A dress, or three

Finally, finally, I got around to making my Enid Gilchrist simple empire line dress... I drafted it out and sewed my 'muslin' here ... I don't know why it took me so long to make it for real, but I'm pretty happy with the result :) I made a couple of mods to the pattern, making the neck and armholes slightly lower than the pattern ... the neck was purely a design choice, but going on my past experience making Enid dresses, the armholes would otherwise have been a bit tight.Next time, I will also put in a back pleat on the skirt ...standing up is fine, trying to get elegantly into the rear seat of a friends car was no so fine! :D

The other two dresses were mostly made by my daughter ... after nearly finishing them, and then realising that they were too big for her

(and not wanting to be bothered with taking in the seams some),

she gave them to me (minus zip closures and hems) :)

I love them both, but especially the yellow floral one (awesome thrifted sheet from Savers).

For the white and blue one she used New Look 3968 and the yellow floral, Butterick 4980

...and another Enid

So I think that I may be running the risk of overusing my new favourite Enid Gilchrist pattern ... but it's just so quick, and easy, and awesome lol

This dress was made from the same pattern as my Ikea dress.

I made it as a winter dress, to be worn under a cardi, out of some brushed cotton that I bought for $3 from the new Savers Recycle Superstore here in Adelaide (such an amazing op shop!). I also bought the zip there, in a bag of 10 for $3.

I've already got 3 more dresses cut out and ready to sew, along with some skirt versions ... spring starts next week, so I'm more than ready to get started on some nice summery clothes :)

My first Enid Gilchrist

I totally doubted this pattern all the way through ... first I thought the neck would be too wide, then the armholes too small, then the facings too fiddly, then the waist too small and too high up ... the list goes on! But, after lots of thoughts of abandoning this dress completely, I decided to go with whatever Enid said, and followed her instructions to the full (thats very not me!).

... I don't know how I could have ever doubted!!! The dress fits great, the instructions were clear, and no part of it was fiddly or hard ... I have

now got SO many Enids to catch up on :D

The bodice was the basic sleeveless one from page 8 of Basic Fashions for Women (reduced to one size down using the instructions in the back of Teenagers and Small Women), and the skirt was just basic, gathered at the waist.

And I'm glad to say that it was all made from my stash ... fabric, thread and zip :)

Getting started with my Enids

I 'discovered' an old Enid Gilchrist book in an Op Shop a couple of years ago (Play Clothes for Children, costing 20c). Since then I've been collecting her books ... some from Ebay, but mostly from op shopping. I've managed to collect quite a few, ranging from baby patterns right through to adults. There seems to be a lot of baby books around, but not so many for women ... I guess that people find it easier to hand-draft the smaller clothes (personally I love the adult ones as the fashions, dating from about the '50s, are awesome :)) I've even managed to double up on a few of her books, but other than sending one to fellow collector Tracy, I thought that I'd hold onto them as spares (most of them are falling to bits anyway ... it's so cool that they've been well used :)

So,after a million attempts to take my measurements and agonise over which size I was, I drafted the basic pattern (I knew that all those excess rolls of christmas wrapping paper would come in handy!). Now either my body measurements were not taken too accurately or there is a lot of ease calculated into the patterns, because I needed to go down a size from what I thought. Just to make sure that I had the size right, I quickly made this

dress in scrap fabric (without facings,

turnings, zips etc), and I'm very pleased to say that the fit is perfect:)

Now to find some cool (matching!) fabric, to make my first Enid for real ... I can't wait :)