Little Black Dress

Simplicity 2372 has made more appearances on this blog than any other pattern. It is the most trusted pattern in my collection and Mama R's favourite dress pattern. I've lost count how many dresses, let alone the other pieces, I've made with this pattern. I've used this pattern to make cotton house dresses and fancier versions. This one is the latest version in a crepe fabric. It is also the shortest version I've made. This one is truly a little black dress.

I don't know what happened, near the finishing of this dress, Mama R tried it on and it appeared to be too long and we agreed on chopping 1 1/2" and turning it up for a 1 1/2" hem. Boy, oh boy it's short! So right now it is heading to the mending pile to see if I can lower the hem. I found some single fold bias tape that I'll sew on and lower it an inch. It should be ready for another fitting tomorrow evening.  But for now...

The usual changes were made to the pattern according to Mama R's preferences.

• Remove the centre front seam and cut on the fold.  
• Insert zipper at the centre back (its a pullover style dress but she finds it easier to get out of it with the aid of the zipper).  

• Lengthen the sleeves.
• Shortened the length. Yeah, I went too far on this step.  
• Adjust the neckline width by resizing at the raglan sleeve seam.  

The fabric is a polyester crepe that has been in the fabric stash for years, okay maybe decades. I picked it up so long ago I can't remember where I picked it up. This crepe is unlike the crepes I've seen lately, it has a beautiful weight to it and even Mama R is quite taken by the texture and weight of this piece of fabric. And that is how this fabric finally became a dress for Mom. Well that and the fact that there wasn't enough to make another Vogue 1410 for moi. 

The Stats:  

Fabric:  2 metres heavy-weight polyester crepe

Interfacing:  0.3 metres fusible interfacing

Zipper:  22" invisible zipper

Basting tape:  44" two-faced tape

Pattern:  Simplicity 2372

Additional Tools & Supplies:  Cutting table, pins, tailor's chalk, ruler, measuring tape, polyester thread for the sewing machine, serger, thread, silk thread for hand stitching, sewing machine, walking foot, invisible zipper foot, regular zipper foot, regular foot, screwdriver, scissors, thread clippers, tweezers, iron, ironing board, tailor's ham, many breaks (for stretching and running errands), and some good tunes.  

Happy Sewing!