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 :)

From Enid to Ikea

I love, love, LOVE Ikea fabric :)

I found an off-cut in the remnant bin of my local Ikea, measuring 1.05m, for $7.50 and thought that it would make a really cool skirt. When I laid it out at home, it looked like I might be able to just squeeze a dress out of it instead, so, out came my trusty Enid Gilchrist books and one bodice and one skirt pattern later, I have my new Enid/Ikea dress :)

I used the patterns from my copy of 'Junior Teens and Smaller Women' ... the sleeveless bodice from the basic dress pattern on page 30, and the softly pleated skirt from page 16. The bodice was cut on the bias, because I knew that it would be a snug fit, and I figured that cutting it this way would give me more room to move, and the skirt was just made from the remaining fabric cut on the straight of grain. (It used a lot more fabric in the bodice this way, but it was so worth it)

Now I think that either dress and skirt waists used to be worn higher, or my waist is in the wrong place (:D) ... so, I added a small 'waistband' to lengthen the bodice to make the dress feel like it was sitting on my waist :)

I love Ikea ... and I love Enid ... and I love my new dress :)

Enid does it again

After making this, my second Enid Gilchrist dress, I feel confident to try all of her patterns ... and really, the options are endless!
I'm still amazed, every time that I look through one of her books, with just how much design information they contain (and each time I look and read, I seem to find something new) :) My mum used to make all of our family's clothes when we were kids, and I know for sure that had we lived in Australia and had access to these books, I would have been dressed Enid style since a baby :) ... guess I'll just have to make up for lost time now :D

...so, onto the specs: This was the Magyar dress on page 28 of Junior Teens and Smaller Women. The bodice was drafted from the pattern, but the skirt was just the rest of the fabric gathered in at the waist. My favourite part of this dress is the cool scooped neckline and shoulder seams ... I thought that it might be a hard dress to wear (thought maybe the magyar underarm seams may be restrictive), but that doesn't seem to be the case at all :)

Again, it was all made from stash. The fabric and zip were from a Spotlight shopping session way back. My only purchase was the tiny white belt from Factorie for $2.50 ... it just needed that small finishing touch. Not a bad price for a new summer dress :)

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 :)

Inspired to Sew

Now that I'm back home again after my few weeks in the UK, I've got a mad urge (yep, even madder than usual!) to get into my knitting and sewing :-) My instant gratification came in the form of this apron, which, according to the pattern is supposed to be a top (just thought that my girls would give me absolute heaps if I wore this out in public as a top!!)....hence, it will definately be worn as a pinny. As far as I can tell, the only thing making it a top, is the fact that the skirt part goes all around at the back as well as the front.
The pattern was one of my op shop buys for 20c...a McCalls 2 hour sampler wrap top/dress from 1983. I love the finished look of it (although I did have to put a couple of darts in the top, to prevent a drapey neck), and I love that fact that it did take less than 2 hours :-D

Just a few days before my hols, I had an another awesome find in the op shop (another 20c bargain!). I found a really old, coverless copy of Enid Gilchrist's Play Clothes. I'd never even heard of her before, and was really surprised at how many sewing patterns and information were in one book. Of course, as soon as I got home, I googled Enid's name, and couldn't believe how many things she had published, for both adults and kids. I got straight onto ebay and bid on a whole heap of her books. They were all here at home waiting for me when I returned from overseas....sooo....I had a few days of awesome jetlagged reading :-D
When I was searching for info on her, I found this amazing blog called Inspired by Enid. I was really happy to find another Enid fan, and even more so when I realised that the blog belonged to Tracy from Madquilter, one of my favourite crafty bloggers :-D (Tracy, I've got a couple of doubles that I don't think you have..Suits and Dresses 5 to 12 years and the New Idea special publication Baby Book...if you don't already have them, let me know and you're more than welcome to these :-))
I'm not sure yet, what I'll be sewing next, but I'm having great fun trying to decide ;-D