Wide Strap Maxi Dress revisited: Peppermint x Elbe textiles

 

I made this dress in some lovely lemon fabric a few years ago and my big comment was to use a nice floaty fabric that draped well if I did it again.  That first version suffered because the elastic was too tight.  I put a lot of effort into getting the straps to sit well and the elastic just right but I overdid it and the tight elastic bothered me.  I thought ended up with the straps too short - the bust darts were a ways above my bust.  I think a looser look matches the silhouetter better - he dress rather should loosely skim rather than grabbing around the chest and then it will billow out less over the bum.

So despite my fabric thoughts, at some point I decided to make it again using a beautiful scrap of waxed cotton.  The, you know, least drapey fabric.  I was really cheated when I bought this most beautiful piece - I paid for a meter and I think it's 80 cm x 80 cm.  I needed a dress that would be a full length canvas for it.  The Tessuti Claudia dress (which I literally have printed out but have never sewn) would have been a great choice...but I have some weird aversion to making it. Every time I look at the pattern I think oooh!  I would love that!  So I am not sure why it never makes the cut. 

I needed a fabric for the back.  Some thought here, went for a dark navy linen, but something about it was not quite right - it was really quite heavy.  After awhile I went shopping again and this time got a linen/viscose, a bit lighter weight, and matching the deepest navy parts of the design.  

Sewing the dress is very fun, it's one of those patterns that come together with satisfying neat angles.  Yet again I put a lot of time into getting the elastic at the back to be just right and the straps just right.  I have very sloping shoulders which are not symmetrical, so these wide straps need to be separately angled and sewn in.  

I think the dress is so pretty and the pockets of course are amazing.  I wore it to a wine festival and got lots of compliments, but I noticed right away that the right side strap is way too loose- I haven't quite got the angle right.  This is fixable, and probably expected considering my shoulders.  It is annoying enough that I'll put the time into fixing it.  Unlike last time I think I left the entire length of the straps inside the lining so I could adjust as needed, but I also didn't need to cut much off to make them fit - suggesting they are about 2" longer this time.  

Overall a relative success (I have NOT done the fix yet) but a bit tricky to get a perfect fit as I really need the straps just right or I get very annoyed.  I'm looking at these photos and suddenly realised I should cross the straps across the back.  Not at all bra friendly but it would solve my problems! 

 

Wide strap maxi dress: Elbe Textiles x Peppermint mag

I find it funny that all designers are making similar patterns at the same time.  This season it's maxi dresses with the same kind of bodice band...I've seen and made a few!

I made size C, which is my usual size in Elbe Textiles.

I also paid attention to 2 facts: this is sized for a person 5'7" tall, AND the creative muse behind Elbe textiles is all about shapeless sacks.  Thus, I removed 4 inches from this pattern: 1 at the bodice, 2 below the bodice, and 1 from near the hem.  That seems to have been about right. 

The fabric is Dolce & Gabbana copycat fabric.  It's poplin weight cotton.  I actually have the D&G original and it's an interesting comparison in terms of quality, both the design print and the fabric are obviously nicer coming from the designer (and the price tag matches, whoa, expensive fabric!)  I did NOT jump to make a new pattern out of the fanciest of fabrics, though I was a wee bit tempted.  The lighter weight, lawn-like feel of the D&G fabric would have given the dress a bit better movement, but the side slits do that anyway.

The instructions are overly wordy, but I suppose too many words better than too few.  Also, it follows a recent trend which irritates me no end: instead of just saying: French the seams - it builds that into the instructions.  I much prefer the instructions to suggest that you french the seams, and add a little side note on how to do so, for those who need it.  This is naturally because lately I'm not going to.  My overlocker wins!

I dragged this out over a few days in between other things - I'm trying to binge sew through a huge project pile before the new year, in the hopes that if I can clean up my queue, I might stop piling up projects to do...I think I'm much happier if I can spontaneously sew a thing, the end.  And I want more time for knitting.

I really enjoyed how you do the hems quite early on, so once you've finished the bodice band, you're done!  It's an easy sew.  However, I made one huge blooper - I assumed I'd need to shorten the straps by a lot.  I tried the dress on, and shortened them accordingly.  I noticed that they seemed to be shorter when I gathered the dress, trying to picture what the elastic would do...

I'm not entirely sure why, but once the elastic is in, the straps seem much shorter. I guess you lose 1.5 cm when you sew them in.  So in the end my straps are way too short and I had cut the ends off before I figured this out.  There's no going back (at least not very easily)! The bust darts are about 2 inches too high.  I also noticed the right side is worse.

