FO: Beyond the Sea – 1950’s novelty dress (Weigel’s 1593)

If you’re on Instagram, you might have seen me alluding to a seahorse dress I was making – well, it’s finally finished!

I was going to an end of year Christmas Party with a sea-theme and realised I had nothing to wear. Great reason to make something!

The pattern is Weigel’s 1593 – an Australian pattern, I’m thinking early-mid 1950s?

The dress is made in stretch cotton sateen – not my favourite fabric, but I needed something with body to make the skirt sit properly. I didn’t want to wear a petticoat as we’d be dancing and it’s very hot with more layers.

The skirt is more of a 3/4 circle than a full circle – it even has cute little gathers for some interest.

The only mods I made were:

• to remove the buttons down the front (cut on a fold),
• do a Full Bust Adjustment
• add some width to the waist
• lengthen the straps by about 1/3 of a inch.

Hairflower – made by me, Xmas flower from SpotlightBut the main amount of time was on those darn seahorses – they took forever! I used the seahorse template from a free knitting pattern I posted last month – the Novelty Seahorse Jacket.

They’re cut from felt, and hand-stitched around the hem (ten in all). They have diamantes for eyes, and the bubbles are large sequins with pearls in the centre. I repeated the bubbles on the bust for symmetry.

 

To get the bubble lines the same every time, I used a template to repeat the shape for each seahorse.

Would I make this again?
The dress itself was very easy, so perhaps. I do have plans for a similar skirt involving lobsters. LOBSTERS.
But I need to recover from this dress first.

 

Outfit:

• Shoes – Miss L Fire Luella
• Pearl jewellery – my Nan’s
• 1960’s wicker bag – found at a market.