1950's Inspired Dress

I bought some linen with an orange and brown print at the thrift store a couple of months ago.  It wasn't my color choice but I can't pass up 4 yards of linen for $4.90!  There was just something about it that it wanted to be made into a nice summer dress.

So, I began to look around for ideas when I stumbled upon these photos:

I figured something like the above would be perfect but I didn't have any vintage or vintage inspired patterns that even came close to that so....I drafted my own.

As you can see, Abby helped.   The really wide part of the pattern is the front.  This pattern ended up being way more complicated than I originally intended.  I had to sew down and iron each of the pleats to make sure they'd stay.  

Unfortunately, the pleats kept acting up so I'd have to repin, play with the material, repin again, and do this over and over until finally they behaved and I could sew them down and iron them.  The skirt is just a half circle skirt.  Because I didn't have much in the way of yardage, the stripes are upside down on one half of the skirt.  Eh, whatever.

I managed to find a vintage brown zipper that was the perfect length in my collection of zippers (they kept selling pack of ten of them at the thrift store for $1 so...I have a lot).  Amazingly, the zipper went in without any issues.  

Below is a picture of the finished dress.

I'd like to add a belt eventually (and cut the grass later today) but it works for now.  Yay!