Groovy 60s Charm Patterns Francie for Fashioning San Francisco

I recently attended the Designing San Francisco exhibit at the De Young Museum with the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild. Everyone was encouraged to wear fashion from the last century. While I had hoped to have another piece from the 50’s I’m working on done in time, I had also recently finished this one so I opted to go 60’s.

This is the Charm Patterns Francie Top which I made up in some French terry. I made up a 4 on top graded to a 6 at the waist and hips and then extended the top an extra 9” to make it into a tunic dress.

The pattern is extremely simple. It’s only 2 pieces of actual fabric. Not much easier! And yet I managed to have so many issues with it. First, I cut the pattern crosswise rather than on the grain. This was the biggest issue. This wouldn’t matter much for a woven, but on a knit it very much can. It did for this knit which was much stretchier crosswise than on the grain. So the fit it is a bit off for that. It’s part of the reason the neck is so stiff. It’s not even interfaced!

I didn’t have knit interfacing, but given how stiff this fabric was when I had it on, I just opted to skip it. I still think this was the right decision, but meanwhile I managed to cut out the interfacing pieces from fashion fabric and was very confused for a while why I had 2 pieces leftover.

It’s white so you know at some point I pricked my finger and bled on it.

And, wow, did this fabric wrinkle. I rarely have knits that wrinkle this much. But yeah, these photos are the best I could do because it was sooo wrinkly.

I still managed to have fun doing some photos and playing around with them. Shout out to my friend Jill for bearing with me in the rain to get these while we were at the museum. I do plan to make this again in a knit with more drape, hopefully cut the correct direction the next time.

And yes, I’m a goofball who enjoys playing around with Photoshop for some 60’s sci-fi vibes. Far out, man.