Simplicity 1880: The 2-In-1 Sewalong

Despite not having a ton of time to sew this week, I still managed to get my Sewalong dress done. Yay! It really was just stitching it up, since I had already done all of the muslin and alteration work.

The pattern is Simplicity 1880, which is a Project Runway pattern with an impressive number of options. The skirt is the same flared 4 gore skirt, but there are 2 bodice options (wrap and shirtwaist) and 3 different sleeves that can be interchanged for different looks.

The fabric I used is a rayon woven from fabric.com. They called it "shirting" and it does have the crispness of a shirting, but being rayon, it has a lovely drape, really perfect for this dress. I did make quite a few alterations to get this to work for me. I did a 3/4 inch FBA, which is less that I generally need. I rotated the dart into the shoulder gathers and removed the extra waist fullness by adding 1/4 inch to each of the three pleats at the waist. I also increased the wrap overlap just a little. I removed about 1/2 inch above the bust, which is typical for me.

The back required a lot more work. The original muslin was insanely poofy in the back. While I appreciate that the designers wanted to echo the shape of the front with the pleats and gathers, it was just more volume than I liked. To fix it, I narrowed the back pattern piece by 3/8 inch, eliminating one of the pleats and decreasing the gathers significantly. I also shortened the back about 5/8 inch. I think the result is still in keeping with the general feel of the dress, but I like the shape much better for me.

The only alteration I needed to do to the skirt was to add about 3 inches to the length. Lately I have really liked my skirts to hit just below the knee, so that was where I put this one. I think it adds to the 1940s vibe the dress has.

The other major change I made was to fully like the dress. I never have good luck with facings on a wrap dress, and I prefer a full lining anyway. The lining is Joann's "pongee" lining, and it is actually pretty nice for polyester. In my head, I concocted this complicated lining method that involved lining the yoke and bodice pieces separately. Fortunately, Melanie of Queen of the Flies posted her method on her blog and it was a snap! You can see how much I lengthened the skirt in this pic. I cut the lining to the original pattern length and just serged it.

I'm so glad I took the opportunity to participate in this SAL! Thank you, Sunni for hosting and for all of the wonderful help along the way. I would totally have skipped out on this pattern otherwise, and I really love it! I also met a bunch of great new bloggers to add to my feed. Love that!