Weekly Dress project week number 9 - Rockabilly Swing Dress

This week I let my sister go through my pattern stash and pick the dress for me.  At first I wasn't excited about the choice she made, mainly because there were several other ones that I'd been looking forward to, but I came around once I picked the fabrics.

She chose Butterick B6049 and opted for the halter neck version.

Years ago I had an online boutique where I sold rockabilly style clothing called Addicted to Rockabilly (I still have some of the remaining inventory up on eBay).  I sold a dress from Pin Up Girl Couture that looked pretty much identical to this one.  They called it the Rita Dress.

Above and Below Photos from PinUpGirlClothing.com

There are some differences.  Their version has the halter top with a long tie and the Butterick version has it hooking with a slide hook.  The Butterick version has a fully lined bodice where I could be wrong here, but I don't believe that the Pin Up version was lined. The Butterick version also has pockets!  I love pockets in dresses.
I have a ton of shows lined up for this fall so in order to stock up on inventory, I cut two of these dresses at the same time.  I was making the same size, so I didn't want to use the same pattern.  I made one with a brown and cream cheetah print with deep red accent and the other from a teal with small lavender dots and a bright pink accent.  Both dresses came out fabulous!   I'm sure they will go quick when I get them listed in the shop.

Week 4 of my Weekly Dress project - Lisette Sew Your Style 1419 from Simplicity

This pattern was pretty easy for me. No real challenge to my skills. All of the elements in this dress were skills that I have already mastered. I am supposed to be doing this as a way to expand my knowledge and skill base so I should have picked a more complex pattern. The thing is, this is the style that I like and it was already in my pattern stash.

 I knew I would adore this dress so I purposefully made it too big for me so that I wouldn't be tempted to keep it. I need to sell some of these dresses or I can re-invest in fabrics in order to keep this project going.

 The fabric for this dress cost me about forty dollars plus about 8 hours of my time so I think it is a steal priced at only $84. (If you are looking to purchase it, you'll find it here) Maybe later down the road, I'll make this dress again for myself because I love it! I especially love that it has pockets.

 I love pockets in dresses.
I made the sleeveless version. The only adjustment that I made was to shorten the dress. I shortened it to 20" from waist to hem. I added a tiny tack at the base of the front facing because I noticed that it kept flipping up when I hung it on a hanger. I'm pretty obsessive about how things look from both the inside and outside so it just drove me crazy. I really prefer a lining rather than a facing for this reason. Maybe my future versions of this dress will have that adjustment. I'm confident that I can make this dress in various sizes so this would be one that I'd be happy to create for custom projects.  Let me know if you want one.