RAF Pinup Dress - Simplicity 8342

As some of you may know, Simplicity held a sewing competition this summer, and I decided to have a go at their pattern for the vintage category, which was Simplicity 8342.

I was immediately drawn to the idea of doing it in a military pinup style, and knew I wanted to make the separate top and skirt into a dress. I was torn between khaki and navy, but the choice was obvious when I found this RAF hat.

Here are the sketches I made of both:

For some reason or other I didn't end up taking any photos of the construction process, but it wasn't very complicated so I might get away with it! To convert the top and skirt into a dress, I took the waistlines marked on the pattern, and just drew a line 5/8 below (for the top) and above (for the skirt), and that became my new cutting line. With hindsight, I wish I'd thought to attach the bodice and skirt patterns to each other before cutting, so that there wouldn't be a waist seam. Other than working out what to do with the skirt darts, I don't think it would be too complex to do so, and it would make the dress look more seamless, in all its senses.

I also decided against the ruffle on the bottom of the skirt, so instead lengthened the skirt by the length of the ruffle.

The pattern was quite significantly too big for me - the smallest size was a US 10, which is 2 sizes larger than I am, so it inevitably required a fair bit of fitting. I took all the darts and side seams in, and took a lot more out of the bottom of the skirt, so that it would have a tighter fit below the knees.

Other than that, it was pretty straightforward to sew up, and only took me a few hours to do, which is incredibly rare for me. 

As you can see from my sketches, I had intended to sew the buttons onto the skirt, and I even bought several different military style buttons to go with it.

But in the end, I decided against them. I wanted a much more streamlined look, and the buttons were taking away from that. But those blazer buttons will definitely be used for something in the future!

And here is the end result!

I am very happy with this overall! To nitpick, I don't like the waist seam as I mentioned before, and it could be a little tighter on the bodice back, but other than that, I really like the way it looks and would definitely consider making this one again. Might even just make the top, as it is a very nice design. Anyway, that's me done for today, bye for now!