Mad Men Dress

Ah only fools post about challenges they've nearly finished... or some such sewing based idiom. I did finish my dress in time (promise) but a series of unfortunate technological events contrived against me and the pics weren't ready in time for the challenge showcase! Boo! Ah well ya win some ya lose some. What I won was an awesome By Hand London Anna, proud of how it came out in comparison to my inspiration... and although I missed the challenge here are some Peggy inspired pics.

Hard at work on my latest advertising piece

You can see there's a little bit of bagginess at the back still. I did struggle with the sizing on this dress, it came out far too big on the first go so I kept having to adjust. Ill have to go down a size or two for the next one I think. I also wanted to shorten the skirt pieces, but didn't do it in the pattern stage so made myself some little pleats. I love how they came out as I like a little extra material round the midriff. Anyway, back to work...

Hmm.. what rhymes with Coca-Cola..?

Here are some pics on Betty so you can see some of the details. 

Can you see my picture on the wall? It's the legend that is Captain Picard "Make It Sew", Data and Geordie have sewing machines... it's the best

And if you're interested, oooh look at the pretty insides. I used pre-made bias binding to bind the seams, and hair canvas around the edge to give it a nice standing out skirt. 

Mad Men Dress Challenge... I'm in!

I'm taking part in a sewing challenge, and I'm actually on track for finishing! Can you believe it? I can't ha ha.


The Mad Men Challenge is something I have looked at over the past couple of years and have slathered over all the beautiful dresses that everyone makes. Set up a few years ago by Julia Bobbin the challenge has grown in popularity ever since.


With the end of Mad Men drawing near, I didn't want to miss out on making something inspired by these fabulous ladies.



Julia has posted a lot of amazing inspiration in the past, and some lovely round-ups of those taking part. I started here looking at what people had made, what options there were and then (as is usually the way) found myself on pinterest pinning to my hearts content. You can see my inspiration board here, as you can see I wanted something in the vein of a work dress, as this is where I feel I'm lacking the most in the wardrobe (as discussed in my previous post).

I finally settled on this collared beauty from Modcloth:

My dress therefore won't be a direct Mad Men copy, but Mad Men inspired, as, well, this was my favourite so what ya gonna do?

My version is based on the By Hand London Anna dress, as I felt the lines were very similar. This will be my first make by these amazing independent pattern makers. I am at the moment doing some finishing touches, and will hopefully have some pics to show you by the weekend. 

In the meantime, hope you're enjoying this amazing weather!