Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Liberty Short-Sleeved Françoise Summer Dress


Well, I can't stop making summer dresses in Liberty fabric. It's SO awesome! This is my third, the 1st being a 3/4 sleeve and the 2nd sleeveless, so nobody can accuse me of repeating my projects, I needed a short-sleeved one!




Once you've sewn with or worn Liberty cotton Tara Lawn on your skin, you will never stop wanting more, believe me. It is soft and crisp at the same time and so sweet to work with... very light and cool when you wear it, but it is not sheer and it does not wrinkle like most cottons. Well, it is expensive but worth it, if you like their mostly flowery patterns. I bought this one in our last trip to London and it is candy for my eyes, my hands and my skin. The only pity about it is that I was in a hurry to finish it for my students' graduation day, I made it in two days of glorious sewing only. Too short!


The pattern is also a recurrent one, this is my third, but my previous ones were wool and viscose, both for winter and I wanted to try it with a light fabric and short sleeves. It proved as lovely as the thicker ones. The skirt side A seams are too pronounced, and they can point awkwardly at an angle sometimes, but it is still very becoming to my figure, feminine, elegant and also informal and cool. Now that I think of it, maybe the center back seam should also have more of an A shape, to be more equilibrated. I will try it next time, because I will probably make another Françoise some day.



The procedure was my usual one. I have the muslin pieces stored and I used them to mark the pattern into the fabric with tailor tucks. First I stitched the invisible zipper to the two back pieces and finished the central back seam. I then basted it and try it on to do the 1st fitting without attaching the sleeves. It seemed perfect. I proceeded to machine stitch darts and sides, self-enclosing the seams. I love to do this with Liberty fabric, it is so well-behaved!


I stitched the two seams in both sleeves and self-enclosed them too, attaching them to the dress bodice.
I had a 2nd fitting then, to decide the length of the sleeves. Everything looked perfect, so I went on to self-encase the raglan seams (these are tricky) and finishing the sleeves and the dress bottom hems, also self-encased.


The final step was to make the neck. I cut a shaped strip using the patterns all together, to avoid any seams in the facing. I applied to the dress, right sides together, pinning it and machine stitching it following the tailor tucks, and they were placed following the original pattern.


This was done between pressing and ironing again and again the pieces, the darts, and seams (first open, cut them, press the to one side) and the finished self-encased seams.


To complete the outfit, I made a gorgeous and very comfortable face mask, to go with the pandemic style. It is the most beautiful and nice to wear of all the ones I have... so I've been digging in my remnants bag for Liberty's 24x24 pieces. I will be sewing more face masks next.






With the remains of the fabric (I had 1.5 m in total), I made these wonderful mini shorts for the summer. 

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