Thursday, April 18, 2013

Mad Men Dress Challenge - Round 2

You guys, it's here! Time to reveal my 2013 Mad Men dress. This year I was inspired by a cute dress worn by a character who is not one of the show's famous leading ladies. Her name is Gigi, and apparently she made a brief appearance in Season 4: Episode 4 wearing this green bow dress.

MM S4:E4, Gigi


Yes, another green dress! To create my version, I used vintage (c. 1968) Simplicity 7980 and added the bow detail from modern Simplicity 2154.



Simplicity 2154 + Simplicity 7980




And here you have my finished product:








And here I am, making my best Gigi-serious-face, which required hair twirling (my nervous habit).







You'll notice my dress is a slightly darker shade of green, whereas Gigi's is more of a...teal or "jungle" green. I've also added a keyhole to the front because, much as I'd wish it were from time to time, this is not the 1960s and that high, round neckline can't always work in daily life.

My dirty secrets about making this dress?

1) It was squeezed out of a yard and a half of thick, lush (read: oddly spongy), thrifted-at-the-last-minute polyester.

2) There are no seam finishes inside - even the hem was only just turned and stitched! The thick polyester is not prone to fraying and I just honestly couldn't be bothered to fuss with it.

3) I effed-up the armhole and neck-keyhole facings (oops, no close-ups available!) because I forced bias tape in there instead of cutting actual facings out of another fabric when I ran out of my thifted polyester. The drape and thickness of the dress fabric made it surprisingly difficult to attach the bias tape facings and caused a lot of puckering and weird dimply spots.

4) Upon completing the dress, I was feeling pretty OVER IT. Then I wore it to work a few days later, it was super comfortable, and I fell back in love with it.

Certainly a different tune than I sang to you all when I shared my dress for last year's challenge. Not much unnecessary struggling with lining or setting in sleeves this time around, and honestly, though it was simpler to sew and is less polished & fussed over than last year's, this is a more wearable dress for me. Hopefully it'll be making another appearance or two during Me-Made-May '13. :)






And on that note, I'll BOW OUT (ha-ha-ha! - get it?). Time to get stitchin' on my next project!

Oh! and a big THANK YOU to Julia for hosting this fun challenge again. Be sure to check out all of this year's other entries over on JuliaBobbin's blog in the next few days. I know I'm super excited to see them!

23 comments:

  1. Looks great - I have Simplicity 2154 and want to make it so badly after seeing your versions.

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  2. wow! somehow you've made a copy and updated it at the same time. fabulous!

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  3. Super cute. I love how you added the keyhole with the bow.

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  4. I don't care what the dirty secrets of this dress are. In true Mad Men fashion, this dress appears incredible and is absolutely gorgeous!

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  5. I love it!! It's gorgeous, you really are the queen of green! x

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  6. Love it! You've really nailed it with this lovely dress. And I agree, you're the queen of green! x

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  7. Such a great dress - and that shade of green is gorgeous on you! Love the bow, and the update - I would be the same, I would feel really claustrophobic in the orginal high neckline. The keyhole is the perfect way to fix that.
    And I love that you shared your 'dirty secrets' about the dress, makes me feel better about my sewing (which ALWAYS has dirty secrets...lol!)!!!

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  8. So lovely! I have to get mine photographed and blogged this weekend. can't wait to see all the others! (and my dirty secret is that i pinked the seams after being assured on twitter that this was vintage rather than lazy!)

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  9. I love it! Green is my favorite color! I also loved the dress you made last year. Can't wait to see what everyone else came up with, such a fun challenge. I made a flowered Betty Francis dress, mine has a few dirty secrets of its own! =)

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  10. It's soooo cute!!! Green is my favorite color and I must have this dress!

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  11. Ooooh, it's so beautiful! I'm glad you're back in love with it despite your various issues, because it's amazing! I won't have mine done in time this year, but I can't wait to see all the dresses soon!

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  12. The dress is super good looking, no matter how you didn't do much to the inside. I think this is a great statement dress! You look wonderful in it.

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  13. Congratulations,it's perfect,more beautiful than the original!

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  14. I LOVE it! So so so cute! You made it really wearable with the keyhole neckline.

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  15. When I saw that episode, I gasped at that girl's dress, so lovely! And don't get me started on the color...You did an amazing job at replicating it. The 60s fashions really flatter you!

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  16. Super cute! I love this! It looks great on you-- green really looks gorgeous on you! Nicely done!

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  17. RADNESS! I love the keyhole detail and the bow shenanigans you have going on! And that colour is all kinds of awesome :D

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  18. I love it!!!!!! Green really suits you.
    A very, very good copy cat dress! Almost exact. Well done babe, love it.

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  19. Amazing copy of this dress!! I've made a few 2154 cardigans, but have been dying to try that bow tie blouse. Yours is awesome. Great job!!

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  20. Um - this is gorgeous!! Seriously! You look spectacular in green! The style is definitely vintage inspired, but it looks so cute and current too! The whole look really suits you! Well done!

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  21. This dress is perfect on you! Such a great shade of green and I just love the keyhole detail and bow.

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  22. Oh that shade of green is just so lovely!

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