Can You Imagine?

Some vintage patterns bear the annotations and sketches of the original owner. It is always fun and inspiring to peek into the thoughts of that seamstress of decades ago, and trying to visualize what she had in mind. Take for example this 1958 pattern, Butterick 8492.

The annotation points to view A and states "make in black (sheer wool?) & use lace collar in pattern box".

I electronically colored the dress black, which was straightforward. Making the collar look lacy was rather more difficult and I have no idea what her "lace collar in pattern box" looked like. But it might have looked something like this, which has an evening, after-5 look to it. Lovely, don't you think?