I have recently returned from a vacation in Northern California, which was motivated by my brother-in-law’s wedding. The wedding was fantastic, and the trip was delightful, and there will be more about that in an upcoming blog post. In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about the dress I made for the wedding. I only have one brother-in-law (and his fiancée–now wife–is awesome), so I figured his wedding was a good occasion for some special attire. It also motivated me to try out a pattern that I was a little intimidated by, partially because it was a Vogue pattern and partially because the bodice construction appeared to be somewhat confusing.
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Sewing Sunday: August Edition – Silky and Skirty
I’ve had this lovely material from, you guessed it, The Resource Exchange (Have you noticed this is a theme with my sewing projects?) for a couple of months. It’s a lovely silk that looks olive green in some lights and beige-y in others. It has big flowers on it in brown, orange, gold and olive green, and it makes me think of fall.
I thought the big print might make it too much for a dress, so I decided to make a skirt from it. I had found this great Vogue pattern for a very full skirt with crinoline underneath (see picture at left), but when I measured the amount of material I had, I discovered that I really only had a little over 2 yards, which wasn’t enough to make a super full skirt. Bummer, but I’m sure I’ll find another reason to make that skirt in the future! With my yardage constraint, I went searching for a different option.
From the stash of my grandmother’s patterns at my mom’s house, I had taken an old pattern that my grandmother had used to make me a skirt in high school (see picture at right). I remembered really liking the skirt, but I didn’t have it anymore. It was bias cut, lined, and it had a good twirl factor (meaning I could twirl around in it, and it would flow gracefully around me–this was very important as a kid).
Sewing Sunday: July Edition — A Simple Summer Sheath Dress
A couple of months ago, I got this amazing fabric from The Resource Exchange. It came from a designer, and I’m not sure whether it was hand-dyed or not, but when I washed it prior to making anything out of it (to pre-shrink the material if it was going to do that), the fabric gave up so much red that my wash basin looked like I had killed someone in it. I washed it several more times to make sure I had most of the red dye out that was going to come out; hopefully this will cut down on bleeding during future washes.
Because the fabric pattern was so cool (and somewhat busy), I knew that I would have to make something relatively simple out of it. Something that wouldn’t violate the large, geometric pattern too much and wouldn’t detract from how cool the fabric is. Since I’m a little short on more business-appropriate summer dresses, I decided that a shift or sheath dress would work well. The dress lines would be simple so the fabric pattern could stand out. I found a New Look pattern online for $7, which seemed quite reasonable, so I ordered it. I’ve never used New Look patterns before, but they’re made by Simplicity, which I have used before, so I figured it would probably work out well.
Sizing for patterns is different from sizing for clothes you buy in a store, and according to my measurements, I’m a size 14. When my grandmother used to make clothes for me, we occasionally would have the problem that when she made the clothing according to the size I should be based on my measurements, it would come out too big, and she’d end up having to take it in considerably. I never really understood what the problem was, but now I do. When I cut out the pattern, I noticed that it had listed on the piece for the front of the dress what the final measurements would be. A size 14 means my measurements are 36-28-38. According to the pattern, the finished garment size was going to be 40-34.5-42. Um, what? Basically, it meant that if I made it my size, it was going to look like I was wearing a sack.