1989: Christie Brinkley's Surf Club!

This week I started a new dress from a 1989 pattern (Simplicity 9111, a Christie Brinkley 'Surf Club' pattern) and some thrifted fabric from my stash. This large print blue & white fabric in my stash was 36" wide and I had just over 3 yards, just enough to squeeze the main pieces on. I'd thought about using a rayon, but found it just didn't have enough body.

Because of the narrow width of this blue and white print, I had to cut the facings from a solid blue linen, and the pocket bags from a beige cotton voile so that they wouldn't show through the white elements of the main fabric. But that way I could use it!

It's a neat little pattern. While it is just a straight elastic waist dress, it has a shoulder detail of an overlapping button band - very 80s indeed. The dropped shoulder and cuffed sleeve are also nice, though I had to shorten the sleeve piece by 2" to fit it onto my fabric. Good thing I have such short arms anyhow!

Even though this dress is pretty simple, I had quite a few difficulties with it. I put that down to my level of distraction in this strange situation we all find ourselves in. It's hard to concentrate, even on things I love.

I put the two buttonholes at the waist of the front bodice for the drawstring to pop out of later on, then panicked and thought that I'd put them on the back bodice by mistake so unpicked one then realized it was right the first time so put it back on. Good thing I stopped what I was doing for a minute!

And I spent two hours sorting through all my buttons to try to find 6 matching buttons that would be perfect for this dress. I found white ones that I loved but only had four. So for now I am using a mix of these, plus two plain blue ones but will switch them out once things get back to normal and I can find a matching set!

In more making-do news, I used some narrow navy bias tape as my drawstring - I had no cording in the stash, and was thinking about making self-fabric tubes but didn't really want to piece together my wee scraps that I had left. This slightly shiny bias tape was just perfect (vintage so a different weight/texture than modern poly-cotton bias tape packages).

Otherwise I think this is a very cute dress and I love the fabric a lot. It is light and drapy but with some body. It is also a bit see through so I'll have to wear a slip but I'm okay with that. Yay to some more stash reduction!