The St. Paddy's Day Dress Part 2: The Curse of the Busy Print

I love my St. Patrick's Day dress. It's comfortable and fun to wear, however, I discovered something interesting while wearing and photographing it. Due to the busy nature of the print, the details are rendered invisible...which makes me think I needn't have bothered with the details.

Somewhere in this photo are a belt and two pockets. 

The pockets on the dress are adorable, fun to make...

and invisible:

The belt is really cute...

and invisible:

Granted if you get close, you can see them...but I don't know if I want people squinting at my midsection, trying to make out details.

Next time around, I'm making the dress out of linen--solid-colored linen that will show detail--and I'm going to embroider the neckline and pocket using the iron-on design that came with the pattern. The pattern front assures me that the embroidery is "simple to make" and I'm hoping they mean simple for a person like me.

 Below is a photo of my first embroidery project, which I started when I was ten. I keep it to remind me not to start embroidery projects. It was supposed to be a bib for my baby cousin. You might notice that it's not a bib...that's because I think my baby cousin was in junior high by the time I finished it.

But I gave quilting cotton another try and really love my dress, so maybe I'll have similar luck when I try my hand once again at embroidery. Stay tuned...

The St. Paddy's Day Dress Part 1

I fell in love with this print when I saw it in the quilting section of a fabric store. It's been a long time since I've made anything out of a good old quilting cotton, so I thought why not? It'll be perfect for St. Patrick's Day. [Side note: Once upon a time, the only fabric I had available to me was quilting cotton, so that's what I made my dresses out of. Many was the time that some well-intentioned soul would seek me out to tell me that my frock matched their pillows, quilt, bedspread, curtains, etc. Because of that, as soon as I had another source of fabric, I abandoned quilting cotton and never looked back...until now.]

For the pattern I chose was Simplicity 3608 from 1951. I'll definitely make this pattern again.

I had to grade it up one size and shorten it 6 inches.

A dress like this calls for a smart belt. Fortunately I had just the belt kit in my stash of stuff.

The dress features an actual kick pleat instead of a slit. Here's the underside (kind of hard to see, but if you look closely you can see the fabric backing for the pleat:

And the right side...

Kick pleat in action...

I had a hard time deciding how to do the shoulder tabs. The pattern shows them sticking up. 

And here they are tacked down:

I tried wearing them sticking up, but they kind of bothered me. Here I am in San Francisco, the day  before St. Patrick's Day with my shoulder tabs sticking up. After we got done taking the photos, I tacked the shoulder tabs down. I prefer them that way.

Another shot of the dress. The sun was so bright everything washed out, but I think you can see the fit.

Before we got done taking photos, I made a friend...

One thing I really loved about this dress and the fabric, is that it didn't wrinkle. I packed the dress in a small suitcase, pulled it out a day later and it looked like I'd taken it off the hanger. If no one tells me that I match their cushions in the next few days, I might just make another sortie into the quilting cotton section of the fabric store.

Vogue 8850

This is the finished dress looking dramatic
against the curtains that hide my pressure
tanks. 

As I continue my stash/slash mission, I decided to tackle Vogue 8850, a 1951 design. Since my last two experiences with Vogue re-issues have been challenging (although they ultimately had happy endings), I decided that this time I would make a muslin. And not a slap dash muslin like the one that got me into trouble with Vogue 1136.

In the fabric stash I found some rather strange midnight blue rayon that I'd bought to make my 1940s Sew for Victory outfit last spring. I ended up making a linen suit, so the rayon was taking up space.

When I say that the rayon is strange, I mean that although it drapes well, it has a cheap-suit shine to it and seems to be more of a costume fabric than a wearing fabric. I also found out that it scalds easily and that super glue melts it. (Don't ask.)  

Apparently the third time is a charm for Vogue re-issues, or maybe I've just gotten wiser, because this dress went together easily.The top was a lot of fun. It required chalk lines and basting and actually paying close attention to the directions instead of glancing quickly at the pictures before making command decisions.

The shoulder drape is made by gathering part of the right front bodice and sewing it to the tab. 

A separate piece of fabric is attached to the left front bodice to make the lower bodice drape.

I adjusted for sloping shoulders and a high waist before sewing things together for a change, and the bodice fit well. Since this is technically a muslin, I did something I rarely do and pinked the edges instead of finishing them.

The drape is the reason I made this dress. I mean, who doesn't love a drape? It's a large semi-circle of fabric, gathered and attached at the waist so that it appears to be one with the shoulder drape.

I hung the dress for a couple days before hemming, just in case the drape stretched. Guess what? It stretched.

I hand rolled the hem of the drape for practice. I've always meant to learn to hand roll a hem, but never actually tackled the job until now. It came out well and I'd do it again, but I might wait until I have a football game or something to watch on TV.

And here I am in the dress. If I make it again (after reducing the stash, of course) I think I'll make it in charmeuse, just to add to the fun. I think the fluidity of charmeuse in this design would be stunning.

All in all, this was a good experience and now I know how to tackle the fit problems I've had with Vogue re-issues. 

In a side note, I've now reduced my stash by 10 yards of fabric! Next up...a sun dress.

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