The Bird Dress

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” — Maya Angelou.

For this dress I decided to find fabric that I wanted to work with, and then pick a pattern! I had lots of this light weight upholstery fabric that I had bought in a bundle at a second hand store. Any time I buy second hand fabric I wash it several times with laundry sanitizer. You can find lots of different textiles at second hand stores. If you want to consume less, upcycle, use up what is already in the world and headed for a landfill, or save money, then this is a great option! You find some really unique things too!

I picked out this pattern from 1969, to go with the fabric I had chosen. This particular pattern I was gifted from Hila, Grandpa Bert’s cousin. She had beautiful patterns that she so kindly gave to me!

When I pulled everything out of the pattern envelope it was very organized!

Before using any pattern, I iron them. Don’t worry, they don’t catch on fire.

Here were all the pieces I needed to make the dress! A tie belt is optional and I hadn’t decided at this point. I had it ironed and ready to go just in case.

I wanted the pattern of this dress to lay out very specifically. I wanted the main design down the dress front. I measured and marked the middle of the design.

I laid the front piece of the pattern onto the fabric, and lined it up with my center. I had to make sure to add some as well because I was upsizing this pattern.

I then had to flip the pattern to the other side, line it up, and mark it. The directions called for cutting the piece “on the fold” but I was being to fussy for that!

I also wanted the back design to line up specifically with the fabric design. I had to do the same thing. I measured to the middle of the design, then took into account the upsized measurement.

I got “design specific when cutting out the sleeves too!

I cut out the neck and back facings too. At this point I still hadn’t decided about a tie belt so I just set the pattern piece and extra fabric aside.

I got ready to sew! I marked the bust darts on the front of the dress. I always use my simple old wooden ruler that was in Grandma’s sewing stuff.

The back also had two darts. I sewed those and then sewed the front and back dress pieces together at the sides and shoulders. I used a zig zag stitch on all the seams to help stop fabric fray in the future.

I had a 22in. old metal zipper in my stash. I got it pinned into place.

Since I had upsized the front and back of the dress, I also had to upsize the back and neck facings. I used fusible interfacing on them and got them prepped to be sewn in.

Then it was time to sew on the sleeves.

The sleeve cuffs have elastic around the wrists. Here I am prepping the elastic casing.

The entire time I was sewing this dress it was reminding me of my family heirloom bird. To read all about it you can click on the link below!

A Book And A Bird

Here’s the finished dress! I absolutely adore this dress!

I lost some of the bird’s head in the zipper, but that’s ok. I still like the way it turned out.

With the heirloom bird transfer in the background, I can see how similar the two designs are! If you didn’t read about the heirloom bird, the artist was my Great-Grandma Young, and Hila’s Grandma. She drew the bird in 1893. All these years later it’s looking over a joint creation between my sewing and Hila’s pattern. That makes me happy.

I’m not sure if Mia will be getting the bird dress, or if I’m going to keep it for myself. I will be making a matching clutch purse to go along with it, I haven’t decided about the belt yet!

Thanks again for the patterns Hila! I can’t wait to make more from the “Hila Collection”.

As for me, onto the next!