Pretty Peony Frock

Simplicity 4982 from the early 1960s

This is one of the patterns from my haul in Tewksbury.  I love the shape of the skirt & the pleats.  In addition to the pile of patterns, I also bought a length of cotton floral print.  You’d have caught glimpses of it in my previous post about the seam finish.  The pattern repeat was quite large, so to save fabric I didn’t go overboard on trying to match everything.  I’m hoping to squeeze out 1 or 2 more dresses from this stuff!

Simplicity 4982 in peony print cotton

I had intended this dress to go into my Etsy shop, but Belle has had other plans for it!  She loves it!  The dress, the print…  I knew it would look fabulous, but it looks even better on her than I thought it would!

Definitely one to make again, the pattern is quick to run up.  This version has the short kimono sleeves, so perhaps next time I’ll do the “cap” instead.  This is one of those dresses that would look brilliant in a pretty cotton print or a more sophisticated fabric for a night out.  A bit like the By Hand London dresses, it could have a lot of different incarnations.

I used a simple centred zip application, if I’d realised Belle would want to steal it from me, I’d have put in an invisible zip instead.  So, as mentioned before, all the seams were pinked, I used bias tape to finish the sleeve hems as well as to bind the hem of the skirt.I will need to make an underskirt for this one – I had bought the fabric to make a seperate skirt, but wasn’t quite sure how this would hold up against the sun!  Needless to say, it failed the sun test!  If she can possibly wait until after the weekend, she can have this with underskirt to wear to school.  One look at this face tells you how much she loves it…

I’m off to a big sewing show tomorrow, & I hope I’ll be able to pick up more gorgeous fabric to make another couple of these.