Legend of a Girl Child Linda

It’s been a rather nice weekend – warm and sunny 23 degrees which is lovely for Winter and hopefully and indicator of the next few months to come

This new dress will be perfect for when the warmer weather arrives and I’m very excited to show it to you.

I had planned to make this dress exactly as the illustration on the envelope for McCalls 2197, but when I spotted this image from Carnaby Girl I decided to change it.

Mini dress in yellow satin from Carnaby Girl from Sweet Jane

I still used the bodice and sleeves from the original, but I changed the neck to a V-neck and I also dratted up a collar. I sometimes call these Chelsea collars – have you ever heard them called this?

I tried to do a little research on Chelsea collars and where they came from but I could only find that they popular in the 60’s and 70s and that was it! Oh well.

The fabric is used is a teal silk which I got for $10 at Fabric-a-brac The correct side was very shiny and would have been good for a formal gown or similar, but I decided to use the dull side so that it wasn't too dressy

Shiny on the inside

When I was sewing the collar I realised that it needed interfacing but I didn’t want to use normal iron-on interfacing as it would have ruined the softness of the silk. You can use sew-in interfacing but I was keen to try out a technique I’ve read about on Gertie’s blog and also in Couture Sewing Techniques. I used organza as the stabiliser and it worked really well! It moves with the silk and doesn’t appear too stiff. I just used polyester organza but you could get silk if you wanted

Pinning in the organza for basting

The bust darts are uneven! Not sure how I screwed that up

The dress is now very different to the illustration, but my favourite part is the bishop sleeves. They’re so billowy and I feel a little like Baryshnikov!

The sleeves are closed with just a simple elastic casing

The name of this dress comes from the Donovan song of the same name. Ana from Where the Roses Go and I are both reading Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man and naturally I have been listening to a lot more of his music. Legend of a Girl Child Linda is about his love Linda Lawrence. They married in 1970 (which is the same year of this pattern). I’m not sure if Linda would have ever worn this style of dress, but it is in her honour I name it.

Linda Lawrence - Born Late

Coincidentally the song mentions blue silk, which matches the dress (almost)

A princess lay a-sleeping so gentle and kind
Whilst her prince took to battle with his confused mind
The clash of bright metal brought the children fear,
But their cloaks of blue satin dried up all of these tears

Thanks for popping in and enjoy your week ahead!

Cat xo