I was inspired to make this dress by Instagram and by a week of warm weather, suggesting that winter might someday end and I might actually not cover my entire body when going out. (That weather didn't last. Winter is not over.)
It's a novel process as you measure yourself and then build pattern pieces based directly on your measurements. Thus, everyone has a one-size dress. I'm seeing so many benefits from my foray into quilting, and one of them is that I've gotten over my fear of measuring things. I would have found putting together a pattern of rectangles to be traumatic a few years ago. Now the main problem was taping together sheets of paper to fit. You end up with a bodice piece, a skirt piece, the pocket, and a facing/tie piece. I duly noted that the gathering would probably be better in a lightweight fabric. Then of course my stash failed me, because I couldn't get this dress to fit on 1.5m of fabric and I have a very bad habit of never buying more. This toucan print rayon has been in my stash for so long I no longer love it - my eyes have kind of gotten bored of looking at it. And so it was time!
The dress comes together very neatly and is a fun, satisfying sew. I popped it on and was sort of fascinated. This dress also is probably much better suited to a taller, wider and more full-figured person. I don't think it's flattering on a small body. I don't have any bra visibility at the front or back, though the sleeves are low they don't show much. The drape makes it quite fun to wear. I think for summer when a muumuu is just the thing - this is a good classy muumuu. It is going to my friend R in Tucson since she lives in the land of permanent summer. When I saw my pictures I did think harder about this dress as I feel good moving in it and I think it has a subtle grace to it with an almost cocoon look at full length. I'm not rushing to make another one of a drapey fabric, but it's in my head.
I decided to move on directly to the vision I had had. I knew perfectly well that this might look like a toddler's dress. I shortened the dress 8" and managed to stripe match only because it's so easy I would have had to work to not match them. My striped fabric is heavyweight linen from The Fabric Store and I bought the end of the bolt when a lady walked in the shop wearing a dress made of it and made me totally covet my own. I also shortened the width of the skirt piece a little bit, about 2", so the gathering would be less.
It does match my vision and it's wearable, and I suspect once summer comes I will wear it a lot. But it does kind of look like I'm a toddler. The dress is not actually as short as it seems, or at least when I wear it I don't feel uncovered, maybe because of the volume. The pictures make it seem super short!
This was a really fun project even if not quite seasonally appropriate...
No comments:
Post a Comment