A New Year, A New Hope: My Retro Star Wars Dress

Is it unfair that it's January and 80 degrees out? The gorgeous red autumnal leaves belie the fact that it feels like summer right now.

When I gave the Celebrational Osier Dress to Shayna, she gave me an even better gift in return: original 1977 Star Wars sheets! These are Star Wars sheets from before Episode IV was even named A New Hope. It's great to get vintage sheets that are 1) thrifted, and therefore given a new lease on life, 2) for a fandom I love (because face it, while Batman and Superman are awesome, Star Wars Episodes IV-VI were what I watched every weekend in elementary school; now they just need to make Firefly and LOTR sheets), 3) a complete set (twin fitted, twin flat, and two pillowcases!), and 4) free! Thank you, Shayna, for being the best sheet supplier in the world. I think even the Selfish Seamstress could condone this type of relationship.

I briefly flirted with the idea of using a 1977 dress pattern to make this up, but face it, I'm not excited by long shapeless bells, so I just used one of my vintage patterns, Butterick 9569. I love how elegant the ladies on the cover look, with their perfectly coiffed hair and little white gloves. Also, it declares itself to be quick and easy! Oh, excuse me, quick 'n easy.

At this point let me pause and publicly declare that I do not need anymore boat/bateau-neck sleeveless dresses with fitted tops and full skirts. I've already made more than I can reasonably wear, and I really need to branch out into other styles. Also, I need to start trying dresses with more embellishment -- so far everything has just been the fashion fabric, lining, and a zipper, accented with my ubiquitous black belt or a tied sash. It's time to dress things up with piping, lace, cording, color-blocking, something. Also, dresses with a midriff band (is that's what they're called?).

Consciously thrusting my shoulders back.

Once I sewed it up, I wasn't thrilled, actually, which is sad since I love the fabric. My pattern is a size 14, which is a size bigger than I usually make in vintage patterns. I was hoping that since the bust measurement was 34, my actual measurement, it would be okay, but I've got a lot of ease even after taking in the sides and back. The waist ease I can deal with, but I feel like the bust area just looks silly. Compounded with the fact that I lined it with another sheet that has a lot of body, and it looks like I've got an awkward box hovering over my bust area. Also, I am always forgetting to make the front of the armscye bigger, as that part is always bugging me on all my dresses. Maybe I just have a particularly fleshy not-quite-the-bust-area-not-quite-the-underarm-area? It's okay when I'm conscious of holding my shoulders back, but then I feel like I'm being forced into uncommonly good posture. Which is maybe what the pattern companies are going for. It's all a big conspiracy, people!

Gaah, that hem is slightly uneven to boot!

Okay, enough about what I don't like on this dress. I do like the ease in the waist, as normally I make my dresses to fit like gloves. So this is a nice change for sitting down. And eating. The back is nice and um, aerated. I do love a good dip in the back neckline; this one is just high enough to cover the bra strap, which is the perfect height in my book. I also love this circle skirt pattern -- even though circle skirts take so much fabric and take forever to hem -- I need to remember to utilize this style more often! The skirt skims my hips so nicely and is lovely and swishy. I shortened it by at least five inches, of course, to update the length.

So twirly!

I love that I can sit down and have the skirt make a nice little circle on the ground!

See, a circle! Unfortunately, it's pretty obvious here that my skirt is uneven, even though I let it hang overnight before hemming.

Can eyes even do that in real life??

I did my best in laying out my pattern pieces to showcase the best parts of the fabric in the dress. I did want to be economical, though, and save as much fabric as possible for my future children whom I will force to love Star Wars (but only Episodes IV-VI; God forbid that they should love the travesty that is Jar Jar Binks, or the terrible dialogue when Hayden Christensen is called on to be amorous). Anyway, Darth Vader's head is front and center, but it unfortunately leaves a demented-looking, loose interpretation of Princess Leia's face right over my left breast. I managed to get a C3PO on each back shoulder strap, though!

"But Master Luke!" Also trying for more romantic hair.

In my quest to try something new with this dress, I opted to finish the waist seam with some of my new vintage seam binding instead of a waist stay. This dress doesn't really need one (not that any of mine have really needed them), and seam binding is faster than slipstitching. Soooo...I discovered that it's really fiddly to sew in a straight line on it. Or I'm just bad at it. But it really adds almost no bulk to seams, which is important when you're trying to fold and press six layers of thick-ish cotton-poly. I look forward to finishing more seams this way, but only for really ravel-y fabrics. Most of the sheets I sew with are fine with just pinking. But oh! for a serger!

I only had green with me. I'm still waiting for my brother to drive down the rest of my Christmas haul.

Summary:
Fabric: 50/50 cotton-poly blend sheets for both the shell and lining
Notions: a 14" zipper, hook and eye, seam binding
Hours: 7? Curse that cursedly long circle skirt hem, so foul and cursed! Also my slow handpicking of the zipper, for which the Helvetica font documentary is partly to blame.
Techniques used: Nothing new, really. Using seam binding hardly counts.
Will you make this again? Not really. Aside from the fact that I already have a slew of similar dresses in my closet, the bodice is too big and I already have a couple of nicely-fitting bodices in my stash that would be my first choice even if I were to make this again. But I will definitely use that circle skirt pattern again!
Total cost: Out of pocket, $2 for the zipper! But Shayna paid $8 for the sheets, and I used about half of them, so we'll say about $6 in actual materials.
Final thoughts: I do like the dress, even with its issues. I mean, Star Wars fabric! And since the fabric isn't being used as actual bedlinen, I don't need to worry about their compatibility with a good night's sleep; Darth Vader's eyes can stare at everyone else as I wear the dress.

Black & white! For the ummmm...dark and light sides of the Force!

Since most of my dresses this last year have involved a lined bodice with a center back zipper, I'm pretty bored of this sequence of steps. Time for something new and totally different! Maybe some knit dresses? Or a separate? Or maybe I should tackle drafting that qipao...

Linked here.