UFOs are hereditary.....

It's no secret that I am prolific at creating UFOs (unfinished objects). But now I realise I can't fight genetics: when I was putting away some fabric I inherited from my gran I came across quite a few UFOs, and my mum, even though she doesn't care to admit it, has her fair share of UFOs as well. The last thing I need are more UFOs of someone else's making to add to my ginormous to do list, and since my gran seemed to have a fancy for shiny plastic fabrics, I was happy to shed most of hers. However, she had started this one dress made from a lovely textured cotton that had been basted into a loose fitting shift so I decided to finish off.

This must be at least 20 years old or more, because I certainly don't remember my gran wearing dresses or when she was a large lady, but this dress was so large that I was able to cut a completely new pattern from it, so I guess in a way this is a refashion as well. I've made my dress from a 1968 McCalls pattern (McCalls 9193) which is a misses shift dress. I chose this pattern because not only is it in my size (yay, no more grading headaches!) it also appeared to be front opening so I could wear this dress during summer while I'm still breast feeding Anna.

However what makes this dress "easy to sew" is that the button front band and those pockets are fake, as in they are just top stitched down, which is of no use to me. Easy fixed though, I just sewed the front seam closed below the band, and attached the band to one side of the dress by wedging the dress fabric between two layers of the band and then top stitching it to the dress, and putting an extra band of dress fabric on the other side to sew the buttons on to. I did top stitch the bottom of the band to both sides of the dress though, just to keep it neatly closed. Some buttons from the stash (which is why there are only four buttons and none on the pockets) finished it off.

I thought about making pockets behind those pocket bands, but in the end chose not to since I certainly don't need extra fabric and bulk around my hips and thighs. But to add to the illusion of the pockets being real, I top stitched it down on the sides and bottom of the pocket band, leaving the top to gape open slightly. I think it might fool people:

I also added some darts to the front and back, and also took in a few inches at the back seam to add shape because this dress was very shapeless and a bit potato sack looking. The dress only had one dart, which is weirdly placed halfway down the armhole that points downward, which is the first time I've seen a dart like that. I'm thinking maybe because this is a misses pattern and pattern makers in those days thought young girls don't have busts to shape around,but are flat chested (which I practically am now). Because the vertical dart I sewed on the front came close to the end of the weird dart, I decided to join them up in a faux princess seam, ending at the pockets. Some more fakeness for you, but it actually looks pretty good.

And speaking of fake, I've started playing around with Photoshop and while I haven't been able to work out how to make me look slimmer or tanner as yet, I have been able to create this digital mischief which I think is pretty funny: