Charlotte Walker Sews

The Julie Dress

What do you get if you cross a 1970’s candy striped cotton double flat sheet, an original 1950’s Butterick pattern and snaps of your Auntie Julie as a nipper at the tail end of the 1960’s?

A right bobby dazzler of a frock, that’s what! (spoken like a true Bedfordshire Nan, translation: ‘very nice dress’).

The Inspiration

My Auntie Julie, my dad’s younger sister, born in the summer of 1963. Growing up in the era of cotton circle skirt dresses, mary jane shoes and white knee high socks. My daughter, now 9, loves the old photos of my Auntie Julie playing in the garden with her dog, Shandy (my grandad’s drink of choice) or eating an ice cream with her Nanny Violet, my daughter’s Great, Great Grandma. It was the photographs of my Aunt at a very young age that gave me the inspiration for the silhouette, the full skirt, nipped in at the waist shape, great for twirling in. I’m thinking parma violets, candy floss, rainbows and sunshine. Happy summer childhood memories.

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THE DESIGN

The design was really quite easy for this dress, I have a stash of vintage patterns and one in particular stood out amongst the others; an original 1950’s Butterick girls dress pattern. It encompasses all that I wanted to achieve in shape, I actually think it is meant for occasion wear and perhaps a little fancy for the summer daywear that I was heading for but that was easily rectified by my choice of fabric. The pattern was pre cut, with only notches and punched numbers to guide me, this was terrifying. I thought the whole process was a little daunting but after a bit of Googling on vintage patterns and just getting stuck in, I was flying. Everything about this pattern was beautiful, from the illustration on the packet, to the instructions, the actual pattern pieces themselves are quite special too, such fine silk-like transparent paper without a mark on them, already cut to perfection. How lucky I was to find something that was almost the perfect size for my daughter. The design has perfect patch pockets with self covered buttons to fasten them. They are placed on seams that are set at the hip, a lovely touch which, in my opinion, makes a simple design a little more snazzy.

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The fabric

I had a few fabrics that would have worked with this design, each one would have changed the feel of the dress. I needed enough for the enormous lengths of skirt that this dress requires. Here are some of the fabrics that I had in the pile of maybe’s…

I didn’t have enough of any of these fabrics, they are all part of a large collection of haberdashery that I inherited from a great aunt many years ago. All remnants, actually the blue ditsy print on the right is made up into an unfinished dress, definitely not enough for the full skirt in this design. I also have two rectangles of the orange flower print, my Dad discovered these tucked away in my Grandad’s airing cupboard, apparently they were little simple ‘café’ curtains that were hanging in my Grandparent’s 1970’s kitchen in their previous house. I love it how they never threw anything away. Anyway, not enough for the dress in question… so I was stuck for ideas until I remembered that 2 years ago I ordered a 1970’s candy stripe double flat sheet to make a roller blind for my daughters bedroom. The 1950’s pattern, 1960’s photo of my Auntie Julie and the 1970’s fabric, this is my heaven, mixing it up with all the best parts of each decade.

hAPPY ACCIDENT

So, the illustration above is of course, the design I was aiming for. After a fitting with Elsie, my daughter, and being so careful and meticulous about measuring the length, (measure twice, cut once, always a good rule to live by… another handy rule to live by is to down tools when you’re tired and it’s approaching midnight.) I had stuck a pin in the skirt in a seam because I needed to put it down and didn’t want to drop it while I was fitting the dress to length. I then cut the hem line, carefully measuring the entire length TO THE WRONG MEASUREMENT. I could have cried. I’d chopped it about 2 inches too short. But I saved the day with a layer of ruffle and while its not to the original plan, it is beautiful and in keeping with the sort of 1970’s design that my daughter is fond of. So all is not lost, a very happy accident. Still, I will learn from this and will not be working late into the night any longer, I certainly won’t be using scissors at stupid o’ clock! You live and learn. Elsie loves it too!

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The Details

As mentioned before, the dress has big patch pockets on the front of the skirt. They are aligned with two seams that run down from the hips, I chose to turn the stripes horizontally for these so you can really see them stand out as a feature. The large, pretty covered buttons finish the design off beautifully. The neck and arm holes are finished with bias binding. Bias binding isn’t something I had tried before, I would always make a facing if I was self drafting a pattern. I was so pleased with the outcome! I made the binding too, which really gives such a lovely detail to the overall look.

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rOOM to GROW

After the final fitting, the dress was a little too long in the body for Elsie. As I pinned the shoulder seams to unpick and alter, I realised that this, in fact, created a little feature. I still had two self covered buttons left in the packet, so I covered one in the candy stripe cotton and placed in on the pin. I loved it. The little epaulettes were created! They can also be unpicked and pressed as Elsie grows taller. So the dress can remain in her wardrobe for so much longer than it would have if I had chopped it to size. You can see them a little in the photo below.

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The dress

Here it is!

This project was such a joy from start to finish, working with my little girl and continuing the family theme going is what it’s all about. I hope you like it! Here are some our photos and a little video, taken in Suffolk while we were on our holiday!

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