Purple Vintage Vogue 1044

I think I've mentioned before that last year I made 5 retro bridesmaid dresses with dozens of yards of mint green tulle per dress! They were so much fun, and one day I'll get around to blogging about them. But today I wanted to blog about the Mother of the Bride Dress That Wasn't! Since I was pretty much done with the bridesmaid dresses, and the mother of the bride still hadn't found the right dress, I happily agreed to squeeze in one more dress. (I'll work slowly and methodically for weeks on a dress when my deadline is far out, but ask me to fit something in last minute and a crazy part of my brain says, "YES!!! DO IT!!" because I'm suddenly quick and efficient when there's a tight deadline, and so much more productive. In other words, I'm nuts, lol.)

She decided on the lovely Vintage Vogue 1044.

 

LOVED it, I even had a personal copy in my own pattern stash. The fabric chosen was a really cool, almost iridescent blue/purple cotton with a lovely drape. The only alteration was to make it floor length to try to make it a little more formal.

 

So I got to work! I whipped it up as fast as I could, and we tried it on...and suddenly it read like something from Little House on the Prairie. Not the period we were going for, oops! I think it was a combination of the lovely cotton being a bit on the casual side and the added length. It was still a nice dress, but clearly wasn't going to work for the Mother of the Bride. I promised to whip up another dress, based on one I'd made for myself (we did a quick try on with that and liked it) and that one ended up working well, she looked lovely at the wedding!

 

So that was back in October, and the Mother of the Bride Dress That Wasn't still hung in my closet waiting for a little makeover. I pulled her out this past week, gave her a very deep hem (love the weight this creates at the bottom), shortened the sleeves just a tad, and shortened the separate petticoat I'd made to go with it. SUCH a difference, I love the end result! Here she is back in the period she belongs. ;-)

 

There are, of course, two nice deep pockets hidden in there. What else is a full skirt for?

A little peek of the petticoat!

 

 

Aahh, so much better. :-) It feels great to finally have it finished and ready to be worn.