Wide Strap Maxi Dress revisited: Peppermint x Elbe textiles

 

I made this dress in some lovely lemon fabric a few years ago and my big comment was to use a nice floaty fabric that draped well if I did it again.  That first version suffered because the elastic was too tight.  I put a lot of effort into getting the straps to sit well and the elastic just right but I overdid it and the tight elastic bothered me.  I thought ended up with the straps too short - the bust darts were a ways above my bust.  I think a looser look matches the silhouetter better - he dress rather should loosely skim rather than grabbing around the chest and then it will billow out less over the bum.

So despite my fabric thoughts, at some point I decided to make it again using a beautiful scrap of waxed cotton.  The, you know, least drapey fabric.  I was really cheated when I bought this most beautiful piece - I paid for a meter and I think it's 80 cm x 80 cm.  I needed a dress that would be a full length canvas for it.  The Tessuti Claudia dress (which I literally have printed out but have never sewn) would have been a great choice...but I have some weird aversion to making it. Every time I look at the pattern I think oooh!  I would love that!  So I am not sure why it never makes the cut. 

I needed a fabric for the back.  Some thought here, went for a dark navy linen, but something about it was not quite right - it was really quite heavy.  After awhile I went shopping again and this time got a linen/viscose, a bit lighter weight, and matching the deepest navy parts of the design.  

Sewing the dress is very fun, it's one of those patterns that come together with satisfying neat angles.  Yet again I put a lot of time into getting the elastic at the back to be just right and the straps just right.  I have very sloping shoulders which are not symmetrical, so these wide straps need to be separately angled and sewn in.  

I think the dress is so pretty and the pockets of course are amazing.  I wore it to a wine festival and got lots of compliments, but I noticed right away that the right side strap is way too loose- I haven't quite got the angle right.  This is fixable, and probably expected considering my shoulders.  It is annoying enough that I'll put the time into fixing it.  Unlike last time I think I left the entire length of the straps inside the lining so I could adjust as needed, but I also didn't need to cut much off to make them fit - suggesting they are about 2" longer this time.  

Overall a relative success (I have NOT done the fix yet) but a bit tricky to get a perfect fit as I really need the straps just right or I get very annoyed.  I'm looking at these photos and suddenly realised I should cross the straps across the back.  Not at all bra friendly but it would solve my problems! 

 

Tammy Handmade Leona dress

 This has been a vision for maybe just a year or two (new in sewing list terms...)

I bought the stretch velvet from The Fabric Box when I first thought of doing this, it's really an easy project and I expected to just make it without delay, but of course, delays happened.  

I've never used Tammy Handmade patterns before. 

Griping: the pages are not well labelled so it took visually laying everything out to get it to tetris together.  I printed the A4s. 

The pattern does not have any information for the height it's drafted for, but clearly at least 5'6" as the front pattern piece touches the floor when I hold it up. 

I went from size 8 chest to 10 at the hips, melding halfway between for the waist. 

Removed 1" above the hips, 1cm above the waist, and 1" below the hips at the version B level. I raised the side slit 1" accordingly. 

I also lengthened the facing with the plan to make a shelf bra.  What else to do with a facing on a knit dress?  On one hand I appreciated the reasoning behind the facing for a very neat, clean finish.  But I do so dislike them...  I was going to cut the back facing on the fold but realised there is a curve so I went ahead and made it per the pattern, but lengthened it about 2".  Once I did all this and tried the dress on I realised a surprising thing - the dress is so tight that the facing can't flip.  And I can wear a bra underneath it!  No benefit from trying to add shelf bra elastic.  I did decide to overlock the facing shorter again, removing about 1.5" and in retrospect wish I had not done that, as the double grippy effect was both warm and held things in place extra well.  It's still fine and a bit longer than the pattern piece, but not by much. 

