Seersucker Myostosis Dress Copy

What an adventure this project has been!
It started with the accidental buy of the fabric, via Stone Fabrics, as a replacement for a mistake: the denim fabric I ordered did not have stretch at all and they let me choose any replacement. So I choose this seersucker with no particular idea in mind, only because it is a lovely fabric.
I was pondering the different possibilities for months, looking at pinterest for seersucker blouses and dresses... and the first idea was something like this:

I used a previous bodice pattern and used a rectangle to gather the skirt. The result was a total disapointment. It did not flatter my figure at all and I could not see the solution.

 Before cutting the skirt into a bottom ruffle and to hell with the idea of a dress I saw Karen's Myostosis dress, a beautiful design I had seen before. Karen's figure is similar to mine, so if it was becoming to her, I could maybe go with it!

I started to alter the bodice, giving it more ease in the lateral seams and in the four darts.

 I cut the centre front and added a button placket in both sides and cut a V neckline. I stitched the centre back together. 

I made a bottom frill, but that was a gonner. Since the skirt was too short, I finally left the flounce at the bottom with no gathering.

 It looks kind of weird, I would have preferred it with horizontal lines, but my fabric was completelly finished.

 The result is quite nice. Problem is, autumn has arrived during all this trial and error, so I have not worn it yet in the real world to know how it really feels. Time to sew for autumn now!

The Gingham Menorca Dress

 In the first project after my travels this summer, I used the blue gingham I bought in Stoff & Stil, Goteborg. 
I decided to use the same pattern I made for my Menorca dress, which I love and wear a lot in summer, but with some hackering at the back. I made the Menorca dress using the rub-off method with and old dress I made 20 years ago. 

The skirt is cut in the bias and has only one seam at the centre back, where we can put a zipper. In this case, I decided to leave 10 cm open and no zipper. 

The bodice pieces are cut twice to make the facings complete and conceal thus all seams, sewing the bottom interior seam closed by hand. I made an enlargement of the two back pieces to construct the knot or bow at the back. 

As an afterthought, or rather as an adjustment after wearing it one day, I applied an elastic band under the bust, just on top of the imperial waist line, topstitching a line with the machine 0.6 cm over the imperial waist seam, introducing the elastic with a safety pin and securing it by hand. 

Now, it is perfect.

Black Printed Cotton Summer Dress

This is the first of my London fabrics I have made into a garment. Gorgeous Swiss cotton with a very nice print.
I chose a pattern from the "Patrones" magazine, because I wanted a shirt dress not cut at the waist. I also liked the darting and the neckline, which goes slightly up the neck. I had doubts about the sleeves, and I still have, haha!

Well, nothing fancy in the construction process... only the self-enclosed seams at the sides, and the interfaced and faced neck line. I made the buttonholes with the machine, and I stitched the buttons with a zigzag stitch with 0 length. I love sewing buttons with the machine, you save a lot of time, and the result is even better that when we hand-sew them.

All in all, it is a nice dress... but I am  not convinced about the rufled sleeves, about the neckline, which has a tendency to gap, and in general, about the fabric-pattern combination. In this sense, the fabric lacks some body for a pattern like this. On the positive side, the not-cut waist, the front and back darts and the shaping of side seams are really fattering to my figure and comfortable to wear.
For a possible future version, I make a note here to change the sleeves and use a fabric with more body.

Cotton Sundress

I bought this wonderful printed cotton in my summer holidays in Lisboa. It is made in Portugal, with a beautiful Japanese pattern, good quality old cotton, only at 9 Euros per metre. Traveling to Lisboa is worth it only for fabric hunting. And food. And Alfama. And weather, beaches, nice people...

When I came back, I decided to replicate another sundress I already have, this time to make it with a lower waist, since the first version is lovely but has this unconfortable problem.

So I used the same pattern than the previous version. The bodice is my pattern, with the waist enlargement modification, and the skirt is a masterpiece I love, by Burda. It is a flared skirt with inverted, unpressed pleats, two in front and two in the back.

I self-encased all the seam allowances in the dress, and topstitched them, since black thread is really invisible in this fabric.

First, I finished the skirt with a waist band, and then I made the bodice, sewing it to the same waistband, which becomes invisible, but works as a stay to the waist when wearing the dress. I had to calculate precisely the waist measure to make it conformtable to wear, not to tight or loose.

I also modified the shoulders, moving them towards the inside, because in the previous version they had a tendency to fall off.
I installed a 70 cm long zipper in the back. Due to the waist sructure, this cannot be sewed as invisible, but as the old lapped zipper thing.

The dress is very confortable to wear, beautiful and becoming, I think. Total success!







