I made View C. This Teens era dress goes together beautifully, but you definitely have to make an adjustment if you are tall. The skirt is quite short. The pattern does not include finishing instructions for the inside waistband. The collar is the easiest collar I’ve every made.
Rated 3 out of 5
Frannie –
I made View C.The dress turned out well and is very comfortable to wear. I realize that real teens era dress construction is extremely complex, and that this is a much-simplified version. This pattern has lots of dots to match. I don¹t like dots. I either: 1. forget to mark them; 2. mark them and the marking rubs off by the time I get to that instruction or 3. the mark never wants to come off at all. I prefer notches. This pattern has notches, some of which are never referred to or don¹t seem to match up with anything. Sigh. A few other peeves: The bodice has a lining installed in such a way as to only give a clean finish around the neckline where it shows. The inside of the bodice has unfinished seams galore. And, the inside of the waistband is unfinished so the interfacing is exposed! Very strange. And, the instructions for the collar were sequenced in such a way that the lace trim would have ended up turned to the inside. So I left it off. I like the clean look of the stand up collar without the lace trim anyway. There are a couple other places where the instructions seem to wander off like that. And, the illustrations don¹t help much. I did something deliberately differently;I lined the underskirt. I looked at the long, curving front hemline and thought I¹m not gonna hem that bias-y mess. It took about 3 yards of fabric, but it took a couple of minutes to finish the curving front hems instead of an hour or more (with lots of cussing). All that said, I like the dress, it went together in a weekend, and might consider using the pattern again to make one of the other views.
Rated 5 out of 5
Jana –
Literally I sewed this, and Simplicity’s Cold Mountain (4900) dress, in one weekend with Christine and her mom’s help. I changed the pattern to open in front instead of the back with a zipper as called for in the pattern. I also needed to draft it up one more size than the pattern was available in.
I did lengthen the skirt as I don’t like the look or feel of shorter skirts. I added to the collar height when I drafted up—I should have only added width. It reminded me of a tall Dracula collar but, it does fall over well and looks pretty. I flat lined the bodice to save time so I had to fudge sewing the inside of the collar down to make it look better. I sewed the skirt and the lining right sides together then turned and pressed, leaving the waistband open. I did the same thing with the peplum and then sewed them to the waistband. It looked wonderful and meant no hemming.
On the inside the waistband is left exposed. You could cut a piece to sew on top of it if it bothers you. I also made the sleeves narrow towards the wrist to add a bit more authenticity (but historically accurate this ain’t folks!). We sewed large skirt hooks and eyes down the front to close. We covered buttons with the beautiful lining fabric and added them to the front as a nice detail. The instructions call for you to “sew-down” the skirt where it crossed over itself from the waist to just where the hem starts to curve. I didn’t want to do that and breathed a sigh of relief when the hooks and eyes held the skirt closed and gave a very nice drape to the skirt.
I found this pattern to be very easy. I would like to make it again when I have more time to add all kinds of other fashion details when I have more time to sew. It is a discontinued pattern but you can email Simplicity (and Butterick and McCalls) and ask by pattern number if they have any left in their stock.
Yvette –
I made View C. This Teens era dress goes together beautifully, but you definitely have to make an adjustment if you are tall. The skirt is quite short. The pattern does not include finishing instructions for the inside waistband. The collar is the easiest collar I’ve every made.
Frannie –
I made View C.The dress turned out well and is very comfortable to wear. I realize that real teens era dress construction is extremely complex, and that this is a much-simplified version. This pattern has lots of dots to match. I don¹t like dots. I either: 1. forget to mark them; 2. mark them and the marking rubs off by the time I get to that instruction or 3. the mark never wants to come off at all. I prefer notches. This pattern has notches, some of which are never referred to or don¹t seem to match up with anything. Sigh. A few other peeves: The bodice has a lining installed in such a way as to only give a clean finish around the neckline where it shows. The inside of the bodice has unfinished seams galore. And, the inside of the waistband is unfinished so the interfacing is exposed! Very strange. And, the instructions for the collar were sequenced in such a way that the lace trim would have ended up turned to the inside. So I left it off. I like the clean look of the stand up collar without the lace trim anyway. There are a couple other places where the instructions seem to wander off like that. And, the illustrations don¹t help much. I did something deliberately differently;I lined the underskirt. I looked at the long, curving front hemline and thought I¹m not gonna hem that bias-y mess. It took about 3 yards of fabric, but it took a couple of minutes to finish the curving front hems instead of an hour or more (with lots of cussing). All that said, I like the dress, it went together in a weekend, and might consider using the pattern again to make one of the other views.
Jana –
Literally I sewed this, and Simplicity’s Cold Mountain (4900) dress, in one weekend with Christine and her mom’s help. I changed the pattern to open in front instead of the back with a zipper as called for in the pattern. I also needed to draft it up one more size than the pattern was available in.
I did lengthen the skirt as I don’t like the look or feel of shorter skirts. I added to the collar height when I drafted up—I should have only added width. It reminded me of a tall Dracula collar but, it does fall over well and looks pretty. I flat lined the bodice to save time so I had to fudge sewing the inside of the collar down to make it look better. I sewed the skirt and the lining right sides together then turned and pressed, leaving the waistband open. I did the same thing with the peplum and then sewed them to the waistband. It looked wonderful and meant no hemming.
On the inside the waistband is left exposed. You could cut a piece to sew on top of it if it bothers you. I also made the sleeves narrow towards the wrist to add a bit more authenticity (but historically accurate this ain’t folks!). We sewed large skirt hooks and eyes down the front to close. We covered buttons with the beautiful lining fabric and added them to the front as a nice detail. The instructions call for you to “sew-down” the skirt where it crossed over itself from the waist to just where the hem starts to curve. I didn’t want to do that and breathed a sigh of relief when the hooks and eyes held the skirt closed and gave a very nice drape to the skirt.
I found this pattern to be very easy. I would like to make it again when I have more time to add all kinds of other fashion details when I have more time to sew. It is a discontinued pattern but you can email Simplicity (and Butterick and McCalls) and ask by pattern number if they have any left in their stock.