Jersey Girls

From 1969, Misses' Dress in Three Versions for Knits and Jersey Only: A-line dress, with long or short set-in sleeves, has center back zipper. Long sleeved dress has collar included in neck facing seam and faced front opening turned back. Dress, with square neckline in front, has faced and interfaced neck and faced sleeves. High neck dress has faced neck and sleeves.  




Special thanks to lisaanne1960 for having this pattern available in her etsy shop and shipping this and another pattern very quickly!
http://www.etsy.com/people/lisaanne1960?ref=owner_profile_leftnav

 

Also from 1969, wearing Ringo, Paul, George, and John wearing some funky collars in front of a Rolls

Fabric Used: First version in a zig-zag printed rayon jersey and second version in a leopard printed matte jersey, both purchased from fabricmart.com


Instructions:  They were straightforward, along with the clear and simple diagrams, typical of this era.  

Favorite Features: 
The dress pictured on the left, view "A", on the pattern envelope reeled me in with the front slit and collar and the seemingly flattering silhouette on the illustrated model. The collar is constructed from one piece folded in half, sewn at each end, right sides together, turned inside out, and pressed. There is no need to interface the collar or the facing, since there was no mention of this in the instructions, and after my experience with my second dress (although I used a lightweight fusible). The collar was drafted to be loose and floppy, not bulky and stiff.

The other dresses with the square neckline and the "high neck" also look current and wonderful in solids and printed fabric. I was able to omit the back zipper due to the "open" neckline and working with a knit/jersey.

The only thing that seems "awkward" to me is the tendency for the neck facing to "flap out". However, I noticed that the dress on the pattern envelope has the facings "peeking out", as drafted. I top-stitched close to the edge of the front slit to secure the facings to the inside.

Alterations/Modifications
  *Due to my "misestimation" of the length (came much shorter than anticipated), I added a banded bottom. I cut 2 wide strips at the cross-grain of the fabric and sewed them together at each end to form the side seams. Then I folded the resulting band in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, basted the raw edges together, and sewed the band at the lower edge of the dress, right sides together, matching the side seams to those of the dress, while also stretching a little due to the slightly negative ease.

 *Made my usual 3/4" petite adjustment at the waistline and narrowing the upper back 3/8" at the center back seam, for a total width of 3/4" across the upper back.

 *Removed at most 1" at the sleeve heads

 *Stitched the sleeves "Flat" to the armscyes, instead of "setting them in" as instructed.

 * Top-stitched the neck slit close to the edge


Recommendations/Future Plans
Due to its simplicity and classic styling, I truly recommend this pattern, which still can be found online.

After some "persistent" surfing on the net, I discovered this Anne Klein dress from 6pm.com