 

Menorca Dress

We sewers-bloggers always explain three processes when we report a new project:

1.  How did we get the fabric
2.  How did we make the pattern 
3. How did we get the inspiration (which often comes along process 1 or/and 2) 

Well, this particular project was ignited by the fabric. I was on holiday in Menorca (wonderful, wonderful island), which is quite close to the place we live: inland Catalonia, we have planes in summer which fly straight there. We spent some days in Ciutadella and some more in Maó, and I explored the fabric shops in both of them. Curiously, all of them had some of the same stuff, you know, being an island... but I found one that was particularly well assorted and its owner very nice and knowing of her product. She understood my need for natural fibers at once and helped me find the perfect fabric: an embroidered white cotton. And it was the end of the bolt, so I got a very good price too!
It was only 1.2 x 1.15 m, and it had an alongside embroidered border that I wanted to save for the dress hem. 
The fabric brought the inspiration, I was not in Ibiza, but very close to it, and I had a small piece of white cotton, so I started to think about the dress I would make.
Back home I had this old summer dress, so old I only wear it around the house, comfy and becoming, so I decided to rub it off.
After rubbing off the bodice and having a fitting session with it, and saw it was small at my boobs (which I had compensated, 20 years before, by elongating the back???!!!) Curiously there was too much fabric in my upper chest, so I remembered Karen's words and decided to make a FBA, which worked wonders:

For the skirt of the dress, I folded the dress by the back zipper (its only seam all around), and after securing it with pins, I placed over the bias-folded fabric, and cut.

I saw the dress was resulting too sheer, so I ripped and old white cotton dress, and used the fabric for an underskirt, The bodice I made it double, using the inside one as facing.

For the bottom hem, I cut the embroidered detail to the thread's rim, ans stitched to the skirt bottom with an embroidered stitch my machine has:

The result is wonderful, I am really happy with it. Comfortable, cool and becoming to my summer tan.

Liberty Dress

   

This project was inspired by its fabric (2m x 1.35m), of course. Karen in her blog explained about Liberty Tara Lawn cottons and I decided that I absolutely needed a dress made of it for my holiday this summer. I ordered from Liberty's and it cost me 80 Euros with shipping costs, but it is a wonderful fabric. The only drawback is that some patterns, like this one, are in fact repetitions of a small illustration, and the overall effect  is a little bit weird, so be careful to see the whole picture before you decide among the mountain of possible patterns they offer. Everything Karen said is true: it is a very thin fabric but it does not show though. It is a sweet cotton, wonderful to work with, and it barely wrinkles. I think it is completely worth it.

 

I was in love with this pattern at first sight, and I thought it would render beautifully with my Liberty cotton. It is from Patrones magazine, which we can buy in Catalunya. I am lucky enough to have it in the library bus that visits us every month.

I copied the pattern to the muslin, which was necessary in this case: expensive fabric+ new pattern. In the first fitting I saw that I need to lengthen the waist and modify the pattern for large bust. I followed the instructions in Armstrong's book:

 

The modification was successful. In the past, I would have used a bigger size, or added some fabric at the side seams or even in the back zipper (OMG!!!), wherever I could get some extra space for my big boobs, haha... but of course that means you loose the equilibrium and right proportions in the rest of the bodice.

Another process I learned along this project (man, I am on fire!!) was the invisible zipper application. I only had to buy a special leg for the sewing machine and watch a video in the net. That simple. Problem is, my zipper is not invisible at all. I think it is even beautiful in this design, but I really have to know how to make it disappear.
 

 

The sleeves a seamed in the middle and were perfect at first fitting. Good! I love perfect sleeve caps. I had some doubts with the flounces at the sleeves, design wise, but my image advisor said they were nice, and in fact I think they add some movement and life to the design.

I also took special care with the neck. I applied some fusible interlining to the facing, and machine stitched it to the right side of the dress, following the interlining as a guide. I trimmed carefully the hem to 0,5 cm and cut slashing lines to the stitches. Then I pressed it upwards and stitched the facing to the hem allowance. When I turned it down, the curve of the neck was just perfect. I secured it to the dress with a picking stitch.

 

I have some doubts about the inferior flounce. Although I like it being almost invisible, as an extension of the skirt, it is more visible in the magazine design. This might be due first to the different hemming method. I simply zig-zagged the bottom of the dress and left it raw, instead of making a small double folded hem which would have added flare to the flounce. 

 

I decided to encase all the seam allowances in themselves and topstitch them, since the thread is invisible in this pattern. That makes the dress perfect outside and inside, and easier to iron after washes.

 

I premiered it for a special occasion and received several compliments, both for the dress and for the fabric. I felt like a princes with that light and beautiful fabric flying around me, and after a long day of working with kids, sitting with them on my lap, the dress had barely a wrinkle.