Pattern Emporium Tiered maxiskirt in Liberty

 I first encountered this skirt when I saw my friend Tessa's version.  I've never been very into skirts.  Like, I own the same few and wear them occasionally but they aren't that comfortable and rarely have pockets so why bother?  The few I have are really great and that's sort of it, right?  

Hm.  Well, I realised a big problem was that my legs rub together.  So this summer I decided to solve the problem with long leg boyshorts with lace hems, so I could wear my skirts.  (More on those later).  And it made skirts suddenly seem like a more viable option (especially if they have pockets.)  

This does not have pockets, but that is easily fixed.  And after thinking for quite awhile I decided I was ready to cut into my number 2 longest stashed fabric: a Liberty Tana Lawn in my Favourite Print Ever Made.  In order to do that I had to do a practice version, because I have never shirred and I was not sure how the shirring would go.  

Spoiler alert: the shirring went Very. Poorly.  

Sorry it was very windy when I took these photos, plus midwinter so rather cold. 

I cut a size 10 and used some very fancy Liberty silk twill that has been sitting around - this is for my friend R and I knew she would love the colours and would not care too much about the shirring.  What is discovered is that although in one spot I read to NOT pull tension when you wind the shirring elastic onto the bobbin, actually you DO need to pull a moderate amount of tension.  All the shirring does not really suck together and just looks like weird loops on the inside of the skirt.  Luckily there's a piece of elastic in the waistband as well so this first version is wearable and the silk twill is delightfully swishy.  I was on a time crunch so I forgot to take notes on things I would change the second time around...

So after waiting far too long and not remembering anything I learned from the first version, I made my Liberty Special.  I think I wanted to shorten the middle tier 1" but I didn't do that.  I did add very large pockets. 

 

I obviously practiced shirring in the meantime and got better at it.  I didn't have any issues making this skirt, it's an easy make.  I like my huge pockets and I like the way it drapes.  

 

The irony of the last Demeter dress

So after months working on this pattern and multiple variations, I returned to the exact fit of...the first Demeter dress, which I strongly regret giving away.  That rayon!  That print!  (It sold out.)  The shyly oversized fit somehow worked better than all the alternatives.  Actually I did shorten the hem another inch. Have realised that you can't shorten it too much as the length creates weight which keeps it from being as puffy.

AND I decided it was time to cut into one of my precious Liberty Tana Lawns stashed since 2013.  I have been a fancy fabric whore from the start, but for the longest time I couldn't figure out how to really showcase these lovely birds, thus this piece has remained with a few other favourites in deep-stash.  I was reminded recently that one of the features of Tana Lawn is that it drapes quite well for a lawn, so I was hoping it would be more like the rayon and not puff out like my other versions did.

Reckoned I should line the bodice, but that the skirt has enough volume and gathers that it won't be too transparent. I underlined the bodice with a scrap of soft cotton voile in my stash (after going shopping for appropriate fabric and buying a bunch of things I didn't end up using - too stiff, to shiny, too whatever...)

I tried to put my favourite birds in the best spots, so they wouldn't be beheaded by darts or nipping at my nips, etc. 

 

That's it, I've made this dress so many times, what else can I say?  It's winter so took awhile to get any photos.  It is not quite as drapey as the rayon was but it's still a very satisfying fit and once the weather warms up I'm sure I'll wear it heaps as the pockets are roomy!  After making this pattern 4 times, this is the only version I have kept.  However, reviewing my previous has made me reconsider a tank version but cutting very deep armholes.  Might do that. 

Friday Pattern Co Wilder dress review

 I have been planning to make this dress for years!  My enthusiasm ramped up when I saw pictures of it without the bottom tier - thinking this would have so much interesting potential.  I also was dreaming of see-through dresses with an underneath tank dress.  Last summer I even committed and bought some Liberty voile on sale, since of course I never buy 3m of fabric unless I am reminded to do so by a specific pattern.  

And finally it's the middle of summer again, and I had the time to put it together.  It was a fun and effortless sew.  I made XS, knowing that this pattern is very oversized. I hoped my shoulders wouldn't be too much for the smaller size but it has a lot of ease.  The fabric is well behaved and it came together without any problems.  I did want to add pockets, but I couldn't figure out exactly where they should go so I decided to save that for future renditions.  

