Comments on dresses: reviewing the Camber set and the Botany dress

The Camber Set.

I really always promise myself that I won't make this again.  But then I forget.

This time I felt like for sure I could modify the pattern and it would be great!! 

Made up in a kind of shifty dry linen (I used the rest of it for my Georgia top.) 

The only adjustment is a wide shoulder adjustment I applied to it awhile ago. You can see that in the back view as it kind of hangs off my shoulder.  I think this is actually the incorrect adjustment for me to make, but it's taken awhile to realise it.   

 

I think it's time to just simply confirm I don't like this dress.  In my head, this is exactly what I like wearing.  But I make it and each time I think ew.  Fixing the shoulders would probably not make me inspired to reach for this shape dress.  Ironically the other dress by M&M, the trapeze dress, fits me *perfectly* through the arm yet for some reason I keep not making it again.  Note to self: trapeze dress.  Maybe in a knit.  Hm...

Botany dress 

When I made this before I thought it was unsalvageable as a pattern and I gave it to a friend.  She loves it and went on to make herself a bunch more.  But then midwinter I got these cockatoos and the fine drape of the voile made me think it would be fine. Shapeless dress for summer? Yes please!!  I was wrong. 

This is theoretically salvageable if I removed the skirt, took 2 inches off the bodice and reapplied.  It's a great dress for those with long torsos, my friend Tessa loves it.  Because I am lazy and I have some cockatoo fabric left, this is going to a less picky friend.  I might stop trying here.  I think I need another Botany top with ruffle, because I gave away my red one and kind of loved it.  Oops.

I think I've moved on from shift dresses in the styles I keep attempting here.  I like the Georgia dress reasonably well and that seems to be the shift dress style that is a win for me, but my 3 Georgia dresses still are inconvenient because they don't go with bike riding, and my Georgia top isn't the favourite of my shapeless square tops (Botany, LB, Strata...I think the LB is actually the best fitting for me.)

Merchant and Mills Camber Set in Thai ikat (plus an obsessive look at wide shoulder fit problems)

I am happy (happy?) to finally be done with this pattern.
This is it.
Not because it's perfect, but because I finally understood that I do not like shapeless woven shift dresses! Why did it take so long to figure this out?  This dress, also, UNLIKE what the M&M website says, should be made in something really drapey.  Not linen type fabrics.  At least, I think that would get rid of the big expanses of space problem. 

I kept the shoulder widening which I had done previously for the last iteration of this dress - on the back, but not on the front.  I didn't make any other changes, the dress is a size 10.  I eased the front of the shoulder into the back without problems. 

My shoulder, and the dress shoulder, are just NOT in the same place, and I have a lot of pulling at the front

First I thought I was being very smart by adding knit sleeves.  But you see now all the weird ways my shoulders and this pattern don't get along - a lot of space in the sleevehead, especially in the back, no room in the front of the shoulder.  Now I finally suspect it's all due to having sloping shoulders, not just due to their wideness.

So those knit sleeves were a no-go.
No problem, sleeveless!

Except it's just not very flattering.  Expanses of space.  Reminds me of the Inari.
It's going to turn into a tunic with a nice high low hem and side splits, because I love this fabric.

The fabric: brought back from Chiang Mai in Thailand, it's a soft cotton ikat, medium weight.  It of course doesn't drape but it looks like it'll soften even more with use.  So overall this can be salvaged, but it made me reflect on how easy it is to go astray with style.  Style is a subtle thing, isn't it?  Have you made something over and over again before you realized it wasn't working because it just wasn't your thing?

Merchant & Mills Camber Set

Ah, who doesn't fall in love browsing Merchant & Mills website?
Had to give this a try.  Not too many reviews online though.  Now that I browse them again after the fact, I suspect I could have approached this pattern with something resembling a...MUSLIN!!  It is cut super narrow in the shoulders.

Size 10: based on my bust measurement.  I was annoyed that there are no final measurements available.
Fabric: double gauze by Kokka, found in Berlin.  Great to sew, ungreat to unpick.  Disintegrates like mad when it's not staystitched.
Length: hacked off about 6'' from the pattern length.  (I cut at the final tick mark.)

Opinion: No trouble with the burrito neck instructions except at one spot right at the middle, where you really need to sew only up to a certain point on the center shoulder.  Hence the unpicking.  If you do it wrong, the front doesn't line up with the back at the shoulder quite right. I ironed a lot to get things to behave and I was fairly satisfied overall.

Here at the intersection of the arm and the body is this persistent sleeve fit problem of mine.  I don't know how to fix it.  Some suggestion is that I need to actually bring the armscye closer to my body, but my range of motion is already terrible in this dress.

sorry I didn't get a better back picture.  It does hang straight.

Final opinion: Hm.  Shapeless sack.  If I took a direct 2'' chunk out of the middle of the front, the dress fits better.  Also, the shoulders.  Terrible shoulders.  They have a stupid pouf behind my shoulder, they restrict my movement, they look too narrow...I'm wishing for a fairy godmother to appear and tell me what I need to DO to fix the shoulder, but this is what I suspect would help:

-1'' shoulder widening
-and I think this is time for the forward shoulder manipulation.  By moving that high point of the shoulder forward, I would regain movement and would have height where I need it.  Although I believe you can also just remove that excess fabric.  It is my least favourite feature of shoulders...gathering! puffiness! uck.

Plus:
-I would take that 2'' straight out of the front.  Lower the front neckline to compensate, it is quite high.

I am dissuaded from doing this because of the two piece back!  There is a chance I will come back to it as I am determined to eventually find the perfect shift dress pattern.
The photos don't look as bad as I feel, but this one is still probably looking for a new home.