The good news - I don't think anyone but me will notice. But I have to wear the dress around to get a sense for how much *I* will notice.  If I dug the end out of the seam allowance the most I gain is a cm, but it might be worth it. 

Anyway, I love the pockets and overall this was a great fun sew.  I'm really pleased that I found something to do with my lemon fabric.

Mission Maxi by Jamie Christina

I prepared this pattern when I was leaving Switzerland but I didn't take it with me.  It's been on my mind since then, partly because I had a big haul of perfect knits from Delft and I didn't have the pattern handy!

Anyway, finally I had my chance.

I started with a tank top for fit.  I cut at the tank top line.  I was a bit between sizes but sized down to a 6 because I definitely wanted it fitted.  I was using scraps so I had to make a front and a back center seam so I zigzagged them to make them into a Design Feature.

The binding is yet another new one: you apply it in the flat to the outside of the dress, then sew the side seams, and then wrap it to the inside and topstitch it down.  Initially I was annoyed because I wanted the feel of something done FAST and all these bindings....ugh, patience.  But I really really like this finish.  I think it adds substance to the top of the dress, especially key for the actual dress version.  I didn't know whether I should be pulling any tension on the bindings as I applied them, and the answer seems to be yes, just a bit, because I didn't and there is just a bit of gaping.  Also I am congenitally unable to topstitch and catch that binding so I guess I should be more patient and like, baste?   Instead I had to go back and hunt down all the bits that hadn't been caught by my topstitching.  Or maybe ironing?  Because I can't see you'd have more luck with basting and I also am lazy with the iron.   

I didn't change anything for the dress version.  It's a sparkly cotton rayon blend, obviously with some lurex, and rather thin.  Luckily I don't spend my life staring in the mirror and it's really amazingly comfortable so I can overlook the bulges.  I think I cut about 4 inches off the hem, but it might have been more.  I didn't finish the hem.  I'm not offering you too many photos as it's hard to get even borderline flattering ones, but I think it looks better in reality than in pictures.

For future hacks to this top I'd readjust the back of the sleeve hole to make it closer to the bra straps.  It's not quite racer back and not quite plain, which makes finding a bra a challenge. I would also shorten the straps a bit, especially on thinner fabric, as on the dress version it sags during the course of the day and my bra shows. 

I'm still on the fence as to whether I make a side slit for better movement in the dress, cut it shorter, or leave it as is.  It's really comfortable though!  I'll probably wait until I get to the States and using the magical shrinking machine (ie a dryer) and then decide. 

New Look 6352 Maxidress in silk charmeuse

This really is a one hour project, but it was held up for exactly a year.  Go figure!
The fabric is from emmaonesock and is a luscious silk charmeuse.
The pattern is from ebay. 
I decided to make this when I was testing maxidresses in August of last year.  I had been given fabric for my birthday and wanted to make a perfect maxidress.  I thought if the 'perfect' pattern (the Named Ama) didn't work out, I had this as a backup.  I also thought a maxidress would be the perfect way to showcase the pattern on this dramatic silk charmeuse.

The first hold up is that I sewed the shoulders together...and then my sewing machine broke.  I was just about to leave the States and I couldn't deal, so this got shoved in a corner, and then entered the Black Hole of Luggage Hell.  It's components were reunited in December, at which point it seemed like I might as well wait for my new sewing machine.  It arrived in February. The pattern calls for facings, but I saw no need for that -- naturally I planned to bias bind it with more matching silk. Luckily I have learned not to try narrow curved hems in silk anymore, but ugh, making bias tape?  Add another month just from ennui. And lots of other things to do.

Eventually I got tired of having unfinished things sitting around. Enough!  It's now my 1 month window before leaving Switzerland and I know from experience that I don't have much concentrated sewing time left.  After that I can expect challenging projects to be beyond my mindset, and fixing old things becomes completely out of the question.

Also a silk maxidress is something I might wear right now, which definitely amped my interest factor. I had expected a lot of shaping would be necessary.  I raised the shoulders about an inch and bound the neck...and realised it doesn't need any shaping actually.  I mean, it is supposed to be a pretty shapeless maxidress...so I got my groove on and finished up those french seams.  The main trouble is that after being dragged around the world the silk had shredded at any cut edge and some had to be trimmed down, but I cut about 1cm off the armholes to make them a touch deeper anyway.

In the end it is a kind of shapeless maxi dress.  Seems like a shame it took so long to get this way.  I am not sure how I feel about it.  I mean, as shapeless maxi dresses go it's great, but maybe it's just too shapeless?