This dress is by far, the BEST thing I've handmade in my life!
I am so pleased with the final result. All the hours of measuring, marking, photographing, crying, tweeting, swearing, googling, sewing (times 400) paid off in the end. I am smitten with this dress. Absolutely in love with it.
The fabric is cotton voile, I bought with the intention of making a a dress or maxi gathered skirt. I asked for 2m but the lady accidentally snipped at 1m so she gave me a little extra fabric, I ended up with 2.3m.
The fabric is 114cm (45") wide. After cutting off 9" on the skirt panels I managed to fit all the pieces on the 2.3m length.
The floral print is so busy, I don't think there is any obvious direction on the fabric, so two of the skirt panels were laid upside-down.
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| Overlocked the arm holes, turned them up twice, machine stitched. |
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| Interfaced facings with whisperweft. |
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| All edges overlocked. |
The seams were finished on the overlocker, I used white thread for the whole dress - except for the arm holes, I don't know... I felt obligated to use the pink thread. Shrugs.
I was going to handpick the zipper, but went with an invisible one to practice. OMG I have lost my touch. I used to be so good at sewing on invisible zippers, now I suck. It took me over 1 hour to get the zipper on.
The dress took me 7 hours to sew, I didn't stop for meals. I had a deadline to have the dress finished Saturday night to wear on Sunday to a birthday party.
I started to get pretty fatigued at the four hour mark and sewed the facing on the wrong way. Luckily I realised my mistake before trimming and understitching. I went and drank a protein shake then carried on.
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| Pretty pink zipper and a pretty good dart! |
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| My beautiful facings match, yay! |
I used the machine to stitch the facing down (instead of hand blind stitching). I flipped the facing over so right side of bodice and facing were together, and stitched down along the zipper teeth.
Because I made so many adjustments to the bodice, I drafted/drew my own facings rather than making adjustments to the facings in the pattern, seemed easier at the time.
Size: 2/6 bust, 6/10 waist, 6/10 hips
Fabric: 2.3m cotton voile
Notions: Gutermann thread (800, 733), 22" invisible zipper, 0.5m whisperweft interfacing,
Pattern Modification/Adjustments: Hahahahahahhahaahha!! Where do I begin?!?!?!
- shoulder seam adjustment - shoulder seam was sitting too far back, redistributed 3cm from front shoulder seam to back shoulder seam (more details here)
- side seam adjustment - side seam was swinging forwards, redistributed 3cm from back bodice to front bodice (more details here)
- hollow chest adjustment - took 4cm wedges out of front bodice at the neckline (more details here)
- swayback adjustment - 2.5cm swayback adjustment (more details here)
- erect back adjustment - took 3cm wedge out of CBL (more details here)
- added 2cm back into CBL to raise back neckline higher
- lengthened front bodice by 2cm
- short person adjustment, took 9" off the skirt length :P
What I learnt: I learnt so much about my body. I learnt that I have an erect posture and that the front half of my torso is bigger than my back half - big rib cage, hollow back!!
What I love about the pattern:
- The instruction booklet is incredible, so detailed and also funny to read. Boobies, hehehe
- The way BHL marked the darts using pins and chalk - genius! I hate doing tailors tacks
- Finally, a pattern that doesn't add too much ease and has a size that fits my small bust
What I didn't love about the pattern: Can't say there is anything I do not like about the pattern except maybe BHL should have added some more markings on the skirt panels to make it easier to differentiate which side is which, for example how the BIG4 mark the centre back seam with the 3 notches, that's usually handy, but other than that the pattern is perfect.
First worn: 26th January 2014, friend's 30th birthday party.
Cost: Fabric $20, Zip $5, Interfacing $5
Hours: 1 hr cutting, 7 hours sewing.
Completed on: 25th January 2014.First worn: 26th January 2014, friend's 30th birthday party.
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| Pleat seams matched up with skirt panel seams, yay! |
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| Side seam is straight, yay! |
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| Waist seam matched when zipped up, yay! Darts at the back didn't match up with skirt panel seams, no biggie. |
The wrinkles that were on the back of my muslin didn't appear on the dress, so I won't worry about. On the next version I make with the rayon (for my friend's wedding) I will lower the front pleats about 1.5cm so the pleats open up just under my boobs - on this dress the pleats finish just above the underwire of my bra, I'd like them to finish on or below the underwire. I'll also follow Ginger Makes tutorial and take a small wedge out of the back neckline. And maybe relocate the back dart so they line up with the skirt seams.
It was such a beautiful day yesterday, sunny with light winds, perfect conditions for a maxi dress.
Party finished up at about 3am but because it was a long weekend taxis were no where to be found so we crashed on my friend's couch. I gotta say this dress is very comfortable to sleep in and the cotton voile doesn't wrinkle much. 10/10 for comfort.
I can't wait to make this dress up in the rayon. I'm a little petrified at the thought of french seaming all those skirt panels, but I'll break up the sewing sessions over a few days, no more marathon sewing for me.
The last two weeks have been a great learning experience for me, how can one body have so many fitting issues lol. I'm curious to know if there is anyone out there who doesn't need to make any adjustments? Who is this person with no sway-back and super long legs??
I have found so much information on the internet to help with fitting, which I will share below. Hopefully this will help others like me who up until last week only cared about whether or not my waist fit and dismissed everything else.
- hollow chest adjustment
- fitting issues for upper and lower body
- how to fix fitting issues on upperbody
My next project will be the rayon Anna and also the Georgia dress sewalong. I hope I will be able to keep up! Wish there was more hours in the day.
Thank you for reading! And if you're in Australia, I hope you had an awesome long weekend.
