Sweet 1955ish Miss Honey

I began with two different color versions of a border print designed by Gretchen Hirsch that I fell in love with and purchased years ago. I couldn't choose between the two color variants, thus I determined to make both. The dress is fully reversible, with no facings. The one side acts as the lining for the other side. I built the bodice using Simplicity pattern 8051, though I had to scale it to properly fit my waist and bust. The pattern's skirt could not be used because of the border print, so I drafted my own pattern for the skirt. I also, annoyingly, had less yardage of the yellow dot than I did of the blue, so the skirt is less full on the yellow side. I solved the difference by leaving the hems of the skirts open rather than stitching them together. After cutting out, I first sewed the back seam of the skirt pieces, making sure to pattern match. I then hemmed each skirt and attached the trim. Sewing the bodices together was tricky; rather than making two copies and flipping one to fit the other (which I tried, unsuccessfully) I instead sewed both at once using the interlining method. The top of the yoke and the armscyes were folded down, pressed and then topstitched into place, hand sewn when needed. The bodice front was gathered by hand, and the skirt was gathered using a gathering foot. Non functional buttons were added to the back of each bodice.