"The Chuck Dress"

What a week! I am only finally starting to feel relief from a terrible cold I've had all week. So glad, too, so that I can share my dress! 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how it came out. It was rather easy to put together, although there were a couple of fitting snags in the beginning. I used two pattern pieces to help me map it all out. The top half of the dress was roughly taken from this pattern, from Burdastyle. 

The pattern was originally for a basic high-waisted slim skirt that included variations, including the dress that I used. Halfway through drafting it out, I realized that this pattern piece was not at all what I needed.  In fact, the only detail that remained the same was the overlap in the front. 

The skirt portion of the dress was taken from this vintage 60s pattern. 

I made the sleeveless variation of this dress last summer, and I loved the way the skirt turned out. It is basically gathered from the front and back of the hip, with "soft pleats" that  match the front and back darts. 

A matching fabric-covered belt always makes me happy. I could always trade it out for a solid colored belt if I wanted to accentuate the waist a little bit more, but I love this retro look. Nearly every vintage dress pattern that I have has the instructions to make a fabric covered belt. At one time, apparently, "belt and buckle kits" were sold beside every other sewing notion. I haven't had any luck in finding one locally, but they are pretty easy to find online. I found mine on Ebay. I was so excited to make the eyelets, too, and I bought a special plier to poke the holes and smash them. (Do you sense how much fun I had?) :)

I did a center lapped zipper, and I hand-picked it rather than sewing it on with the machine. You can't see so well how this effect looks (sorry!), but here is a great article on it- http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/5135/a-hand-picked-zipper-is-worth-the-effort

While I was sitting around, lousy sick and sniffly, I made a daisy hair clip. I wanted to hold a daisy like the one that Chuck holds in the photo...but I thought that it might be a tad cheesy. I'm so glad that I sided with the daisies in my hair...

 

Now if I could get that matching yellow coat!