O-La-Dee O-La Dah

It has been two weeks that we watched the Beatles "Love" Cirque Du Soleil performance at the Mirage in Las Vegas.  I still recall the colorful performances set to some memorable songs of the Beatles. Although "Ob La Di Ob La Da (1968)" was not on the playlist of the show (it would have fit in very well due to its story-telling lyrics), I thought I commemorate the fifth anniversary of the "L-O-VE" show with my neon "O"rings-printed wrap dress.


A pattern from 1974:  "Misses' Jiffy (R) knit short front-wrap dress (sized for stretch knits only)...The front wrap dress with dropped shoulders features "V" shaped neckline and self fabric tie ends. V. 1 has tri-color braid trim. v. 2 has top-stitching trim.

Size 14, bust 36

Although I did not use them, the instructions were definitely easy to follow accompanied by helpful diagrams, and even easier without using the back facing and the lengthy front facing.

Favorite Features
* This is the easiest dress or one of the easiest garments (front pattern piece, back pattern piece) that I have sewn from my sewing experience especially when I omitted the facings and replacing the edges with topstitching!
*Unlike a "very easy" current Vogue wrap dress that I originally intended to sew, this wrap dress did not consume 3 yards or more of fabric: approximately 2 1/4 yards in my case.
*I also liked that I did not need to adjust the neckline which surprisingly is a conservative one! There is nothing to dislike.

Fabric:
A French imported rayon/lycra knit from emmaonesock.com.  This knit sewed like a dream. My neckline did not need any "extra treatment" (i.e. invisible elastic, stabilizers).

Alterations/modifiations:
* Replaced the front and back facings with topstitching along the back neckline and front edges.

* To preserve the pattern pieces (leaving them uncut). I traced them my alterations onto tissue paper.

* My usual petite adjusments at the upper back (3/4" and waist (1")

* Taking in an additional 1/2" seam starting at the upper center back and tapering to 0" above the waistline.

* I removed 4" from the original length of the dress to obtain the desired length as shown on the model.

* It was not necessary for me to lengthen the tie belt.

La La How The Life Sews On...
I plan to sew a few more with sleeve variations. I highly recommend this if you are able to find it online (one of those rare gems) or something very similar to it.

All the JIFFY patterns from Simplicity that I sewed with make some of those current "very easy" patterns seem "moderately easy" or even "moderately difficult", and they do indisuputably live up to the name. It is nice to occasionally receive a JIFFY sewing gratification!

A DKNY wrap dress with cap sleeves for $345

Ob La Di Ob-La Da (1968), 32 years later in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Sir Paul