Hangar Dance Dress – Simplicity 1777

In my last post I wrote about attending the 15th Annual Tulsa Hangar Dance, an event to raise funds for the restoration of the warbirds that helped us win World War II.

The dance is all WWII themed with a live swing band, dancing and food. Plus all attendees are encouraged to dress in authentic 40’s style clothes.

The Dress

When I found out about the event I was really excited. Finally a place I could wear my vintage style and be complete blended in with others. Plus I would get to see many others dressed in 40’s style clothes as well.

Simplicity 1777

I instantly knew what dress I wanted to make for this event. One dress that had been on my list for a while, vintage re-release Simplicity 1777.

I felt like the dress was just the thing someone from the 40’s would wear to a dance. I loved the interesting gathering on the front and details. I also liked that it had long sleeves, which would be perfect for autumn weather.

I also had this amazing rayon type fabric in my stash that I had specifically been saving for this dress. The dark green fabric and autumn colored flowers were a perfect match for the style and season.

One Day Make

While I had planned to make the dress weeks in advance, work had kept me so busy I hadn’t had a change.

Then came Saturday, the day of the event. I had about six hours to see if I could make the dress before the event that evening.

The Simplicity 1777 pattern was somewhat confusing with how the gathers in the front all came together. Luckily for me, my favorite sewing vlogger,  Professor Pincushion just so happen to have a video detailing the construction of this dress.

If it wasn’t for the video I would have probably gave up when it came to assembling the dress. I’m so glad I was able to follow along with the video and figure out how all the front pieces got put together.

While I didn’t exactly get the dress completed before the event, it was in a wearable state, missing only the sleeves, hem and finishing buttons, before the event.

I figured since it was warm, I could through on a shrug and no one would notice the lack of sleeves. As for the hem, the cut was straight enough, I thought maybe no one would notice that it wasn’t finished. Lastly the buttons were only decorative so it wasn’t a necessity.

The finished Dressed

The day after the event I took time to finished the dress as intended.

The sleeves are a little snug but not too bad. I blame my big country arms for making sleeve fittings so difficult.

I did a simple blind hem stitch for the hem and it didn’t take long at all.

Lastly the addition of the buttons, are what I think, really make this dress pop. The original pattern called for six ⅝ inch buttons. After going through my button stash, I found a larger 1 inch pearl button with gold trim. I only had three of these buttons, but since they were bigger I figured three would be all I need.

While I thought the dress was lovely when I wore it to the dance, after adding the finishing touches I loved it even more. In fact I want to wear it again, but can’t think of a good excuse why. It’s kind of on the dressy to wear to work. Maybe I’ll wear it to some holiday get together if it’s not too cold.

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