Sunny Summer in the Seventies

This is a dress of my childhood, a vintage pattern, sewn in fabric possibly older than it is ;)

I can imagine my mum, grandmas & aunts wearing lightweight loose dresses like this during summer in the 1970's. They're not common in family photographs as most pictures were taken during celebrations when everyone was more dressed up, but I'm sure I remember dresses like these as 'house dresses'.

I was given this lightweight yellow cotton from my lovely MILs stash. I think it's from when they were living in the tropics in the early 1970's. It's delightfully smooth and cool to touch, however it's been maturing for a while as I couldn't picture it as anything. Then, I was browsing my shirt dress collection, the sleeves on view 2 of Style1578 circa 1976 jumped out at me and declared, "our time has come again, make us now!" So I did.

I made View 2 sleeveless, size 12, 34" bust

I wore this to a family birthday (it was summer and 40C) and mum took one look & knew the era I was unashamedly revisiting.

The collar in its full 1976 glory

I did make a concession to current fashion by not including the 70's winged collar. Don't get me wrong, I only narrowed it 2cm before attaching it & polling IG - well, ok, I'd already researched 1940's collars & minimised one side before putting a pic up. I do love the 70's but I can't quite carry off the collar, not even in a print of the era.

Basted and pinned to check for fit

This shirtdress has a yoke rather than shoulder seams and I wasn't sure how I should adjust it for my forward shoulders, so I didn't. I could have taken some width out of the bodice front, the gathers aren't quite right. And that 70's collar hid them better...

I do love a single sized pattern for the it's clarity and beauty, this dress is size 12 for a 34" 87cm bust, 26 1/2" 67cm waist and 36" 92cm hips. I widened the CB by 2cm for the first 17cm under the back yoke, and again from 52cm for my hips.

a detail of the sleeves;
I love the simplicity of the vintage single size pattern with its marked stitching line, anatomical and cutting details

I also dropped the side seam pockets down 15cm to sit where they are most comfortable, and as they're making no effort to be inconspicuous with their top stitching, I increased their size as well. They're good pockets and very handy.

The original pocket pattern piece, my extended piece, and at the top, the new placement

I also love vintage patterns for their illustrated instructions. Lots of basting.

I took great delight in putting the buttons & buttonholes just where I wanted them. I also deliberately chose to place my buttonholes in the horizontal axis. I know there's often debate about strain and vertical versus horizontal buttonholes - I believe the conclusion is that horizontal are for coats, while are vertical for shirts as shirts are tucked in. I don't tuck shirts or shirt dresses in, so there's little vertical pulling, which allows me to choose horizontal placement.
I also like horizontal as it gives me a smidge more stretch between different bras without gaping, and I dislike the bulge of strained vertical buttonholes.
And in the instructions for this 1976 shirtdress pattern? it opts for horizontal "worked or machine" buttonholes as well ;)

The just-above knee hem transformed this from 'frumpy summer sack' to 'cute summer vintage dress' and it's a great length for ease of wear. The big, double folded 70's hem gives a nice weight too. - Jillian, I like a 38" length!

The front button placket is folded in three, mainly as I used the selvage and preferred to fold it twice rather than cut it off & finish the edges.
My buttonholer preferred the three layers too ;)