SSA week 5: 1960s

As you’re probably aware, there was a HUGE shift in fashion that occurred during the 1960s. At the beginning, for girls’ dresses, the waistline raised a little and sleeves were often straight or cut in one piece with the bodice, especially for ease-of-sewing with doll clothes. This was balanced by extremely full skirts, often in stripes and geometric patterns arranged in creative ways. As time went on, A-lines took over and synthetic stretch knits increased in popularity. Our basic puff sleeve bodice was gone! Until the 70s granny dresses brought it back 😉

There is a new bodice for you this week that is SO quick and easy. I was aiming for something in between sleeveless and T-shaped/short Dolman sleeves and surprisingly it took a LOT of trial and error to get exactly the right look. At its simplest, you just cut the bodice on the fold and line it, but to me, ease of cut often means “excellent canvas for decorating” and I’ll go into that more next week! For the skirt, the pictured dress here has 3x the waist measurement fullness.

Happy sewing!

Get the pattern here