1950's-style shoulder tie dress

Recognise this fabric? It's the one I chose from the Hemingway Designs collection, which Tracey from Trixie Lixie very kindly sent me to try out last year. I always knew I wanted to use the fabric for a summer dress, hence the delay. Well, summer's on its way and I'm ready and waiting with my new sundress!

Initially, I was going to make a shirt dress, but after seeing this pattern illustration with a similar turquoise print, I decided to make a fifties-inspired sundress with shoulder ties. I also wanted to add a bit of white somewhere as I love how the two colours look together.

To draft the bodice I used my bodice block as a starting point, together with the instructions from Casey's tutorial for a 1950's sundress (part one and part two). The tutorial worked fine for me, but if you are thinking of using it, I'd recommend reading both parts before you start. It isn't until part two that Casey advises you to use a sleeveless bodice block to make the sundress. A bodice block or pattern that's originally drafted with a sleeve (as mine is) will have more curve around the armhole. Luckily, I made a muslin first and eventually worked out why my armholes were so baggy!

Take my word for it, the neckline does lie flat when I don't have my hands on my hips!

I deviated slightly from the tutorial in a couple of areas. I lowered the neckline to slightly dip in the middle - the original straight-across design does look authentically 1950's, but it was cutting into my neck at exactly the wrong place. I also swapped the gathered skirt in the tutorial for an A-line skirt (I used the pattern from the Colette Peony dress). I reduced the A-line shape by about 1.5" at each side and added pleats rather than gathers at the top (as I did with my gingham Peony dress). The result is not as eye catching as a full, gathered skirt, but I made the dress with holidays in mind, so the less skirt to contend with, the better!

The fabric is a lovely quality, medium-weight cotton, which is a good match for a semi-structured dress as it's nice and crisp. The one I chose is Duck Egg Grid, which has now sold out unfortunately, but if you like the distinctive grid design, it does feature in the newest Hemingway Designs collection in some lovely pastel colours. I didn't even attempt to pattern match the grid design as it's so busy, but actually, when you look closely, the pattern is separated into grids by dividing white lines. By absolute FLUKE, the gridlines on the bodice and skirt match up perfectly, with no help from me whatsoever. What are the chances eh?!

Matching gridline! It's the same on the other side of the bodice too.

Making this dress wasn't without its trials and I did struggle a bit trying to draft the bodice. I always feel slightly out of my depth when it comes to drafting anything myself, I much prefer the safety net of ready drafted pattern pieces. I got there in the end though and the result is just what I was hoping for - a pretty, practical sundress with a bit of a nod to 1950's styles. I like the fact that simply adding white bias binding around the armholes results in a pair of splendid shoulder ties, such a lovely detail!

For some reason, I seemed to think that putting my hair in a pony tail and leaning ridiculously forward would show off the shoulder detail. Er no! I've included the photo anyway because it makes me laugh.

Bloody halfwit!

This dress will be perfect for my holidays and for all those hot, sunny days which I'm reliably informed are just around the corner!  x

EDIT: If you like the shoulder tie bodice, but don't fancy drafting your own, Maison Fleur have just released their Summer Blouse pattern which has a similar detail. Might be worth checking out.


Fabric was given to me free of charge for review. All views my own.