Well so much for lightening my work load! August is shaping up to be a very busy month and we aren’t even there yet!! That means I am going to be attempting to get quite a bit of work done in these last few days of July so that I am not totally buried in August.
First project on the to do list is a simple cotton dress for one of my best friends who has a wedding to attend the first weekend in August. She has the Swirl Dress. It is a simple jewel neck, sleeveless, princess seam top with a circle skirt (the skirt is seamed sides, front, and center back to allow for inseam pockets). Ms. Twinkle Toes likes to play it safe with solid colors, usually of the pink family. She took a leap of faith in letting me pick out this rather dramatic print for her:-) Crossing my fingers and hoping she likes it!
Project number 2 is a 1950’s inspired black dress. Another one of my best friends, Ms. Cupcake, has a wedding at the end of August. We decided on simple cotton for this one as well and went with this Black Plisse that has an imprinted check pattern. Kind of hard to see in the scan since it is black 
This dress will have a boat neck front with a wide V in the back, princess seams with a full, gathered, flared skirt. I will be building a black petticoat for this dress as well to give it the nice 1950s flair.
Now the Polka Dot Dress is for me. 🙂 This is part of my secret project. The dress isn’t a secret, but the reason I am making it is. Nope, sorry, mums the word. The secret project is also a big reason my August is going to be Crazy with a capital C. I will try to take your mind off of the secret by telling you about this polka dot dress.
I dug into my vintage patterns and actually found one in my size, or pretty close, at least! I have made several of my vintage patterns for friends, but I have never made one for myself and I decided it was about time I did so. This is one of the earlier patterns I have in my collection and I was actually astonished when I discovered it was my size. Most vintage patterns run very small by today’s standards and I am not a small girl!!
Isn’t this just an awesome pattern?! And this is considered a pajama pattern!! Makes my ratty, oversized t-shirt look disgraceful. From what I have been able to determine this pattern dates to the early 1940s. If anyone has more specific dating info. on this please let me know!
Now the thing is, I am not planning to make this as pajamas. I am making view 2 as an every day dress. Honestly, I don’t see any details that really make this pattern pajamas only. The styling is very typical of regular dresses of the 40s. I think the function of the garment would most likely have been determined by the fabric/trim used.
My polka dot fabric is one of those “Fiber Content Unknown” bargains that I grabbed up because it was cheaper than cheap muslin and I could use it for mock ups. Since this it the first time I am making this pattern I would technically call it a mock up. The fabric feels like it is actually a pretty nice weight poly/cotton quilting fabric. I think it was clearanced out because the polka dots are printed off grid, which, for this dress I don’t think you are going to notice. I am sure it would be troublesome for a quilter, but bonus for me!
That’s about all I have time for today. Have to get back to work on all these dresses and squeeze in some work on my secret project 😉 You will just have to keep your eyes and ears open over the next couple of weeks!
One Stitch At A Time 
Love the polka dots
Lol – not bad for cheapo fabric, huh?