Daisy Chain

This is another pattern that comes from Mr. Lappin’s stash.  So, of course, I was already in love with it before I pulled the tissue out of the envelope.

The rayon daisy print was purchased from fabric.com.  It reminded me of the 1930s, and the turquoise color was lovely, so I grabbed it.  When I saw Hollywood 1647, I thought they would make a great pair.

And I finally found a use for one of my lace collars.  Believe it or not, I picked these up from JoAnn Fabrics, of all places.  Quite a few years ago, they marked all of their decent trims on clearance and I purchased all that I could find before they disappeared forever.  They have been living in a drawer for years.  The lace trimmed collar on the pattern illustration reminded me of their existence, so I decided that a surface applied lace collar might work nicely.

The problem was that the collar was extremely bright white and my fabric was not.  To remedy the problem, I decided to try a bit of tea dying.  

I used a couple of Lipton black tea bags and dunked the collar pieces for a minute or two.  It worked quite nicely!  I tacked the lace to the collar pieces by hand with some silk thread.

The pattern does not call for interfacing, which I suppose is quite normal for a 1930s pattern.   I ended up using some cotton as a sew-in stabilizer for the collar and cuffs.  But I really was stumped when it came to the front opening.  The rayon drapes beautifully and is rather lightweight.  I was worried that the buttonholes (mine are bound) and the buttons needed to be stabilized in some way.  But a sew-in on the entire front piece seemed like it would be too much.  I came to the decision that a thin strip of lightweight fusible, although inauthentic, would work nicely.

I had no desire to re-space all of those buttonholes, so I did not make my standard adjustment for a long torso.  The dress is a bit high-waisted, but it works. 

Finding fourteen buttons that I liked with this fabric was quite an adventure, and one of the reasons that this dress took so long to complete.

I also decided to use the 3” hem allowance given to make the dress a bit more tea-length than knee-length.

I cannot find a reference to this pattern anywhere.  Does anyone else have this lovely dress pattern in their collection?

My button selection was not my first choice and I was concerned that the dark contrast was going to be distracting, so I decided to make a fascinator with the leftover shell buttons.  I crocheted a triangle shaped border, expecting to sew two of the patterns together to make a diamond which would have a sprinkling of buttons applied.  

Well, the flat diamond shape looked terrible, and the button placement did not look right, so I pulled two corners together to give the piece a bit of shape.  And I rather like how it turned out!

Dress & Belt:  Made by me, Hollywood 1647

Shoes:  Banana Republic

Fascinator:  Made by me