Right. So here's a dress I'm still not sure about. As part of my quest to find a TNT dress pattern for this season of my life, I had a dig through my pattern stash and remembered I had the Staple Dress from April Rhodes. I'd never made it because I bought it when I was making Dottie Angel frocks all the time and it seemed too similar. (Also, I tried to modify my DA pattern once on a rayon dress to mimic the look and let's just say it didn't go well).
So it was with fear and trembling that I embarked on this endeavour. I have some rayon in my stash from last year that was from Pat Bravo's Indie Folk line. It is gorgeous, but I don't want to use it on just anything. Plus, I find it is hard to find patterns that marry up well with rayon challis.
 |
| I was playing around with various options while sketching, and while I didn't ultimately combine the patterns, the result is similar in silhouette. |
I think what I really want for it is an Ogden cami dress (either knee or maxi-length) but I can't commit to the silhouette because I'm pretty sure that it won't look good on me because the top is blousy. Also: I hate wearing a belt in the summer. Or pretty much any time. And I'm not a fan of strapless bras.
So the Staple dress. I bought some super cheap printed rayon challis on fabric.com that mimicked the drape of my rayon and set to making a wearable muslin. (Side note: why it is that rayon challis is either dirt cheap or stupidly expensive? There doesn't seem to be a quality difference to me).
Details. I decided I needed a medium on top, but couldn't decide if I needed a large or extra-large on the bottom, as I'm right between the hip measurements, and measuring the pattern didn't particularly reassure me. I ended up grading from an extra large at the hem to a medium just above the waist line and I think that was the right call, although honestly, I think the top is a bit blousy and I could stand to go down to a small on top. (But then the shoulders might not fit well. It's a slight squeeze in the sleeeves as is). I also added 3" of length, because April must be much smaller than me. As drafted it would have been 37" long. (Although, I'm digging shorter lengths these days, so maybe it would have been okay).
My main problem was that the inseam pockets did not line up side to side. At all. As in, one of my pocket openings is barely functional because I had to trim so much off the pocket to make it work. Rayon is pretty shifty, so perhaps the fault was mine when I made my markings, but I will keep it in mind if I make another one.
My next problem was in the shirring. I tried, I really did, but Berninas are not set up to shirr. I tried it the way that Rae recommends (who also uses a Bernina, but a newer model than mine), I tried it the way the manual for my machine recommends and nada. It just didn't work. So I ripped it all out and started again. I made a casing with some 1/2" bias tape on the inside, seamed in the middle, and then threaded two 1/4" elastics through the channel with some difficulty. The reason I didn't just put the 1/4" elastic on the inside as instructed is that when I've done this in the past it always looks bad on me. I thought perhaps the combination of a casing+double channel elastic might mimic the shirring a bit better. I think it does, but it still feels like a hot mess to me.
So not a stunning success, but still a wearable garment that will be lovely and cool in the disgusting summer swamp I live in. (And we are going somewhere even hotter in July--oh joy--so it should be good for that too). I still don't know what to do with my Indie Folk rayon, but I think I'm just going to save it for now. Better to get a dress pattern I truly love than waste my nice fabric just to make it up.
I mentioned over the weekend that I had a bunch of sewing fails in March. What I'm not going to show you are: a Stasia dress that came out so tight I looked like a sausage casing in flamingo pink, a red calico Washi dress in a maxi length that just didn't suit me, a wool crepe jumper that was horrid beyond belief, and a knit Washi that is frumptastic on me. Blerg.
The Stasia dress pattern could be salvaged by going up a size, but honestly, I'm just ground down about sewing right now. I have one more make to show you tomorrow (a relative success), and some things I made for the girls, but I gotta say: Sewing is not doing it for me right now. I usually make most of my girls' clothes for the summer, and I do most of my sewing for that around now, but after making them each a shirt and a dress, I'm just done. The process of making those garments was not fun, and I found myself gritting my teeth through each make, just trying to get it done. On the upside, I was able to recycle two of my old dresses to make theirs, so at least there's that.
I ended up going on amazon and old navy and buying them what they need for the warm weather this year and I don't feel bad about it at all. I've also been thrifting a lot for myself because I can't seem to find what I want to wear right now, and there is a lot less investment in trying on a thrifted garment that can be returned than getting fabric and notions, fitting a new pattern, taking the time to sew it all up and then find it doesn't really work for me. I do regret the waste of those failed makes, but hopefully someone else will thrift them and love them instead.
