New Vintage Wardrobe # 16: The Tree Dress

Sometimes you have the perfect pattern and the perfect fabric in your stash for a long while, and you know they were destined to be together, but it is months before you are ready to dive in...

That is how it was for me and the tree dress.
I bought this fabric off the e-bay.

( Just a reminder..
if you click on an image it gets much bigger...
Just one of those Blogger extras!)

It's old. 50's I think, maybe 60's. It's narrower than the current 44 inch standard. It's just 36 inches. It is really cute with these pink and blue and green illustrator-y trees all over it. I bought it when I very first started this sewing for myself.
Anyway it is somewhat irreplaceable (at least I'd never seen it's like before...) and I didn't want to mess it up until I felt really sure of my skills.

The pattern is Simplicity 5962 from 1965.

(That collar! It's the collar!)

This was also off e-bay. My first pattern "lot". It was a good investment. I got a few really great patterns in there, including my first shirtwaist and my mod shift.

This was a great, easy pattern. I am a perfect Simplicity size 14...
so I didn't need to alter it at all. Hurrah for that!

The curves on the collar were tricky and if I did this dress again I would definitely clip the curves and trim the seam allowance even more on those, and maybe use a lighter weight fusible inner facing.

I used a medium weight because it looked on the pattern like the collar needed some body to it. However, that decision helped me to retain my title: I am the crown princess of sewing overkill.
I haven't made the belt and tie yet, but I still plan to make them in black.
(You know... like View 2...)

But since I already wore it to a baby shower so I figured it was done enough to show.

But for practicalities sake I do recommend a fuller skirt for tree climbing.

Thanks again to my photographer!

P.S. I am bound an determined to learn all the feet for my sewing machine...
On this project the new feet I used were:

my overlock foot:

handy but there was a learning curve...
It folds the raw edge and does a cool semi-serger thingy to finish inside edges.

and my blind hem stitch foot:

Check it out, the left side is the outside and the right side is the inside.

Thanks to craftapple for the tutorial, that made me feel brave enough to try it.

And Yesterday I forgot to Thank Erin At Dress-a-Day for linking to my dear Sally Stitch... And Michelle for pointing her in my direction...
"Hi" Dress A Day folks! Thanks for stopping by!