Simplicity 6276

This dress has been a long time coming! I made my first muslin early in December, but I kept getting distracted by shiny things. I told myself I was not allowed to do any Jungle January garments until I finished this, so here it is...

The pattern is Simplicity 6276, printed in 1965.  The fabric is a lovely rayon/wool blend garbardine from FabricMart. I'm so glad I bought this in several colors. It was a dream to sew and wore beautifully.

My BSF, Carrie sent the pattern to me, along with a whole bunch of other fabulous finds. She's the best! The pattern is wonderful, and includes the jumper/dress, which I made, as well as four variations of a basic darted blouse. Since the jumper was the simplest sew, I decided to make it first, but I LOVE those blouses. There's something that I find irresistible about a vintage blouse pattern.

So, fit - the bane of every sewist, right? This pattern is a size larger than I generally sew, as well as being a relatively unfitted style, typical for the 60s. I knew I would need to make a lot of adjustments to be happy with it, so naturally I started with a muslin, but really I should have graded down a size first. You can see that the shoulders are a little wide in front and there is a bit of extra room in the bust area (!!!).

In back, there is a little extra room in the lower back, and again, the armhole has a dropped shoulder. The upper back fits well, thanks to the shoulder darts. I did have to make a square shoulder adjustment to this dress, which isn't typical for me. As drafted, the shoulders sloped pretty considerably.

In my first muslin, the fit was quite shapeless through the waist, so I added vertical darts both front and back.
I draped them in on my first muslin, then refined them on the pattern tissue. It wasn't at all difficult to do, but it makes a great deal of difference to the fit.

The pattern calls for facings to finish the neck and armholes, but I like a lined dress, particularly in the winter. I used Trena's tutorial for an all machine clean finish lining insertion. I love that tutorial. It works beautifully every time.

For the darts in the lining, I sewed release tucks in the vertical darts to leave some ease in the lining, as the charmeuse lining (also from FabricMart) had no give, while the gabardine did have a bit of stretch. I did fully sew the horizontal bust dart, as I wanted a smoother finish over the bust. Horizontal tucks tend to bunch a little, which isn't attractive at the bustline.

Despite the vertical darts, this is still a pretty unfitted jumper, so I belted it at my natural waist. Yes, my waist really is all the way up there. I wore it with my Ottobre Woman blouse, which I think fits with the style of the jumper. I think it will also look nice with a turtleneck, so I suspect it will get a good amount of wear, despite the fit imperfections.