I managed to speed sew two more autumnal dresses quickly before it’s time to switch to Christmas sewing. Here is the first one: it uses some lovely Lori Holt fabric from an older line, courtesy of The Timely Tailor – I’ve wanted to make a dress in this for ages and it finally happened!

I used a late 1950s-early 1960s pattern from my stash, and while I don’t love the looser silhouette as much to look at, it is definitely more comfortable to wear!

I paired it with vintage 1940s shoes & 1950s accessories from my collection.

The busy print meant that I was afraid the collar would get lost, so instead of trim I opted for sewing beads along the collar edge.

I think it turned out very pretty, with a subtle classy touch that works well with the design. The beaded edge gives the collar a nice weight too, which means it lays well.

Since this is a cool-weather dress I opted for 3/4 sleeves this time. The pattern was missing the sleeve piece so I substituted a 3/4 sleeve from another pattern of the same era.

I wanted to use large pearl buttons, but that makes for huge buttonholes, which distort easily and generally don’t look as classy. So I went with my favorite trick which is to sew snaps on the dress for the actual closure and just add the buttons on top for looks. The buttons also hide the marks where the snaps are sewn. Easy!

The other missing piece in the pattern was the underpleat for the front skirt. Thankfully it was marked on the main skirt piece so it was fairly easy to make my own off of the skirt piece. If a pattern piece is missing it’s always nice when it’s not critical to the design, since pattern drafting is a whole new level that I’ve not attained!

Aside from those unexpected pattern tweaks and a few fit adjustments, it was pretty straightforward. I rarely take time to add hand work to a dress, but I always like the added touch it gives.

It was cloudy a minute before we ran out to grab photos before church, but just then the sun peeped out and the fog started to lift just in time to make the hills an extra pretty background.

I had initially intended this to be my Thanksgiving dress this year, but ended up instead wearing the second of my autumn makes (show you soon!) However, this one was worn on Thanksgiving Sunday when we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at church, so I guess it still counts. 🙂

And now we slide into the last few days of November! Gotta get the decorations up in preparation for Advent starting on Monday. Can’t believe it’s here again already…but here we go!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!