Birgitta Helmersson ZW dress pattern review

 This has been on my list for so long, and the fabric has been allocated to it, which I believe is a Meet Milk viscose.  Recent success buoyed me onward. I hate making zero waste things.  I need a lot of prompting.  I just so dislike measuring fabric on the floor and cutting it without pattern pieces.  I also feel like the end results are often shapeless dresses that suit larger women with curves and are uncomfortably airy on me.  

I'm going to cut to the most important part here. My fabric was chosen long ago and the vision was deeply embedded in my brain.  The designer notes in passing that the width of the fabric matters, but mainly to say it should be 140 cm wide, not to comment closely on how much that matters.  I absolutely needed to make this from a 115 cm wide fabric.  I recommend doing so to anyone who is a size US 6 or below.  My fabric just happened to be 150 cm wide and it's devastating, because all the effort gone into sewing this project is wasted as I need to be about 6 sizes larger to suit my dress.  

I suffered through the cutting and indeed, I had no leftover scraps except those ridiculous side-hem triangles.  Those are a joke right?  Who is actually going to randomly sew on a triangle to the side seam?

I made the version with the button bodice but no buttons on the skirt. Can't be bothered with that. 

I lengthened the bodice by 1" which was totally silly.  I shortened the hem by 15 cm which was a good starting point - it was below knee/calf length but had a very high low hem when worn by me.  I ended up snipping off the hem until it hung more or less evenly.  

I made the bodice which was fine, forgot the interfacing for the front button band.  This is bad as it carries a lot of weight.  I recommend interfacing it quite heavily.  

The sleeve, when loosely pinned on, came to my wrist, no thanks!  I put the sleeves aside for later 

The pocket situation was also off-putting. I ended up using my leftover pieces from part of the sleeves to make Bardon pockets (still the best ever) and just applied them as to any skirt.  

I put on the dress to even the hem, then still did a deep 2" hem, which caused some headaches due to the curves.  I can call it a success: there is nothing visible on the outside!  And it gives it a bit more weight. 

For the sleeves I ended up just double folding in the seam allowance at the top of the bodice, and did not put any sleeves on.  It's so very wide on me it already is like having half length sleeves.  

 

Despite trying quite hard to personalise the fit on this dress, it needs to find a new owner who is a lot wider than I am.  I do think it's a beautiful concept and the gathered skirt hangs and swishes really nicely.  I don't even have a suitable person in my usual recipient group, so it may be off to the secondhand shop, sadly.  The people who have successfully made this and posted on Instagram have had a few things in their favour: they are very tall, so they can make a longer length to balance the width, and they have used narrow fabrics.     

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. 

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.

Bodycon dresses: Givre & Prescott

Suddenly I needed a flaming yellow bodycon dress in my wardrobe.  I also really wanted a skin-coloured dress.  I knew that these probably wouldn't be very flattering, but I wasn't sure whether I would care. 

I've had the Prescott and Givre patterns in my stash and have made Givre as a tank top a few times.  I hadn't bothered making the dress yet but I have a see-through designer dress I stupidly bought recently and in hopes of wearing it often enough to be worth it, I wanted a merino bodycon dress to wear underneath for winter (it came with a slip.)

I started out with the Prescott tank dress, as I was very curious how the bra works. I mean, I mostly could sort of imagine the process, but I've never put in a shelf bra before.  I elected to use my very precious piece of Milk viscose in a body-colour for this, for better or worse...I didn't have much.  I had to line it with something else. 

I made a size 4.  As usual the question of which bust measurement to go by. The high bust matches my bust, and the waist and hip measures are spot on.

I didn't have enough for the back hem so I added on a piece. 

I had to follow the instructions as the construction was a little bit fiddly. It was helpful to be told when to use the sewing machine instead of the overlocker - often because it's not the direction of stretch and will decrease bulk.  Unfortunately the instructions for elastic application were confusing - they say to put it on the right side, but from my way of thinking that's the wrong side.  

I see that there are pull lines on the model and I can see those on me too.  The way it shapes below the bust is kind of loose.  Overall I think I like the shape to the level of the hips, but I don't really like the way the underneath bra and the overlayer interact.  It might be that using super strong elastic wasn't a good idea - I didn't realise as much of the support comes from the fabric of that bra layer, rather than just from the elastic.  

I have the feeling that I might turn this into a tank top to salvage the fabric, which I love.  I'm not actually finding that I want to wear it much.  I left the hem raw because I don't have coverstitch thread in a close match, and because my machine isn't behaving very well lately. If I'm going to turn it into something else, no need to suffer extra...

2. Givre, dress version

This is green merino from Otara in Auckland.  The cheapest place to get merino!  I had a really exact colour in mind and this is exactly what I wanted.  

I did the same as making the tank top: 36 at the bust, 38 everywhere else.  The fit is spot on - perfect amount of room.  Flattering?  I would say absolutely not.  But I might not care.  Maybe I should have fallen into my bodycon lust right after coming back from life in Nepal, when I was anorexic thin for a few months.  I love the feel of this but I'll have to be in the right mood to wear it without something over the middle section.  To wear under other dresses it's perfect.  It was easy to make - really not any different than making a tshirt.

I have some plans towards the Lola tank and dress and maybe making another Mission dress (it's been awhile since I had one in my closet) but other summer sewing is taking over so we will see what happens later in the summer! I'm still holding onto the neon green rib fabric so I'm sure it will show up eventually.

i am Cassiopee, not for the first time

 I finally made this pattern with the recommended fabric. 

Here are the previous iterations in orla kiely and ice dyed fabric.  Size 36.

Rayon that's been in my stash with this fantastic print. I got it at Tessuti Fabrics when I was buying something else. The colour scheme isn't my usual and I thought it would be nice for a change.  

I shortened the dress a few inches, I shortened the sleeves to below the raglan attachment, enough that I thought it wouldn't gape when I raised my arms. 

I always sew down the facings but you know, I never thought about how I could make it a skinnier facing and sew it down closer to the edge.  I thought about that too late and didn't do it.

Pockets harvested from something else on my floor.  

It's really such an easy sew, there's not much to say.

 

 

I wore it that night to dinner.  I am finally happy with this pattern.  A fabric with no body is best suited to this very wide dress.  I see there's a new jersey option, which would be interesting.  It's so wide that I feel like you would need to narrow it to make a nice jersey dress though.  All the online pictures don't make it look as wide as I felt in my previous iterations!