Umbrellas: A 1930s Dress for Today: Simplicity 2014
This dress got a name because it is hard to ignore the little paper drink umbrellas that made up its printed rayon fabric. They give it a playful air and so this is my fall informal dinner dress, which really means it is now my “wear while eating take-out at home on the warm fall weekends” dress. This is the pattern that I blogged last week with one change. I swapped out a simple flared skirt because I feared the gores of the original would mean cutting up the umbrellas too much and they would be impossible to match with their size and my yardage. I kept the same lower calf length that was the fashion in the mid-1930s
I wanted to use one of the colors in the print for the collar, which was harder to match than I anticipated because what was one color under the florescent lighting was another under natural lighting. So this was the second fabric I had bought to match. While the facing had a fold at the front edge of the yoke, I added a seam so that I could use the golden fabric for the inside facing as well. I knew it would be seen and it seemed a worthwhile detail. Notice that the yoke has its seam allowance folded to the inside, then is laid on top of the lower bodice, then sewn down to it. This was a common technique in vintage patterns as it eliminates any need to cut deep into seam allowances to created shaped seams, cutting that can weaken the fabric.
The buttons are some kind of early plastic, easily dating to the 1930s, carved and then connected using a heavy button-hole thread that I crocheted with the tiniest of hooks. Linked buttons show up in vintage patterns and have multiple advantages. First, it allows you to make a dress more or less formal. Imagine a solid dress for work with simple buttons, then imagine the same dress with rhinestone buttons for evening and flashy accessories. When it comes to cleaning the garment, you need not cut off the buttons to spare them wear and tear or even loss, but can slip them out of the holes. Consider if you have modern patterns that might benefit from this feature.