I find this incredible rayon abstract print on Ebay awhile back and just had to have it. I placed my bid and waited . . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . I did not have the heart to look and see I had won until one day I chanced a look . . .and I won! Not only that but I was the only bidder and won over two yards of an original 40s abstract print in rayon. When it finally arrived at my door I was beyond thrilled and had many plans for it. Eventually, I settled on this 1942 Der Goldene Schnitt supplement pattern.
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| The Original Illustration |
I chose this pattern because of the sweetheart neckline and peplum - two dress features I had yet to add into my wardrobe. Another reason why I chose this pattern was because the bodice was pieces together with small pieces. Great in the event I had to do some creative piece work for this one considering I only had a little over two yards of this material.
The pattern for this dress was relatively easy to scale out although the bodice did not true up completely . . . after some fussing and fudging I did manage to get it to work. Cutting out this dress was nerve wrecking simply because I did not want to mess up. . . .since there was no way to re cut any pieces once cut and any fubars would be met with less than forgiving results it took me a long time to do any cutting. After awhile, I decided the best thing to do was to just do it. Just start cutting . . .I figured if anything was going to go wrong, it was going it happen before I would notice anyway. .. That's how most problems occur anyway right? . . .Right? During the cutting, I only cut out one peplum, the front, and omitted the back one. . .not enough material. That was not a surprise to me at that moment because while laying out the pieces, I had to make that decision.
Sewing this dress was not too bad I will admit. Although, I made the dumb mistake of sewing my ab open window that was letting in a breeze . .. This material is so incredibly light that any breeze made it move all over the darn place. There were not enough pins or hand on my body to keep this material tame so I closed the window. that was really the most frustrating this about this project . . . how light and slippery this material was . . .Once I had it under control it was not too bad. . .
For the sewing, I started with the bodice pieces hand stitching them in place and then pressing, pressing, and pressing them. Next, was the skirt. I stitched that up like another skirt but had to be careful of the peplum. I basted that to the top of the skirt front and when sewing up the side seam, I tried so hard not to catch it. Thankfully, I did not. The peplum was hand hemmed before I added that to the skirt. When the skirt was done, I added it to the bodice. Then I did the sleeves and added shoulder pads. Once the pieces were together, next came all the hand finishing at the neckline and sleeves. By the way, my material had this little paper tag stapled to it, anyone knows what that means?? I don't but would love to know more . . .
So, what did I wear with this dress? For this post, I wore a navy hat and gloves, red shoes, red earrings, pearl necklace, and dress clips at the corners of the sweetheart neckline. Oh and of course Boris. This dress really is so flexible for accessories and I can see myself styling this dress in many way for day and evening . . .
