Elizabeth Suzann Georgia top & dresses

I made the Florence pants first and then this top.  It was a very fast and easy make.

On this I wasn't sure how much ease I would like so I traced the OS (one size) and OSM (one size minus).

I made up the OSM first in a piece of linen I had leftover, from Miss Matabi's online shop.  This linen is oddly textured and shiftier than I expect linen to be.  It is really beautiful but might be a bit lighter than the model version.

Here it is on the model:

And here it is on me:

My first try-on made me think the arms were too tight.  There's a pulling from the neck down the sleeve which I think feels very apparent in my linen.  So I went and made the short version of the dress in OS.  I used a light, almost flannel rayon from Guthrie & Ghani, a soft feeling teal fabric with gold lurex stripes.  It is too big.  I'm not sure it's too big in a bad way.  The fabric has the most beautiful drape but I was moving house and gave it away to a pregnant friend before I could even take photographs so you have to take my word for it.

This was an excuse to now make the midi dress in OSM in a mystery weave from Nepal.  This was loomed in smaller villages, and is either silk, wool or hemp because that's why I bought it, but I don't remember which...it has a kind of sticky feel to it, and is quite gauzy and a relatively light weave. 

I find it totally amazing that a dress which is a sack, and that currently takes me 45 minutes to sew - can be so flattering.  However, the length on this means I can't really walk with my normal stride, so I would shorten it 4" in future.  Other people have added a slit, which seems like the other thing to do.  I ended up taking my seam ripper to this and creating a slit, because I am a strange creature and tend to love my most raggedy creations, I now love this dress.

AND having proven that the OSM was the right size, I shortened the (already rather short) dress pattern by an inch and made one out of this LONG HOARDED piece of light pink Valentino wool crepe.  I'm trying so hard to use up my hoarded fabrics in sensible ways.  This piece of fabric has been not quite large enough for many projects - it was almost...so many different dresses. Or tops.  Etc.  This is the last thing I made prior to moving and my sewing machines are going into hibernation, so it had a lot of meaning attached to it other than the fabric from 2013.  A lesson cropped up: the fabric has travelled around the world with me so many times that it now has holes in it, as you can see by my Fashionable Patch on the back of the dress.  If I need a reminder to use my fabrics and not hoard them, I think this is it.  Initially this textured wool weave had quite a bit of drape...but after washing it's shrunk even smaller and become cozy rather than drapey.  This dress is amazing. The weirdly lit sunset photos may not show it, but it feels like a hug. 

I decided to expand the potential and made the short version in a heavy viscose.  I wanted to see what happened with knits. I don't really like this actual fabric, so this version is for a friend - though I'm really happy with the pairing of the heavy viscose and the short pattern.  It became longer due to the added weight. I stabilised the shoulders with some twill tape in the seam. Next will be to add pockets....

 

Initially I wasn't sure how many Georgia dresses my wardrobe could tolerate (any? lots?).  It seems like I need more long ones.  

By Hand London Georgia dress

This wasn't a pattern I jumped on but my interest rose when I saw Ladybird's version - short!  And of course I saw it on Lizzy in person, and hers was fabulous.  During my perambulations around the city, I found some stretch twill on sale and it seemed just the thing for a simple dress that wouldn't require too much equipment.  I wasn't exactly enthralled by the idea of hand sewing the entire thing, but I suppose it could be done... (nah, there's got to be a sewing machine I can borrow somewhere, right?)

Since I had so much time to think about it, I thought about the bust, and about my history with BHL bust problems.  I thought maybe I should do an FBA.  I bought a pair of shorts to rip up and - crazy! - muslin the bodice!!!  Before I did that I read the sewalong that the lovely ladies at BHL have done.  They advise that an FBA is needed when the high bust is >2 inches smaller than the bust, because that would correspond to a C-cup.  Hm....wait a second.  My big problem is that my high bust is 1+ inches greater than my bust, although some of that is because of my back muscles.  So should I actually be doing a SBA? I decided to be smart and just muslin the normal pattern.

normal size

I can easily pinch out an inch

SBA of about 1 cm, I only pinned it, but it's much smoother and fits more closely

There is still a bit of excess, but it's less.

This is what I got, see top photos (after I hand sewed my first muslin like a good 14th century frau).  Empty pointing boobies...I guess I do need that SBA, although I'm not sure what happens at the bottom of the cups where they attach to the dress.  Because I didn't totally believe in it, I shrunk it by only 1 cm.  And because I was getting lazy, I just pinned it instead of sewing it.  But already I can see a huge difference - the bodice lies flat against my chest and there are no empty cups.  I can also see that I might have gaping at the top of the bodice, but that will be easy to fix by just sewing a bigger allowance at the top of the centre front.  After all this, I also think I better find a sewing machine, because my stitches don't look very reliable to me, but at least I can get on with cutting before my flatmate comes home and needs the living room floor.  (Yeah!  And the iron is in the basement!)

This is more true to the actual colours.  My camera hates purple, apparently.

I found construction to be straightforward, although I had slight trouble with the centre back point.  The front was off but even after taking out about a 1cm wedge from the centre top front, it still gaped, so I gathered it there, similar to what Lizzy did on hers.  Then you can't see my slightly off-kilter centre.  Compensation came later: no zip!  Since this is a shoulder-free dress and my fabric is very stretchy, I didn't need it.  Hurrah!

I did as suggested by others and tried the dress on inside out.  My heavy fabric doesn't show marks, so I drew lines down the side to flatten out the extreme-hip shape (my hips are low?)  I considered pulling in the back a bit too but I didn't want to overdo the changes.  Because I know that I have a short strap-distance, I planned ahead and left the back straps out.  Once I tried on the dress, I inserted them into their holes and sewed these shut.  I wasn't bothered by having sewing marks on the back of the dress, although I could also have sewn it on the inside as you do for the Sewaholic Cambie.

I cut a 6/10.  This is my usual size for BHL.
I still don't know if the SBA mattered at all.  The bust fits ok.  But the bottom of the bust is high.

A finishing touch - the BHL label!  None of my previous patterns came with the labels so I suffered from envy of everyone else with their amazing labelled By Hand London projects.  Now I finally have one of my own!

I think this dress, because I worked on it so slowly and attentively, has come together much better than my rushed projects in the past.  I put a lot of effort into what I personally needed so that I would consider this a "wearable" dress, and that truly makes a big difference and is something that you don't learn right away.  In some ways it was also a more enjoyable process because I didn't rush.