At a junk market this morning I spotted that most elusive of dresses… an original version of an old pattern! I knew it immediately as Simplicity 6218 which I made up in post-it note yellow a while back. Too cool. Modern Twist made a similar discovery in London recently… it’s nifty finding a connection through the decades with a mystery seamstress! I felt like I’d run into an old friend.
In other news, I made up New Look 6000 in the past week from a beautiful cranberry red wool crepe. It’s funny that most of the renditions of this that I’ve seen online have been red, just like the envelope picture. I thought it would be a complete pain to lengthen with all the tricksy side darts but it turns out they didn’t need to be moved. I just lengthened the skirt, brought it in a bit at the upper back, and cut the back skirt seam with a slight fishtail so I can ride my bike without fear of splitting a seam (guess who learned the hard way.) Oh, and I lined it too for warmth and opacity using the simple darted front piece that’s included in the pattern (thank you, New Look!)
Oh, another key thing: I sewed the left collar on backwards. It’s traditional for me to charge ahead without double-checking so who am I to buck tradition?
A shot of the kicky little cuffs that better shows the beautiful colour of the fabric…
Make it 'til you fake it 