Jiffy Tropics (Simplicity 4977)

I have a few vintage patterns that I return to again and again and one of them is Simplicity 6820, a 60s trapeze \”Jiffy\” dress that lauds itself on only having \”3 main pattern pieces.\” I\’ve made it a few times and the leopard one, especially, is basically never in my closet, always either in the laundry basket or on my body as I head off to work. Recently when browsing etsy, though, I saw this (quite similar) pattern, Simplicity 4977 and seeing that it boasted only \”2 main pattern pieces\” I could not resist temptation!

Simplicity 4977 is slightly earlier 60s Jiffy dress, and the main difference in the two patterns is that while 6820 (from 1966) has raglan sleeves, 4977 (c. early 60s) has kimono sleeves. 4977 also has a slightly less full skirt and bust darts. Due to the slightly less full skirt (and the tendancy of 60s patterns to be rather straight up-and-down with no allowance for hips whatsoever!) I went with the size medium (but 34/36) rather than my usual 32 bust. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was huge! The bust was quite large–I am used to doing slight small bust adjustments (for example, 3/8\” on my go-to fitted bodice, Simplicity 4475) this one I did a full inch adjustment. I think this basically had the effect of both taking the front down a size and doing a small bust adjustment.

You might notice that although I mentioned a bust dart on the pattern, there is not one on my dress! I\’ve rotated the side bust dart into the skirt to gain back a little bit of the ease lost when I did the SBA. Since the pattern ended up with no darts, no sleeves, no zipper, no nothing, it took about 2 seconds to sew, once I finished making all the pattern adjustments!

Will it replace my standby Simplicity 6820? After all that, I\’m not sure it will. I think I prefer the swingier skirt that 6820 has, and although I could just make the skirt on 4977 a bit wider, I\’m not sure I want to spend a lot more time making alterations to the pattern. After all, I know that 6820 can also be made without a zipper (like I did here) and the raglan sleeves don\’t add all that much difficulty (although they do take up a bit more fabric). I\’d like to make at least one more version of this pattern, in a plain black stretch rayon crepe that would be a pain to do the raglan sleeves in (because it\’s a lot of bias cutting/sewing) and maybe add some cuffs for a little bit of detail. After that… I may return to 6820 for dresses. I do think I\’m likely to use the pattern as a top though–since I went through all that trouble getting it to fit!

xoxo,