 

Next set of bodycon dress dramas: I did NOT need to size up at the hips.  I had a pair of wide hips dangling away from my body, and a huge amount of fabric pooling weirdly at the centre back.  I saw the weird poof mid back when I was sewing the seam up, and wondered if it's the drafting or if my fabric shifted funny while cutting.  Anyway, all these seams are a fitter's friend!  I just pinned out the weirdness midback until I was happy and overlocked it away.  Then I went at the side hips and just shaved them flatter until they were snug.  Choosing a size 8 would probably have been fine, but this way I did get to actually choose how I shaved fabric off to fit, which might have gotten me a more precise result, who knows. 

It fits well under...some bras.  Not this one, oops.  This is a super warm and stretchy dress, it will be fantastic for events in winter but in summer I couldn't get it off fast enough, it's hot! I'm really pleased overall with my dress.  There is still a tiny irregularity at the centre back seam, but it's not bad.  It's a fun, fast sew.  I don't think I would use it for a fancy, dream fabric but for a fun easy wearing dress I am happy. 

Sew Liberated inspiration: Fancy Chanterelles in D&G

 My first pair of Chanterelle pants were a huge success.  I wore them all the time all summer.  The only tiny adjustment I thought would be good was to shorten the rise just a bit.  So when I was buying ridiculous and expensive fabric from the UK, my justification for buying some transparent Dolce & Gabbana seersucker silk was to make Chanterelle pants.  Of course it was.  And to do it quickly before I got scared of the fabric or overwhelmed by the very idea.  I used the same pattern pieces - size 6.  I also had actually made cardboard pocket things to fold over my pocket edges when I made these the first time (unusually thorough of me), so I used those.  

Transparent fabric needed some underlining.  I underlined the pants to below the level of the pockets with some soft white cotton/silk that I had lying around.  This is sewn into the pockets so it really can't flap around much.  I shortened the rise as planned by about 1 cm or maybe 1/2".  The fabric frayed quite a bit so things needed to be done quickly and efficiently without too much error.  Luckily these are very fun and a straightforward sew.  I didn't have any particular issues with construction.  The fabric was well enough behaved that other than using a lot of pattern weights I didn't do anything extra, I didn't use gelatin to firm up the silk. 

I was however worried that I might be making clown pants.  They are pretty loud.  

 

I thought they deserved a solid photoshoot and time was on my side: we ran the Hobbiton half marathon last March and I had them done before we went away for the race.  (Side note: It was one of the hardest trail races I've ever done, mostly along goat paths with very little formed trail down the side of hillsides that look bucolic only from a distance.  There was an optional swimming hole dip at km 10 and I forfeited a good race time to have a good swim instead.)

So here we are the day after the race, limping slowly through overpowering sun on a Hobbiton tour.  I'm very glad I went, ran and toured but I'm not a movie fan and so a lot of the detail was probably lost on me.  And no, we did NOT sign up for the race for next year.  My pants made me feel very sophisticated but I think I didn't really need the change in rise, it ends up pulling at my waist when I bend over.  Probably I need that rise as ease for movement, so I will stick to the original pattern in the future.  

I was considering making a cropped pair of Chanterelles.  However summer has already come...and is going...so we will see. 

scrappy Misusu Cuddle Cardigan

 Here is another project that's languished on my to do list for years too long.  I like Misusu patterns a lot and when this came out I noticed it pretty quickly.  I've wanted to do a cardigan from some sweatshirting and it seemed like a lot of things I like - some crafty colourblocking, big pockets.  

I knew I had some scraps of beautiful knits to make it out of so I had also long planned it to be scrappy.  My scrap pile is too big and that was one big pressure to get this done.  I'm at the point where my scraps don't fit in their allocated bins so I'm putting more effort into the scrappy projects.  But by the time I was making it...I was pretty bored with the idea of this cardigan.  I realised quickly that the scrappy look I was envisioning just looks silly and unsophisticated to me.

I had some confusion with the start because the piece I did in animal print is directional and it was hard to find and match the notches correctly.  Once I did this everything else was obvious.  It's quick to put together and I didn't have any other issues with the instructions.   

