The Beatles Dress

This dress was made for me to wear on one of the most important days of my life - the day I met the single hottest man on earth, and got my picture taken with him.

Anyway this blog is about the sewing/fashion type stuff not to gush over Karl Urban.  Unfortunately I am too big to fit this dress at the moment - though it is close so hopefully this year will see it back on my back (and can you believe I thought I was "fat" when I made it)

Anyway jokes aside this dress is made using a simplicity reprint 1960's shift.  Some (ok all) of the seam detailing is lost in the super psychedelic pattern I chose to use.  The material was part of a quilting series for the Beatles and is called Yellow Submarine.  It was my first time working with Quilting cotton and I loved how it it sewed.  Quilting, however is a heavier cotton than some so works better on dresses with structure.

I chose the short version of the dress, because I have always loved mini's.  Age and wisdom has told me that sometimes the heart has a love the legs can't carry off, were I to make this again I would use the longer version.  The mini is super dooper mini, even at the time I ended up wearing it more like a tunic over jeans.  Don't judge me it was the style of the time.

I lined the dress in some navy polyester lining.  The lining was sewn like a bubble into the hem to avoid any visible hem seems on the front of the dress.  Basically, I cut the dress a few cm longer than the lining and sewed the two together.  Then I ironed it so that the extra dress hem folded up into the lining.  Not something I would recommend to others as ironing is a nightmare but the concept of a hem stitch was years away at this point.  The other change that I made was to move the zip down, mostly because it meant I would not have to finish the zip top.

Things that I like about this dress, the finishes are all well done.  The fabric is amazing and stands out and the dress when it did fit, fit really well.  I was initially; concerned that with my bust it wouldn't sit well but I was pleasantly surprised.  There is just enough shape in the dress to define waist and hips.

I do recommend this pattern
I also recommend the Beatles - still the best band of all history.