Today was certainly a sign of spring and the warmer days to come. With that said, my sister and I went downtown to soak up some of the sun and enjoy the day. I took advantage of the day to wear my latest make: a tulip embroidered dicky. But first, a small confession . . . .I always thought dickies were a joke. They looked like blouses on the front but can’t be worn as a blouse. A sweater or a jacket must be worn with it. . . what kind of garment is that? Well, I guess I have to take all back. I had some scraps of white cotton too small to use but too large to toss. After paging through my Lutterloh book, I had an idea I would make the dicky. After wearing it, I am rather impressed with it. Today was warm enough for a sweater but a light one. One that you may not want to layer with any other garment, so this came in handy. These garments also take very little material so if you need a blouse but lack the materials, this is a nice option to consider.
For me, I did not use the pattern but instead “eye-balled” it using the original 1941 pattern as a guide. This was essentially the front and back of a plain blouse, which you can use as a guide for making yours. After making the body up, I added a small collar to it. Instead of making this plain, I added lace down the center front, added triple sets of pin tucks, backstitched embroidered little tulips all over it, and used pie crust/rim trimmed buttons. For such a small piece, there really is a lot going on here.
For me, the tulips are my favorite. I used a really simple stitch, a back stitch, because that is all I can do. I started by drawing out all sorts of them on a piece of paper and once I had a design I liked, I traced it on to the dicky. Once I had the body done, I did the collar.
I kept this look rather plain, mostly because I was still sore working with drywall and I wanted the dicky to do the talking. I chose a plaid wool skirt from a previous project and a green sweater. I also took the opportunity to wear my new hat I purchased not too long ago.
