A positive aspect about lockdown is catching up on the ‘things’ you missed out on years ago. I mean seriously, Mad Men started in 2007 and finished in 2015. Now it’s 2012 and I’m just getting to make a Peggy dress that I absolutely loved.

The suiting fabric I chose to make a version of this dress is a poly suiting and it’s easy to sew and match at the seams.

Ginghams are a timeless fabric and you’ll see them worn in classic tv and movies. Many people watched Mad Men and there is a dress worn by the character Peggy that this fabric is perfect for.
The weave is easy to work with. It frays slightly so you can see that a simple zigzag stitch will keep the seam allowances from fraying. I eventually lined this dress in a cotton poplin but I’ll get back to that shortly.

The fabric is suiting so it does need lining so it’s much easier to wear. The feel of this fabric might be suitable for people who have accessibility needs so you won’t need to line the garment.
When dealing with the fabric and pattern placement, the largeness of the squares makes the seam joins easy to match. I say that because the dress I’m basing my version on does not match the fabric pattern. This is something that I loved about the original dress. If I made the fabric not match, that would have been just fine.

What you can see is the time I’ve taken to work with New Look 6000 to split the dress front to match the Peggy dress.
I tacked in the centre back zipper and the centre back will have an opening at the neckline because my zipper was a wee bit short. But we can do that because sewing is our super power.

So the sewing points to note:
Use a pencil to mark on your pattern seamlines where the fabric squares meet. That way you can match the joins across the garment.
When you are pinning the seams together to sew, pin each square so you know they will join when you machine stitch the seams.
Line the fabric with white lining or poplin. This will make the white square stay vibrant on the finished garment. If you use black or grey lining, that will detract from the white in the suiting.

You’ll definitely find this post and over 260 more posts on my Minerva Brand Ambassador page. I love sewing for Minerva and sharing my makes with you.