The Second Dress

I’ve been finishing two dresses from the 1960s (or 70s?), given to me in a collection of fabric. Last week I finished off the black and white sundress, and can report that it’s been worn by my teen with success.

Attention has now turned to the second dress, consisting of a basted-together skirt and a bunch of scraps.

I took a look at the skirt first, unpicked the panels and gave them a press. My teen, passing by, mentioned what a nice smell was in the room. I said Yes, it’s the fabric. She replied So this is what 1973 smelt like.

I gave them a trim and straightened up the edges.

Then I looked at the scraps and saw there was enough to cut a top part with short sleeves (or I could go sleeveless). Maybe something like this:

I liked the idea from Georgia-in-the-comments, about combining it with a solid fabric. I couldn’t find any good matching solids, but just look at this superbly matching vintage bias binding!

I discovered that the fabric is by John Kaldor.

It must have been an early one. Kaldor fabrics opened in 1970, giving an idea of the age of this fabric (nothing in the fabric collection given to me was older than 1973), and wound down in Australia in 2004 . However, John Kaldor the man is still alive and is known for his art collection and philanthropy.

For the top of this dress, I dug out my tried and true shirt pattern, which I’ve been refining since 1998 (with major revisions in 2002, 2005 and 2020). I haven’t used it in the past six years, since taking my vow of zero waste, however Past Me had thoughtfully recorded and filed everything neatly.

I cut out a back, front and sleeve, and trimmed the skirt to match my middle-aged waistline.

The collar has yet to be decided – whether to use a two-piece rounded collar (striped shirt) or a more open neck which looks a bit prettier for a dress (red shirt).

If I use the red collar I might not use the brown bias binding, but I’ll wait to see what it looks like put together.

So…although things are going slowly (it’s school holidays here), I have a plan and motivation is high as we’re having the last blast of summer – it even looks like it won’t rain on Anzac day!

Til next week!