When I was buying stock for my vintage sewing shop The Timely Tailor, I came across this gorgeous large rose repro print in two different colors. It was from Australia and hard to find in the USA, but incredibly gorgeous – it’s difficult to find large scale prints like this now that cotton is mostly used for quilting! I knew I had to make one of my dream dresses.

I’ve always loved when I come across photos of 1950s dresses that have the Horrockses tag – they are often easily identifiable due to their use of large and interesting floral prints, with a simple style and flattering fit. I am not about to drop a few hundred dollars on one, but this fabric instantly reminded me of the Horrockses dresses so now I could make my own!

I combined several different patterns to get this one. The skirt is from one 1950s pattern, the bodice from another, and the sleeves are actually from a 1940s formal pattern.

It took me a while to settle on sleeves since I wanted them to be smooth and something a little more original than the usual style, but of course something that would work with the busy print.

Tulip sleeves were a perfect fit for my needs – even though I had forgotten how to put them in and as a result of not paying close enough attention to the instructions I set a sleeve FIVE times!

Otherwise it went quite quickly. It’s a pretty basic dress, and I’ve done the bodice several times before. I wanted the simplicity so the fabric could shine.

My only regret is that I didn’t center the front closure to not cut off a row of roses. But otherwise I’m delighted with it, and love how feminine it feels, and how swishy the skirt is!

The top skirt darts control the fulness around the waist a bit, and also add some pretty but subtle details.

I auditioned several button colors and choices, but narrowed it down to these beautiful vintage ones I had the perfect amount of, since they were so close a match to the rose colors.

It should have had a more elegant and sophisticated background but hey, this encapsulates my real life pretty well. 🙂

I have some blog catchup to do now that I have migrated it to this new site, so you’ll see another post later this week. Meanwhile enjoy this beautiful September!