While we’re on the topic of sewing, I realized I never shared this novelty cotton dress I made last summer and so a post was quite overdue.
I’ve wanted some sort of fish or fishing themed dress for quite a while, since fishing at the lake was one of the high points of every childhood summer – and it still is a high point of summers as an adult! Unfortunately, I’ve had some difficulty finding a print I liked. Many fishing prints, no matter how colorful, are on a cream background, which I absolutely hate on myself.
I’m not the most keen on brown either, but when I saw this fishing lure print fabric I figured it was worth a shot.
Since the print has strong horizontal and vertical lines, I knew I didn’t want to do a circle skirt. I looked through my patterns and picked out Simplicity 3400 (you can see the pattern envelope on the Vintage Pattern Wiki here) which seemed like a simple late 50s/early 60s sort of sun dress.
Construction was mostly a snap — the pattern uses all-in-one facings on the bodice which look very clean and make me feel like a very clever seamstress. I added some generously sized side seam pockets because as long as I’m the one making the dress, why not?
The only tricky bit about the construction was navigating around the pleats in the skirt while sewing in the zipper, but even that came out pretty neatly in the end.
All in all, I’m quite happy with how this project turned out. The cut and color are both good on me, and with all the colors in the print it’s super easy to accessorize. I’ll have to wear it to the lake to go fishing next summer!
- Novelty print dress: Simplicity 3400, novelty print fishing fabric from JoAnn.
- Fishing lure earrings: Purchased at Mercer Loon Days
- Black elastic belt: H&M kids’ section
- Bakelite: various places
- Black peep-toe 40s style sandals: Rocket Originals