added to the back as it just seemed to have too much black. Also it was decided that I should add a belt, possibly with a buckle to finish the dress off. So I am still currently working on the dress.

Before I got to the final stage of constructing the dress I was hoping to have a final fitting of the Toile with the actress before cutting the pattern out in the final fabric. Unfortunately that was not to be so I had to make the final adjustments to the Toile and trust that they were correct.

 

(Removing the final piece of excess fabric from the Toile)

After cutting off the access fabric, after re-stitching the adjustment, I had to unstitch the whole Toile, including the bust darts and back, shoulder darts, so I could use the fabric Toile as my final pattern. I had to use this fabric Toile as it had considerably changed since I had made the paper pattern. Once unstitched I had to press the Toile to completely flatten it and then pinned these pieces onto the final fabrics.

Once cut out I set about stitching the whole pattern together to produce the final dress.

 (Cutting out the top in the final fabric)

(Cutting out the skirt and sleeve in the final fabric)

 

(Dress coming together)

 

(Dress without the collars and cuffs attached on mannequin / has been pulled in at waist)

 

  I drew a collar onto the Toile fabric bodice pieces then traced over the outlines on the front and back of the Toile which I had drawn the collar, to create a pattern. I then cut this pattern out of the Silver Brocade. I cut the Brocade in double fabric so the collar was of this fabric on top and on bottom. I originally stitched the collar parts together the wrong way round and when I attached the collar to the dress it did not lay correctly and flat. I then unstitched the back part of the collar and put them together the correct way and stitched them both back in position onto the dress.

 

 

(Drawing the collar onto the Toile and tracing it onto pattern paper)

 



  This time it lay correctly but I had accidently burnt the Silver Brocade slightly and although it wasn't noticeable I wasn't that happy with it. Also because I had only partly undone the collar from the dress and due to the fraying nature of the fabric it hadn't gone back together so smoothly. I had done all this work without any of the tutors input and as I have never put a collar onto a dress before I knew it wasn't done correctly in dress making terms but it did look ok.

 

(First attempt of attaching the collar to the dress)

 

 

When I showed the tutor and we discussed it further I decided I would take the whole collar off and start again and attach the collar in the correct manner. I'm happy I did do this as I was so much more pleased with the final outcome. I was also able to cut a new piece of fabric for the piece I had accidently burnt and the whole collar looked so much better and I know the tutor was happy as well.

(Second attempt at the collar. Stitching it together correctly and attached to the dress)

When it came to making the cuffs, again I cut the fabric in double and I added a rectangular piece of Vilene along the edge of the cuff to strengthen the fabric as I was going to add poppers to the cuffs. I added pearl buttons to the outside edge.

(Making the cuff pattern)

 

(Cuffs cut out in final fabric and being attached to the sleeve)

 

(Deciding what buttons to choose and adding the poppers to the cuffs)

 

 

I hand stitched the cuffs in place and I hand stitched the collar in place.
I did have trouble adding the zip and I think I lost count how many times I unstitched it to re-stitch it. The main problem was the stretchiness of the fabric but I persevered and it worked out ok in the long run.
I finally cut the skirt pattern out in Black lining and after zig zagging the edges to stop it from fraying I stitched the pieces together to make a skirt lining. I then pinned the lining to the inside of the dress and machined sewed it in place. I hand sewed the hem of the dress and machine sewed the hem of the skirt lining.

(Cutting out the skirt lining and sewing it together and attaching it to the dress)

I have tried the final outfit on my actress but have decided not to include a final picture of her wearing it on this blog, instead I have taken pictures of it on a dress mannequin and added those.
It does fit well after all the perseverance and alterations and as I have already said I am still working on the dress to make some final finishing touches.
Lastly, on reflection, now that I have finished the dress construction, I wish I had cut the 2 front skirt panels out as one piece and that I had cut it on the fold instead of in 2 pieces. I feel this would of looked better as the pattern would of looked complete and not broken up. If not cutting it on the fold then the 2 pieces should of had the pattern matched up. Having said this it is ok and is not necessarily that noticeable. I had made my original pattern in 4 separate pieces, rather than only 2 pieces cut on the fold as the other college students patterns were, as my pattern had to have numerous adjustments made to it and after increasing my pattern size I hadn't thought about the possibility of then cutting the front of the skirt on the fold as was the original pattern.

Have now finished the dress  :-)  Have added an adornment of a strip of Siver Brocade fabric to both sides of the back of the dress that loosely tie together and held in place with a popper. I do feel this has broken up the 'Blackness' of the dress at the back and will move freely when the actress is dancing. I quite like the look it gives to the back. I also cut a long piece of jersey fabric into a long strip and stitched together as a tube which I turned the right way round. I have hand sewn this Black Fabric band around the waist of the dress to form a belt. Again I do feel this has added to the final finish of the dress and look forward to seeing the outfit on the actress. 

 

 

(The final completed dress back and front)