 

This was straightfoward to sew together.  I made size BB and I think the fit is as expected.  The cool feature of the collar bands crossing over at the back neck actually really annoys me, it creates a spot that can kind of flip over when you're putting it on.  Once I realised all this I limited myself to a single button to make it wearable and have passed it on to a friend.  Can't win them all! 

Roberts Wood Flower Patchwork dress, a Frocktails adventure

 I have been wildly in love with this pattern since it came out. 

But in love like unrequited love.

There was the first big hump: what fabric could cope with so many unfinished edges?  I spent a year mulling this over.  I reckoned it had to be silk, maybe organza.  Something with body, so the flower petals would stick out.  The pattern consists of 3 separate sets of flowers, so you can use 3 different fabrics and you won't end up with the same fabric next to itself - or of course you can just use one fabric, or two. 

I got too curious and bought the pattern and had to recover from that for another year.  Both the financial hit, and the 5 tightly rolled up A0 pages with nothing on them but...flowers.  Hundreds of flowers.  The size is built into the pattern- and I was confident with the smallest size as it coincides neatly with my measurements.  The dress is a bit oversized, but I wouldn't have wanted it smaller, the neck hole fits just right.  It feels quite substantial around me I think that's because of the three-dimensional-ness of it. 

I bought three colours of silk organza and stuck it at the bottom of my stash.  I moved house a few times (always a good reason to procrastinate.)  I changed jobs and didn't get to sew enough...

And then moved to Auckland, a city with a Frocktails!  I put this dress on my Make 12 list for the year, deadline: Frocktails in early September.  I also reorganised my stash and thought actually the cranberry red dupioni silk, previously purchased for something else, might be a perfect fit for this.  The organza idea just didn't feel right.  Months passed and trips came and went and suddenly I actually only had two weeks until Frocktails.  

I spent two days cutting out paper flowers while my partner watched.  This improved when I realised I had an audiobook to attend to.  I thought I would stick the flowers onto the silk, cut roughly around them and then cut more precisely one by one.  To make this possible I bought the sharpest little embroidery scissors in Spotlight, a new micro-olfa cutter, and a small pink cutting mat, plus three spools of matching thread, and I hijacked the kitchen table.  

This phase took another 2 days.  And catastrophe then struck: a pile of flowers were neglected on the sewing room table...a RANDOM cross section of flowers from the three different colour ways.  And I had run out of fabric.  An emergency trip to The Fabric Store - a very lucky grab at a bolt of red dupioni silk - the last of the dupioni in stock - and an early morning trip to the laundromat later whew, all the flowers are accounted for, and hopefully the different shade of red will add texture.  Four days to go. 

I quickly realised it was better to pin the flowers to the silk for the rough cutting phase.  I just needed to get them into a pile of flowers, it didn't matter if they were a bit askew on their individual fabric pieces.  An unexpected participant joined the fun: Paivi LOVED all the excitement happening in her personal playground and joined the sweatshop with enthusiasm.  She particularly liked all the sharp objects, and unpinned bits of paper...

Cutting the flowers out on my new surgical desk: 2 days. 

I now had 2 days to sew the dress, plus the day of Frocktails which was after night shift so I could do some sewing, but nothing too strenuous.  It ended up being the bindings, done on the day from that original organza.  Organza is a terrible thing to cut and also to sew on the bias and was a horrible choice to use for bindings, so if you look closely, they are a bit messy.  

The insides! There are many micro holes at the corners where my sewing lines weren't perfect, but you can't see any of this in the dress when worn.

 

I showed up at frocktails slightly glassy eyed post night shift, and with a few faint chalk marks here and there on my dress - but DONE!  and it was a perfect way to celebrate a project that ran my life for about two weeks, while also being a kind of sanity-saver and distraction from some simultaneous health drama.  To give you some scale: I consumed 4 audiobooks during the simple parts of cutting these flowers out. 

And you know, I would do it again.  I would actually use fabric scraps and just not worry about the fraying edges and make a wildly ridiculous patchwork version of this dress.  Also, it has heaps of room and needs pockets.  I was absolutely not going there this time around but I see no reason to skip it on a future attempt.