Watermelon, watermelon

Now this is a dress than I'm genuinely happy about.  It has a little bit of a back story, so grab a cuppa and settle in. 

Last summer, Frances at Polka Polish made a playsuit from this fabulous watermelon fabric.  I was completely taken with the fabric and what she made.  I thought to make a Portrait blouse and a less full skirt with what I had, and as I had made several two-piece dresses last year, and the versatility appealed to me.  I found enough fabric from two different etsy sellers, and then never got around to making anything while the weather suited the fabric pattern.

Then Beccie at Sew Retro Rose hosted a Swirl sew-a-long this fall, and I bought the graded Swirl pattern from her, intending to make up my watermelon fabric as a Swirl!  Swirls are back-wrapped dresses that were made commercially in Philadelphia by the Swirl company starting in 1944.  They eventually relocated to the South, but Swirl dresses were made until the late 1970s or early 1980s.  They are very comfortable and versatile, and a great house dress!  The basic design didn't change much from the mid-40s until the company stopped producing them, and there are tons of great prints and interesting appliques that were used throughout the years.  

I found an additional yard of fabric to make the yardage required for the wrapped Swirl, but then...well.  The fall kicked our family's health down the block, so I didn't get around to it.  I did have a great time hanging out in the Swirl-A-Long Facebook group, though.

This spring, I was determined to get this fabric made up!  I still had big plans to make that Swirl, but I was a little nervous about the pattern--my first go at putting the pdf together had produced a pattern that was at least two sizes too small.  We talked it through in the Facebook group and realized that those of us in the United States needed to print on legal paper as Beccie had sized the pattern to be printed on A4 paper, which is a little bit longer/wider than standard letter size.  I had the pattern printed at Kinko's on legal paper and it came out properly the second time through.

By the time I actually got around to cutting, I had two 2 yard lengths and one 1 yard length, for a total of 5 yards, which is what you need for a Swirl in my size (wrapped dresses are very fabric hungry!)  I cut out the front bodice from the 1 yard piece, and thought it seemed rather large and wide.  I compared it to my Frankenpattern bodice, which is shaped very similarly and it was at least two sizes bigger!  I checked the skirt piece against my body and realized it was going to come out two sizes too small!  I just didn't have it in me to grade both pattern sections and fiddle with the fitting.  I also realized that I'm not really a fan of wrapped dresses or skirts--I spend enough time in windy conditions and running around after children that I want to be sure my clothing isn't going walkabout.

So I pulled out my Frankenpattern and recut the bodice and decided to do a pleated straight skirt instead of my normal McCall's skirt bottom.  I cut two rectangles to length, and then pleated the front piece to the width of the bodice, with the pleats in the dart positions rather than all the way across to reduce bulk around my middle.  I used the Hollyburn pocket to create a self-faced pocket just to the side of the pleating.  I made a big inverted box pleat in the back, but split the skirt piece in two in order to accommodate the back zip.  I could have just split it in the middle to the length of the zip, but I wasn't quite sure how to insert the zipper that way, and I was already a bit frustrated with this project.

I finished the whole dress, tried it on, and realized that the bodice was too long, and that the back skirt was pulling down on the bodice to be almost a dropped skirt.  I also realized that the inverted box pleat in the back was going the wrong direction on one side.  So I pulled off that skirt panel, re-pleated it in the correct direction, and reattached it.  I re-sewed the bodice to the skirt a little bit higher up (I probably could have made it even shorter, but I didn't want to risk making it too short) 

 I'm pretty happy with the result!  The basic problem is the fabric--it has quite a bit more mechanical stretch than I am used to in my fabrics (if I didn't know better, I'd almost think it had some spandex in it), so the weight of the skirt wants to pull the bodice down.  The dress is also just a smidge too big, but I'm okay with it--it is meant to be a breezy dress for digustingly hot weather, and a little breathing room never hurts in that case.  The dress does look better with my dark green leather belt, but it is supposed to be 87 degrees today, and I didn't want to be constricted around the middle, so I used the sash I made instead.

 

I found some watermelon-inspired earrings and a brooch on etsy to wear with this dress, and I'm really happy with them too.  They are subtle enough to wear with other things too, I think.  I'm also really happy with the sweep of this skirt--I really don't like super full skirts, and this is just enough for a slightly full skirt, I think.  I used bright green lace hem tape on the bottom hem, and it just makes me happy.

I had three little watermelon-colored buttons that coordinated perfectly, so I sewed them to the top of the bodice--subtle, but a nice little detail.

Watermelon Not-A-Swirl dress: Joann branded fabric, bought via etsy; buttons and trim via etsy

Brooch and earrings: etsy

Dansko sandals: via ebay