Planning and Design
I was originally planning to make this dress in a white cotton double gauze. But I kept thinking about how the gauze might not have quite enough structure for the A-line skirt. So I kept mulling over this and at the same time I was mulling over what project I could use as an excuse to buy the Konpeito Mandarin cotton from Fabulous Fabrics, since I love it so much. And then the two thoughts collided and I realised that the pattern would make quite a cute dress!
I decided to make this since it seemed like it would be a fast sew so I could mostly finish it before going on holiday to Japan. So I could feel accomplished after struggling to complete my Chambray shirts due to my wrist injury 😅
Materials
- Pattern
- Wide Strap Maxi Dress (Peppermint Magazine)
- Fabric
- Konpeito Mandarin Japanese Cotton (Fabulous Fabrics)
- Thread
- Rasant col. X2000
- Notions
- Organic Cotton Elastic – Ecru 40mm – Light (Pattern Scissors Frock)
Sustainability Check
👍 Fabric is 100% cotton
👍 Elastic is 65 cotton and 35% natural rubber. Biodegradable and recyclable.
🤏 Rasant is OEKO-TEX but not biodegradable.
Construction
Managed to be fairly economical with pattern piece placement and only used 2.5m of the 3m I bought (because it was 112cm wide fabric). I mostly remembered the steps but still referred to the instructions to make sure I wasn’t doing anything stupid. I quite like the pocket opening on this, I might add it to some of the shorts I plan to make.
I used my hemostat for the first time, it is a great tool! I damaged my right index finger nail manually turning the handles out for the library book bags so figured I should find another method…
Everything was going smoothly and I was thinking about what a simple project this was but then I got to pinning the side seams and they didn’t seem to match up. Well, the pocket markings definitely didn’t match up. So I double-checked my pattern pieces and for some reason the back was around 2cm shorter than the front. How odd, I’m pretty sure I didn’t redraw any of the pattern pieces from my wearable toile… I decided to try adjust the front piece instead of fudging an extension to the back piece. I machine basted the straps and tried it on and it all seemed fine. So redrafted the front facing piece to match the adjusted front.
It was also really great having the fusible tape for the hem, makes things so much faster. And for the back facing, I used wonder tape instead of the fusible just in case the fusible tape would make the casing smaller than the elastic I want to use. I topstitched the facing down along the top edge but then realised the instructions only had under stitching. I do find the topstitching on this garment to be pretty inconsistent. The pockets use 6mm offset, the hem and the bottom of the facing I understand being topstitching, but the front seam is topstitched just on one side, the straps aren’t topstitched at all and the top of the facing isn’t either. So I figure it doesn’t make a big difference that I topstitched it this time. Especially since the fabric is patterned, I think it would be a bigger deal if I was using a solid colour and especially if I was using contrast thread, as it would lose that ‘clean’ look to the facing.
I put the dress aside when I got to the elastic stage and I wanted to see if my wrist would heal more during my holiday. I didn’t want to aggravate it trying to pull elastic through a casing (since for some reason I always find this a very physical exercise LOL). It is a bit tricky stitching the elastic down directly in the side seam ditch, but I figure no ones gonna be staring at my armpit so all good.
Reflections
Took me a long time to photograph this because after I finished it I realised I didn’t have a suitable bra LOL. And then it wasn’t the right weather to wear this kind of dress anymore…will have to give it a test run when it’s springtime.
Things I learnt:
- While writing up this blog post I realised that the elastic will shrink 5-10% on first wash. I think it will be ok but I should probably check all my elastics and prewash if required.
- I invested in a bra that should be usable with all the dresses I plan to make
Categories: Sewing
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