Sewing a Summer Dress for Cousin Cathy!

As most of you know by now, my cousin Cathy gets annoyed with me if I don't make her at least one new outfit every season.

Since I never do, she's annoyed with me often.  She still hasn't forgiven me for the four year break between July 2014 and August 2018, but I had other priorities and, frankly, so did she though I'm not authorized to share hers with you here.  Anyway, I seem to have missed this last spring, so I'm whipping her up a little something for summer.

I recently purchased Vogue 7935 (above), a vintage A-line one-piece dress pattern from 1970, for her on eBay.  There was something about the style that appealed to me.  Now let me say a few words about "Very Easy."  I did not find this to be a very easy pattern to make, especially not in the fabric I chose.  True, there aren't many pattern pieces, but the dress still required a great deal of careful construction.

My fabric is a poly georgette print I bought roughly eight years ago at Fabrics For Less, a fabric store in the Garment District that is today sadly defunct.  I liked the colors a lot and the print reads mod to me: perfect for a Sixties or Seventies ensemble.  Georgette is very lightweight fabric (not as light as chiffon but close) and it's not very easy to work with.  I found I needed to lower my thread tension considerably on both my Singer 15-91 and my Brother 1034D serger to prevent puckering.  Once I did that, however, both machines handled this delicate fabric beautifully.

Stitch sample: once I lowered my thread tension on my Brother 1034D serger, it handled the georgette quite well. 

A few words about my pattern.  What looks like a neck scarf is actually attached to the neckline and closes the long keyhole in front.  The front of the dress is one piece (with a faced keyhole) and the back two pieces.  The back closes with an invisible zipper.  As usual, I used Kenneth King's excellent invisible zipper installation tutorial on YouTube, which always yields great results.

I didn't want the bishop sleeves and gathered sleeve cap to droop, so I needed to use something to give them some stiffness and fullness while still retaining the soft drape of the georgette.  I ended up underlining each sleeve with soft nylon tulle and adding a layer of slightly stiffer net to the sleeve cap area.  It worked beautifully.  I was able to gather the cap easily and the gathers keep their shape.  The nylon is soft enough that it doesn't catch on the fabric or feel uncomfortable when worn (or so my cousin tells me).

A peek inside the sleeve cap.

The nylon tulle also gives the bishop sleeve fullness.  You'll see what I mean when I post the final photo shoot, which should be sometime in the next week.

Gathering my bishop sleeve before adding a narrow cuff (not part of the original pattern, which calls for just a casing with elastic).

This is a bit of a departure for Cathy.  It's been many years since she's done a Seventies look and we're all hoping she can still pull it off.  Stay tuned.

Happy sewing, everybody!