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Tutorial: Lady Peggy

Peggy dress

As promised, here’s a tutorial of how I made my navy and red Peggy dress from the Lady Skater pattern. I used thick knits for this but if you decide to use a woven fabric you can still apply the same general technique for the paneled skirt as long as you start off with a similarly shaped pattern meant for wovens.

What you’ll need:
-the Lady Skater pattern
-fabric as indicated by the pattern
-about an extra half yard of contrasting fabric
-two 1″ buttons (Peggy’s dress has gold ones)
-thread to match both fabrics

I started off with the skirt piece. Since I was using a thicker knit with less stretch than the Lady Skater pattern calls for, I cut about an extra inch past the skirt piece. I then cut a rectangle in red the same height as the skirt piece and about 5-6″ wide, depending how subtle you want the red panels to be.

The photo on the right shows the ruler marker where I cut the navy fabric. I sort of eyeballed it. The navy fabric is one half of the skirt, cut on the fold.

Peggy dress how toPeggy dress how to

Once you’ve cut slices off the navy fabric, rearrange the panels so the red rectangle is inserted between the blue slices. Peggy dress how to

When you’ve sewn all the panels together, they should look like this. Remember, this is still just one half of the skirt. Now go back and do the same thing for the back of the skirt.

Peggy dress how to

This is the fun part! You’re going to make a single box pleat at each red rectangle as shown. Baste it in place and treat it as normal.

Peggy dress how toPeggy dress how to

The rest of the dress is made mostly according to the pattern. The only changes I made were to omit the neckband and just folded it over instead. Ditto the sleeves.

I also made the waist button tab thing that I forgot to photograph but it was pretty simple to make. I measured the distance between the two front pleats, added about 2″ for seams and so it would lie past the pleats, and then cut two long ovals that length and 2.5″ tall. I sewed them together, leaving 3″ open on one of the side seams, and then turned the whole thing inside out and top-stitched around it, closing the open 3″ in the process. It’s attached to the dress by the two decorative buttons in the front.

Peggy dress
And there you have it! A Lady Peggy.

Peggy

Peggy dress

Peggy dress

Peggy dress

Peggy dress

Peggy dress

Peggy dress
dress: self-made, pattern here // shoes: Chelsea Crew

So a few weeks ago I was catching up on Mad Men and saw this dress.

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And then Julia Bobbin announced yet another Mad Men Challenge. Um, yes please!

So then I had to figure out what pattern I wanted to use and whether I wanted to go woven or knits. At first I was thinking of using a wool blend and one of my go-to patterns, but then I realized I had the perfect double knit in navy and scarlet and that my trusty Lady Skater would be perfect!

I made a few adjustments as usual (omitted the neck band, shortened the sleeves, added the waist tab thing and the skirt panels), and I actually took some photos for a tutorial post I’ll put up later this week.

And as an added bonus, if I ever go to see a Barcelona soccer game, I’ll be all set in the wardrobe department!

Mad Men florals

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Sometimes I decide to do crazy things like make a dress in one day. Sometimes it’s fine because the reason for rushing has more to do with the excitement of working on it than a deadline. Other times it’s because I have a Mad Men party to go to the next day and had completely forgotten to make something to wear to it.

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This was one of the latter.

I thought I was planning ahead, I had a Betty Draper dress all picked out to replicate (and by replicate, I mean loosely. I’m not a huge fan of the pointy boob thing and I really can’t wear a skirt that long), and I even ordered a lovely vintage 1960s dress pattern on Etsy. I did everything but remember to buy fabric and, you know, start sewing it.

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It was a bit of a stressful day, but luckily the pattern was pretty basic (despite missing the instructions!) and I managed to cobble together this lovely thing.

I even had time leftover to make this poofy monstrosity to go under it! See how un-poofy it is without it? A miracle, I tell you. 14 yards worth of miracle.

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I used this tutorial.

And now I want to make that pretty blue dress Jane wears. The one with the gorgeous tie collar.

Uh oh. This is a dangerous path.

What’s your favorite Mad Men dress?