Kermes

So a funny story about this dress.  I put it on this morning and couldn't figure out why the pockets were flapping around weirdly, like they weren't attached properly at the waist band.  I figured it was due to the light weight nature of the fabric, or the fact that this fabric was hard to work with and perhaps I'd made a sewing error, and moved on with my morning.

While I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus home after drop off, I realized that my skirt was actually sewn on backwards and the pockets are wonky because they go to the back instead of the front.  Ha!  I will have to fix it at some point, but for now, the dress is still wearable even with the pockets going the wrong direction.  (I'm telling myself that they are rear pockets--for the win!)

Anyway.  This dress is another woven M7353, from Art Gallery rayon challis from their Heritage collection, the Kermes print.  I fell in love with it while I was on my Carson dress rampage, as I saw several things made from this print that were so lovely.  I've said before that Art Gallery fabric is a little dear, so I had to wait a few weeks to order it, but I was so happy to have it show up on my doorstep last week.

I will say that this rayon is quite different from Cotton+Steel rayon--it is much lighter and was quite a bit more difficult to work with.  It has a much more mechanical stretch to it, and wanted to shift and squirm with every chalk line I drew to cut it out.  I probably should have used a stabilizer first, but I wasn't expecting it to be so tricky, given my previous experience with challis.  (It reminds me of challis from the 1980s or 1990s; not a bad thing, in my view)  It has the additional advantage of being 58" wide, so I didn't have to piece the sleeves.  The fabric does have a lovely drape to it, a kind of floaty quality, and it is definitely a summer rayon as it is quite thin.  Good for today, which is supposed to top 90 degrees!

I love the colors in this print so much; it reminds me a lot of a vintage dress I wore a ton a few years ago that is now both too big and too fragile for regular wearing.  

Hand in the backwards pockets.  (I have been very tired lately; it is my only excuse for such a ridiculous sewing mistake!)  I cut this dress very similarly to the Magic Tulip rayon dress, except I added 1/4" to the top seam of the back bodice in addition to the 1/2" on the front.  I did have a bit more trouble getting all the bodice seams to line up on the underside, but I don't know if that was a grading issue or a fabric shifting issue; perhaps both.  Still, the extra 1/4" makes the sleeves just slightly more comfortable, so I'll probably keep that change for future woven versions.

But still.  A good dress, with sleeves, for hot weather.  Win-win!  I think it will carry nicely into the fall as well, maybe layered a bit with a navy sweater.