The Marvelous Mrs. Johnston
Is there anything more covetable than Midge’s wardrobe on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel? It’s of a specific time and place, yet would be completely wearable today – it’s truly timeless!
Long before I started sewing, I fell in love with the black cocktail dress with the tie shoulders that Midge wore on the season finale of Season 1 – it was all of my Givenchy dreams come true! I was planning to recreate it with Butterick 4513, which is out of print, but when I saw the promotional photos of Simplicity 8873, I knew that was my pattern! I also knew I was going to be making two 8873s, since the nautical-themed cover photo had my name written all over it!
The Pattern
Pattern Description
Simplicity 8873 is a vintage-inspired dress with a fitted bodice, shoulder ties and two skirt options – a full circle skirt or a gathered skirt. The gathered skirt works perfectly for border prints!
Sizing
This dress comes in the standard Simplicity size range, which is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, if you fit within the size range and make lots of Big Four patterns, you can probably adjust this one on autopilot – I know I did. There’s something so comforting about knowing how the block fits on your body and what you’ll need to do to achieve your ideal fit. On the other hand, the size range is relatively limited – the standard Big Four sizes 4 to 20 – but it does come with cup sizes B through DD, meaning the pattern fits busts 32½” to 46½”. And as a special added bonus, they actually have the finished garment measurements on the pattern envelope!
I used a size 12B as my starting point.
Pattern Adjustments
I’ve made this dress twice – my nautical-themed Fourth of July dress and my black Mrs. Maisel-inspired dress. I started my Fourth of July dress on July 2nd, so I tissue fit the pattern rather than making a muslin. Tissue fitting usually takes me pretty close to an ideal fit, but not all the way, and I made a few alterations to my dress on the fly that I then transferred to my flat pattern for my Maisel dress.
To get my preferred fit, I shortened the bodice by ⅞”. The skirts for both versions are particularly heavy, so the skirt pulls down the bodice quite a bit. I took in the sides of the front and back bodice pieces by ⅝” at the bust and graded back out to the size 12 waist. I also made a small ½” inch sway back adjustment and a ½” inch narrow back adjustment. It fits like a glove!
Out of the package, the skirts would have hit at my mid-calf. I shortened both the gathered skirt and the circle skirt pattern pieces by 4 inches before cutting my fabric.
Design Modifications
I didn’t make any design modifications.
Construction Tips and Tricks
Let’s talk about that gathered skirt. Wow is it full! It takes a full 4 yards of fabric, which is wild! If you’re into the full petticoat pin-up look, this skirt is a great choice and would be even more fun with a contrasting petticoat. If you’re hoping for a more low key look, I would highly recommend reducing the amount of fabric in the skirt – you can get a perfectly voluminous skirt by gathering three yards instead of four, and gathering less fabric would reduce some of the bulk at the waist.
I also tried a new-to-me technique for hemming the circle skirt on my Mrs. Maisel dress – using bias tape to create neater curves. If you’ve ever tried to hem a circle skirt, you know the struggle – it takes forever and no matter how careful you are, you always get puckers. It still takes forever, but using bias tape to hem a circle skirt definitely creates a neater finish – I’m a convert! There are loads of tutorials out there, but I followed this one and then hand stitched the bias tape to the wrong side of the skirt to get an invisible finish.
The Fabric and Haberdashery
The navy anchor border print fabric is from Gertie’s Charm Fabric collection. I used every last inch of the 4 yards I purchased.
The black sateen is a poly/spandex blend from Minerva Crafts that was gifted to me in exchange for a blog post soon-to-be-posted on their site. The fabric is exactly what I was looking for – a little bit of shine and just enough stretch to make a fitted dress comfortable. I’m not thrilled with the way it photographs though – the fabric is a little thick and it doesn’t press as crisply as natural fibers do, so you can see where the bodice facing ends in photos and the darts look unpressed. Not the greatest fabric choice for a dress you will be photographed in, but it’s stunning for a night out on the town.
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