Sewing Bee Show-Off

the-original-1950s-walkaway-dress

Hands up, who watched last night’s Great British Sewing Bee? I must confess to getting a bit over-excited when they announced that the challenge was going to be the Walk-away dress! The idea was that the dress was so simple to make that you could, as the ad above says, “cut it out at 9 o’clock… wear it out at noon!”

The illustrations also show the use of a binding foot to make all that trimming easier. We may think of all these gadgets as new and modern, but they’re really not. The machines may have only been able to do one straight stitch, but the amount of extra presser feet that came with them was phenomenal. Bias binding, lace insertion, quilting, ruffles… all sorts of things!

Hallowe'en dress

I thought it was ridiculously popular when the pattern was re-issued a few years ago (seriously, the dratted thing was everywhere), but during the 1950s according to Butterick, “Sales of the pattern were so great, that at one point manufacturing of all other patterns ceased, and only the ‘walk-away’ dress was produced until all back-orders for this dress could be filled.”

20061028_00003_5.jpg

I’ve certainly made my fair share of these dresses, although I don’t think I ever followed the pattern exactly, and I certainly never made one in only three hours! The Hallowe’en version, above, tied with ribbons at the front because my weight used to fluctuate a lot, so I knew buttons would be no good. This skull print one had a deep lace trim around the bottom of the circle skirt, which I was really pleased with. I seem to remember that I also added a layer of net inside the skirt, to give it a bit of extra body.

Nicola's Katie Jump Rope walk-away dress

This one’s in a lovely Denyse Schmidt quilting cotton, with the binding continued all the way around the hem, and three gorgeous little flower buttons…

Nicola's Buddha's Cloud walk-away dress

…and this one has a contrast front section in a plain cotton. One thing it is important to note if you’re making this dress from a printed fabric, is that you need to choose a design that’s non-directional. If your print only works one way up, it will turn out to be upside down at some point on a circular skirt! Thankfully nobody was caught out by that on last night’s sewing bee, but it’s something I had to learn the hard way…

20070606_00020_15.jpg

And of course, I’ve saved my favourite version for last – my “camouflaged elephants” dress. You can see that I’ve modified the neckline to make it lower (boat necks really don’t suit my narrow shoulders), and I’ve also shortened the bodice. Unfortunately I eventually had to resign myself to the fact that no matter how many alterations I made, this dress simply didn’t suit me, and was a nuisance to wear as a result. If it doesn’t fit very tightly around the waist, the heavy circle skirt pulls the much lighter inner layer up and back, and it’s really annoying to keep fiddling with it all day!

For me, this was a lesson in being seduced by the popular pattern of the day, regardless of whether it actually suits your body type or will be comfortable to wear. Turns out this is a lesson I’m going to keep having to learn, as I just can’t resist a lovely pattern. Or a novelty print… I really want to make another dress with those elephants now!