Republique du Chiffon Lucie dress v.2

 I made this dress many years ago. I was so confused by things - a lined dress, with a gathered lining!  I really worried about how floofy it would be.  I therefore used silk for the skirt lining and that dress was oddly one of the most amazing things ever, despite quite heavy initial misgivings.  Eventually I gave it away thinking I could surely improve on it...(?!) and I landed on this heavy textured viscose as the victim of such high hopes.  It has languished for a long time in the stash, vaguely united with this pattern.  

Finally got around to it, and realised I didn't have enough fabric to self line the bodice.  I found some black poplin and used that.  Size is 34 and this time I didn't line the skirt, that was the whole point of using a heavier fabric. 

Here was the original.  It is oddly anticlimactic to pull out the pattern pieces that caused me such angst, and see a super basic lined tank dress.  I guess I have learned a LOT in my self-taught sewing journey since 2015.  

 

No thrills in this construction.  I stay stitched, I burritoed, (I did NOT do the Vogue method that caused me trouble the first time around)  I overlocked all the skirt bits, and added pockets, of course.  The only drama is that the poplin is a weirdly stable feeling fabric in comparison to the viscose so the bodice feels like too much.  Hopefully it will calm down with wear.  I like this, I really love the low cut of the back, and summer was a good time to try it out - but after a couple of wears I just wasn't feeling this one so I gave it to a friend who loves it.  Weirdly I think I prefer the full silk lining, gathers and all.  It adds something.  I also don't really like the solid feel of lining the top with a different textured fabric.  I could see myself making this again but I would do a full silk lining as on the original dress (shocking!)  though of course still with pockets.

Georgina by Republique du Chiffon

I bought this pattern last summer, along with the Lucie.  And along with the Lucie, it slummed for longer than planned.  I even printed it out!  But every time I wanted to sew it all winter, I remembered ohhh I haven't even traced it and then oohhhaaa I have to add seam allowances.  And for those reasons it waited a long time.

The fabric is blue-green, almost iridescent, shirting from Mood, bought last summer.  The back underlayer is a wool blend from the scrap bin at Nancy's Sewing Basket in Seattle, ditto.  The zipper is a Riri which means it cost like 20 franks.

I cut a size 36 even though a 38 might have been wiser.  I really enjoyed putting this together.  I had the time for it and I loved loved loved some of the details, like finishing the sleeves with bias tape.  In fact, bias tape is great!!  Just making bias tape sucks!  I also loved the tucks instead of pleats for the skirt and the bodice.  (In theory more than in practice, sadly.) I was suspicious of the cap sleeves, and very rightfully so.  The cap sleeves and the high front neck don't work with my shoulders, and when I tried it on, the front pulled against my neck very badly.

Anyway the end product is a fitting disaster.  The size is right but this just doesn't suit my body shape at all from the waist up.  I would need to do something like a 3-4 inch swayback adjustment, lower the front neckline maybe 4 inches and get rid of those cap sleeves, before I could see it as wearable.  I really love a few of the features, enough that I might come back to it and make those changes. 

Another caveat is adding a zipper to an already angled back.  It didn't go well, as you can clearly see.  I guess you have to put the zip stop at the top of the angle based on the end location of the zipper, and then cut off the tape ends in order to avoid that gap.  Also, what is a good way to finish the seams on the zipper side of a dress?  That evades me.

Republique du Chiffon Lucie

One day last week I suddenly got tired of waiting to make this dress.  I put together the pdf, traced, cut and finished it in about 2 days while also being on hospital call.

I bought it last summer when it came out, which means I have the pattern in French.  Also, no seam allowances.  I was so very excited to make it!!  But ugh, so many things to make me pause - the pdf cutting and pasting, the french, the seam allowances.  So although I really wanted to make one exactly like the model in the black Atelier Brunette fabric, it didn't happen.

Now that I'm on the other side of the Black Hole of Moving, the fabric choice is a very rough rayon from Anna ka Bazaar - disappointing, as I wanted to use it for some Tania Culottes and it has a terrible drape and a rough weave.  It feels like linen.  That's why the fabric was set aside until a different project came along.  The lining is cotton on the top and silk on the bottom, just because I had a piece of white silk in exactly the right dimensions.

My hesitations about this dress were all about the gathered waist.  I generally avoid gathering.  I find it irritating and frumpy looking in sleeve heads and I have a psychological block about it everywhere else.  With exception when it's in very small amounts, like in the Anouk (which is even borderline.)  Also, it seems like a gathered waist is difficult to finish nicely.

I cut a size 34 after measuring the pattern pieces and myself a few times.  I would be a 38 according to the measurements but the final dress measurements of a 34 still gave me some room in the bust, and I wanted it to be a bit less loose and hanging than on the model.  I am 165 cm so I didn't lengthen or shorten it at all.

The technique for putting the top together is the same as the Datura blouse - namely that you sew the neck and armholes of the lining and the fabric together for the front and for the back, and then you place the back inside the front with one of them right side out, and you sew together the little tube of the shoulder.  I find this method completely absurd and crappy.  There's no way I can sew a perfect 2" tube.  I end up with lumpy and uneven shoulder seams and that made me think this dress was a mess early on.  Because of that I didn't do the extra work of sewing the lining and the dress skirts separately.  I think the pattern has you sew them together, but if you sew them separately then you have a clean finish on the inside.  Because I was suspicious about this Lucie, I didn't want to do the extra work of gathering twice.  I basted the bodice and bodice lining together, and then I gathered the front and the back of the skirt separately and sewed them to the bodice one half at a time.

I thought the dress looked totally stupid when I tried it on, but after a solid pressing of all those gathers and finishing the hem it seems to look better.  I'm still on the fence.  I can't see the shoulder seams anymore so they don't bug me like they originally did, but I would LOVE another method for sewing a clean finish on a lined tank top.  (BTW I think this would make a nice tank top too...with a french dart for some shape.) When I wear it I like the feel of it.  Nothing like some silk lining to make anything have a nice swish.  But I still feel like it's very unflattering.