Strawberry Fields Forever

I have a bit of a backlog of un-blogged sewing projects, so my next few posts are probably going to be all sewing all the time.  I'm feeling a bit frustrated with some of my makes lately, because I've made some dumb errors due to fatigue.  This project is one that frustrated me hugely.  So much so that I'm not really that happy with the finished items, even though they don't look too bad and are wearable.  

This outfit started out life as a dress.  I had this vintage strawberry fabric, but not enough to get a whole dress out of, so I spent a long time pondering what to make with the fabric.  There was 2 3/4 yards of it, but it is 36" wide, so it was plenty for a blouse, but I wanted to make a whole outfit with it.  I ordered a ton of fabric samples from Fabric.com, trying in vain to color match the blue flowers or the green vine in the pattern, and finally had a close enough color match in Kona Cotton.  I took a Facebook poll as between green or blue, and decided to order the Pacific blue Kona Cotton.  

I used the bottom half of the New England dress pattern, since I like how that skirt fits me, and the top of half is my redrafted Simplicity 1590.  I cut out the bodice, sewed it, tried it on, and it was a great fit.  I decided to leave off the front darts so that the fit would be slightly blousy for summer (I don't like things quite as fitted in the muggy swamp we live in between May and September here).  Then I cut out the skirt.  And things got dicey.  I cut the pocket facing wrong and forgot to extend the mock bib to waist height, although I didn't realize it until I started sewing.  

First off, Kona Cotton is really aggravating to work with.  It doesn't press easily (despite being 100% cotton), it stretches in a weird ways, and it has kind of a strange drape to it.  It is so tantilizing, because it is relatively inexpensive, and, more importantly, comes in a wide array of colors (So! Many! Colors!) but I think I won't be working with it again.  The pocket facing was completely wonky, although I forged on, and attached the skirt to the bodice.  I had to add the side zip on the right side because the left side didn't quite match up on the side seams.  I tried on the dress, and it was a fail.  It pulled to one side, looked off kilter, and the pockets were totally weird.  I almost shelved the project at this point.  

But then I decided to try and fix it.  So I pulled off the front panel of the skirt, removed the pocket facing and yoke, recut the facing and adjusted the top of the skirt to accommodate the shallower top yoke.  I had the thought of added hand embroidered strawberries to the pocket edges (inspired by Tasha's embroidered pockets), so I spent a few hours adding the embroidery (which I totally enjoyed doing, by the way).  Then I refaced the pockets, reattached the yoke, trimmed the top to match and reattached the front.  I tried it on again, and it just fit weird.  The skirt came up too high, the bodice looked weird, and there were tons of lumps and bumps along the waist line that shouldn't be there.  Again, I almost shelved it.

Not.good.

But I decided to give up on the dress and make it into a blouse and skirt.  I spent some quality time with my seam ripper and separated the skirt and bodice sections.  I added a 6" panel to the bottom of the blouse to make it long enough to tuck in easily, removed the back darts for extra ease (although I think I might add them back in) then added a waistband to the skirt and handpicked the zipper.  It still fits oddly in the waist (I blame shortening the yoke for the weird fit as the extended yoke portion that I lopped off in order to correct my cutting error is the part that narrows in for a nicely fitted waist.)  

I have enough strawberry fabric left to make something with it in the future, and I'll consider this project Lessons Learned.  I've decided that sewing gives one Mad Problem-Solving Skills.  At least it isn't a total loss.