 

It was fun to make and I think it's pretty hilarious, as oversized floppy muumuu type things go.  As anticipated I really hate the neck finish/long dangling ties.  I think on future versions I'll just stick elastic in the neck instead.  Definitely without the bottom tier, and definitely with great big pockets.  Also I have seen a sleeveless hack and I would be up for that - so this pretty much went as I expected.  I don't know how much I'll wear it in life - it go out a few times while I was in Fiji but overall I expect it to spend most of its time in my closet - but I want to do some experiments and see if I can get it to work for me. 

Summer fling dress by Sew This Pattern, take 2

When I made my first version of the pattern I left it short because I ran out of fabric.  I knew I wanted a second one both to try out the full length and to see if I could get the bodice to sit perfectly.  My changes were hard to track in terms of how long the straps should be, and the direction of force on them. 

I noticed that the bust darts were way (2") below my bust, and in fact if I pulled the entire bodice up by 2" it sat better under my arms too.

The armscye bias binding made a kind of 90 degree turn where it hit the top edge of the bodice front, going out over the shoulders. 

I could lower the back a tiny bit more.

The pockets are great but could be higher - I used the bardon dress pockets (Elbe Textiles) and they are MASSIVE - hah, almost as long as the first dress.

With these thoughts in mind and actually much deep reflection, I decided this needed to be the first dress this year because I had been thinking about it so long.  I bought the fabric last year, it's Liberty Poplin, and because I actually bought it for this project, I did buy enough.  I used the same bias for the front neck, over the shoulders, and the back.  I did shorter bias strips under the armscye.  That meant I had to keep a centre back seam.  I took about 1" off the width, raised the darts 1" and just removed a smidge more off the back while adding about 1" to the armpit coverage.  I decided not to shorten the straps to raise the front to where it probably should be, because the location of the front neckline suits me and I didn't want to change too much at once.  I used the Bardon pockets but put them higher.

 

 

 

The bodice seems long, but it should be standard length, maybe the weight of the dress pulls it longer.

 

 

This feels like a lot more dress compared to my first version, but that's always the problem with multiple versions of a thing.  They won't be the same, nor should they be!  Since spring is now flowering I will hopefully start to wear this and we will see if I love it as much as I loved my very short version 1. 

Chalk and Notch Marcel dress review

 I really liked this pattern when it came out and I managed to avoid buying it until summer, thus keeping my enthusiasm fresh.  I also pretty quickly chose this subtly striped Liberty lawn for it - one of my hoarded fabrics that I'm trying to finally use.  

I found the instructions clear.  I do wish pdf instructions would be aligned vertically instead of portrait style, which means you have two pages across and very small print.  I used A0 printing and there was a moderate amount of free space on my pages - almost one entire sheet, which is 7$ of wasted paper.  I cut size 4B - you have the choice of a larger cup size, which changes both the bodice and the centre front piece. And I aligned my stripes as the model has done on the Chalk and Notch website, though my instinct would have been to do the opposite.  If anything I'm surprised and the subtleness of the effect but I think it's smarter in fact to have the vertical stripes be the main focus of the dress. 

I expected to ADORE this dress.

In fact as I've been binge sewing my way through a post-surgery week, this was a highlight plan.  I am sort of getting tired of sewing, but I popped it out over the course of a day.  It's straightforward. Except for the straps. 

Here I am recalling some dissatisfaction I had with the Peppermint/Elbe textiles pattern from last year, which required you to insert the straps at your own personalised length.  That ended up being too hard to identify and my straps were too short and I couldn't stand them.

Here, you have the option to slightly angle the straps on the front. I did this.  I have sloped shoulders. Then you can try on the wee bodice piece to your heart's content until the straps are adjusted to suit you. I angled the back straps as well.  I should have even shortened them a bit.  So my main irritation with this pattern is that you really can't do just one.  You need to do one, identify exactly what happens with the straps during wear, and then make that a permanent feature of your pattern. 

 Also, in the end, this is quite billowy, with the gathers mostly at the sides and the front just...roomy.  Good for pregnancy.  I'm not pregnant though.  And in the short version it feels very very short because it doesn't touch my legs.  So, good if you are somewhere so hot, you want to feel like you aren't wearing clothes.  But I feel like it's not enough dress.  A breeze would be dangerous.  I recommend heavier fabric, like tencel, rayon or linen (unless you want that nothing effect.)  I think I would not make this length again - I'd add one more tier.  (I'm 5'4")  Also, this dress suffers a severe lack of pockets, and nowhere to put pockets, unless you put them on the side panel.  

Overall I am satisfied but I am not in love.  I'm not rushing to make the second one but I could see it happening one day.  Definitely would be a fun make for lots of scraps.