2011 Project--100 Dresses

Yes, that's right. I am going to make 100 Dresses. And no, I am not nuts. And no, I doubt I'll be finished by year's end. Maybe halfway. Maybe a quarter of the way. And no, they won't all be for me. We do have a gaggle of girls in this family.


At any rate, I'm jumping right in! I know that this will be a learning experience for me (and hopefully you all will follow along and offer pointers now and then) since I will try to choose patterns with dressmaker details. I also plan to do a little designing for girls as I go along, too. I already have a beautiful little volunteer who has requested a blue dress for school.

Here are the first 14 contenders, all vintage patterns:


And of this first group, this is the one I am starting with, Advance 8524, View 2:

And here's the back of the pattern envelope:

This pattern offers three entirely different bodices in one pattern and originally sold for 50 cents. Hard to imagine, isn't it? You certainly can't get that variety today. The skirt pattern is marked for deep pleats, but the pattern envelope indicates you could gather the skirt instead. (I'm going with the pleats.) I wish I could show you the instruction sheet but it is missing, along with the bodice pieces for the red dress (my favorite one, of course) and a back facing.


It calls for a 12 inch zipper in the left side, which is very exciting because I haven't done one of those yet. Views 2 and 3 have button closures and collars, and View 3 has split cuffs on dolman sleeves.


I had a hard time believing this was going to use up 5 yards of fabric until I saw the pattern pieces for View 2, the one I'm making. Here they are with the huge skirt piece underneath the bodice pieces. I'll have to cut 4 of these giant skirt pieces!



In addition to having no instruction sheet, another challenge is that this pattern is not my size. I will be adding about 7 inches in circumference to the bodice and probably about an inch in bodice length. I think this will be a fun dress to wear to Wal-Mart this summer.

When I decided in early December that I wanted to tackle 100 Dresses, my husband looked at me and said, "You're crazy." After a second or two he said "That means you'll have to buy fabric for 100 Dresses". And all I could do was SMILE.


So imagine my surprise when this was wrapped up under the tree for me on Christmas morning!

Yes, that is two bolts of muslin, thirty wonderful yards, and HE HIMSELF drove 45 miles to JoAnns and bought it for me!