Merchant and Mills trapeze dress experiment

 I've been planning this dress for about a year.  I first made this pattern ages ago (here) and was surprised how good the fit was.  I was going to make another one but the dream fabric was a bit too narrow and I stupidly didn't realise I should do it anyway!  So the pattern languished without further attention...until now. 

I used size 10 which fit well, so no changes there.

 The outer fabric is a weirdly out of character poly blend from Emma One Sock and I bought it with the idea of doing this!  A two layer dress, and something about pockets.  I was not sure where I'd put the pockets at first.  It took months for me to find some white rib knit (in retrospect it totally didn't need to be rib, any white jersey would have been fine).  And finally I just needed it done.  I decided on a single kangaroo pocket in the front of the lining, and then sleeve gaps in the outer layer so you could reach the inner.  That way the two aren't touching, and the pockets don't touch the outer (which has so much volume on its own.)

I had been sort of mulling over the process for days.  I cut out the lining using the dress pattern but just cut off the trapeze shape below the armscye.  I could have used a tank top dress pattern and saved on fabric but I was insistent in my head that I follow the vision (eye roll) so I did it this way and ended up overlocking off about 5 inches from the side seams afterwards.  I wanted the lining to have seams on the inside so I couldn't treat it like your average lined dress, which has all the seams between the two layers.  For this reason I left the SA open when I burritoed the sleeves, sewed the lining first, and then sewed the outer layer.  This also had the advantage that I could cut off that extra fabric from the lining.  The neckline was fine, but on the sleeves I had extra, and so I just overlocked any extra away.

The rib knit ironically bought for this project was not enough in length, so then I added an extra panel on the front and back to make it longer.  I didn't pay attention and ended up with the front seam on that facing out, but if it's ever visible, it's actually kind of cute. 

 

In the end I accidentally made an amazing piece of art!  I think this dress is fantastic.  It feels like I have upskilled a level in sewing.  A few years ago, I'd have a Vision and I'd Sew a Thing and it would....NOT match the vision.  It was just...an Experiment...  so it's a shock to have a vision and fulfill it and have it literally be everything I hoped.  

That said, I am giving this to a friend who actually needs dresses and she will hopefully love it as much as I do!  The pocket is so spacious you can fill it with all the things AND it's all hidden.  The amazing fit has reminded me about how great this pattern is, so maybe I'll feel the inspiration and make more for myself. 

Simplicity 5683, circa 1973: ruffled sundress

In early February I suddenly needed to prolong summer by making a backless ruffled sundress...and conveniently I had just the pattern!  This wonder was printed in NZ and says it is misses size 12, with a bust of 34".

I haven't sewn any big 4 patterns in ages!  I just kind of hoped this size would fit...forgetting that you are meant to size down from the envelope not size up.  My bust is in the 32-33 range.

I made this dress in the short version, with a ruffle.  There was no ruffle length for the short version so I basically made it as long as I had fabric for.  I also made the ruffle less high because I thought it would overwhelm the short dress at the current length - I did about 2/3 of that length.  I guess this all means I'm over my hatred of gathering. I also learned just how much you need to gather a thing to make it look good - in my opinion the ruffle would be better if I could have made it longer and gather it more.

The bodice was self lined after you apply the ruffle, and then there are more gathers under the bust!  The waistband is two layers, and the skirt is a true wrap skirt, with the right side going under the left.  It felt like it took forever but that's just because I had a bunch of couchsurfers so I wasn't sewing all the time.

My fabric is a loom woven raw silk from Nepal that I brought back.  It has a lot of texture because of the handmade nature of the fabric, but overall I took that into account and didn't have trouble gathering it, though it became very dense in the gathers.  It is generally well behaved and pressed well.  I hand washed it for prewashing, which is what I do with all fragile silk.  I tend to machine wash other silks like charmeuse that I think can handle it, as it makes an easier to care for final garment - I generally hand wash those garments but I like the security of knowing they can tolerate a machine wash.

The bodice looked pretty small to start with so I couldn't judge by that - but the final product is just way too big.  There's no one spot - the bodice has too much fabric, and in my pictures I have the waistband wrapped really tightly to keep everything in place.  I just feel overwhelmed by this dress.  Luckily I have a friend who is taller than me and just a bit bigger everywhere and who doesn't feel a need to wear a bra, so she has won a new dress, yay!!