Allie Jackson

sewing & style

Inspiration: Gal Meets Glam Collection Dresses

Gal Meets Glam Tie Waist Dress available at Nordstrom: dupe with Vogue 2401, slim down collar and use a drapier fabric than recommended.

If you\’ve followed me for a while you know that I love Julia of Gal Meets Glam. She\’s such an inspiration, not only for her ladylike style, but also her business savvy: this past week she just launched her first collection of ready to wear dresses!

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Tragically, I like lots of them. Tragic because it\’s Ready to Wear Fast and I have sworn off clothing purchases for a whole year! Apparently she didn\’t feel the need to ask me personally if the timing was right and work around my schedule… I\’m assuming that these will pop up on resale sites and I can reconsider them once my fast is over, but until then I thought I\’d pick some favorites and try to find some similar patterns so you can make the look! Bonus for sewers: you can make it fit perfectly! Julia\’s dresses fit her really well (duh) but look at them on her BFF Rosie; the white one fits okay but the blue one\’s bodice is much too long on Rose.

Rose is similar to Butterick 6333 or the Cashmerette Lenox. 
Use the bodice of either pattern, scoop out the shoulder a bit, and apply the top part only of the button band. Add a 3/4 circle skirt. Since the button band does not extend through the waist you\’ll have to add a side seam invisible zipper. 
Yvonne is similar to Simplicity 8380. 
Lengthen the skirt and draft a bow for the shoulder or use wide ribbon.
The Ellie, with its elastic waist, can be hacked from McCall\’s 7530. 
Finish your neckline using exposed bias binding and add binding to sleeve hems (if you want them puffed you\’ll have to slash and spread). Apply bias binding bows down the front. Butterick 6450 is also similar but has gathering from the neckline.
There are a few McCall\’s patterns similar to, but not quite the same as, the Haley dress. 
McCall\’s 7264 has a similar sleeve, neckline, and waistband, but no ruffles and a gathered skirt. McCall\’s 7431 has an even closer sleeve, very similar neckline, but has an elastic waist for a more casual look. McCall\’s 7537 has similar ruffles and sleeves, but a cummerbund waist. If you feel confident drafting some ruffles (or borrowing them from another pattern), I think M7264 is the closest. (ps: the Susie from her collection can also be replicated using these patterns!)

The Anne is a wrap dress with a notched collar–an unusual and adorable combination! This isn\’t a very popular modern combination but there are lots and lots of similar vintage patterns from the 40s-80s especially on etsy! Some are called \”brunch coats\” or \”house coats\” and they all have a similar robe/dress vibe as this one. I actually bought a copy of this 60s pattern, McCall\’s 7832 from 1965, which is nearly perfect for the Anne. (ps: be careful of fabric selection for this project or it really will look like a robe rather than a dress!)
The Colleen dress is unique and it took me a while to find a similar pattern, but the Nina Lee Kew pattern is so perfect! It has a view that is very close–just slash and spread the sleeves to add gathers and make 4 shoulder straps instead of two, so you can add the shoulder ties.

Start with a strapless dress like McCall\’s 6838 or Vogue 8766 and add grosgrain shoulder straps with bows and a pleated skirt to get the look of the Helen. This is a really basic silhouette, and the embroidered fabric is the star.

Emma is a tricky one… personally, I would start with a peplum top with a collar and sleeves like McCall\’s 7508 view a or Simplicity 1425 view d (other views have a yoke, but in the wrong spot), then cut across the center and side front pieces just at the armscye to make a yoke and add that ruffle insert. There are added ruffles on the collar, sleeves, and hem as well. As for the skirt, any well-fitting a-line skirt pattern can be modified to have that shirt-tail hem. That\’s a lot of hacking though. Do you know of a better starting point pattern?

Vogue 9252 is the closest match I could find for the bodice of the Evelyn, my favorite dress in the collection! and V9252 has the princess seams and the back is really close, but the front isn\’t as cut away as the Evelyn–scoop out the front and pin the straps to fit at center front, then add a coordinating bow made using bias tape or a little tube of fabric. You can easily add pleats to the paneled skirt to match the Evelyn, but I think the original high-low skirt of the pattern would also be lovely with the altered Evelyn-inspired bodice!

Julia has said that the Gal Meets Clam collection will launch new dresses every month, so I don\’t see myself ever running out of dress inspiration! Which dress is your favorite of the collection?

xoxo,

allie
ps: i didn\’t do every dress since it would be a really long post… is there a dress I skipped that you love? let me know and i\’ll try and track down a similar pattern–there are so many dresses in the collection i couldn\’t fit them all in one post!

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Comments

  3. I love love love the gal meets glam collection. My two favorite dresses have to be the Marilyn and Olivia I would love to find patterns that resemble them.

  4. The new Itch to Stitch Giverny dress is an EXACT dupe for the Marilyn: https://itch-to-stitch.com/product/giverny-dress-digital-sewing-pattern-pdf/ I didn't include the Olivia because the print obscures the details of the dress, I have no idea what's going on with that dress's style lines! I think the Nina Lee Kew is a good dupe for Olivia as well as Colleen, but it doesn't have ruching at the back, and you'd have to add your own ruffles. That's the closest I've found, but it's hard to tell since I can't see the dress that well!

  5. Thank you so much! I wish I was skilled enough to actually drape my own… I’m completely self taught and learning slowly by online videos/blogs!

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