Saturday, 7 June 2014

Laura: Cotton Summer Dress

This dress is made from a lovely soft cotton which I bought from Doncaster market when this challenge started. It’s quite a rigid fabric so I was struggling with the thought of making a dress out of it as I usually like my dresses flowing. Non the less I decided to ignore my instincts and I designed fitted bodice dress with a gathered waist skirt.




(not my best illustration, but it gets the idea across)

The pattern was a mixture of different patterns I already had made up.

The top was a simple bodice with the bust darts joined so they became a seam and the neckline cut into a V. The cute cap sleeves with a pleat in them and gathered skirt I used on my First dress of the challenge.

The cutting out
When I bought the fabric it wasn’t folded, so I pressed the fabric and folded it in half, along the length to create a fold line. I laid the pattern pieces on the fabric, the front panel of the skirt and the front bodice were laid on the fold line and the rest fit in around following the grain. (TIP: following the grain line of the fabric prevents the fabric twisting and warping when you sew the pieces together)





After the pieces were cut out I cut notches where the bust darts were going to be and chalked on the bust point (TIP: This is so that when I remove the pattern from the fabric I don’t lose where the dart is meant to be. I have done this plenty of times and then had to pin the pattern back to the fabric. VERY ANNOYING and time wasting)

The cap sleeves with a pleat



The gathered waist line


 (TIP: To easily gather, sew 2 long stitched lines 1 centimetre apart along the length pull the threads a bit on one end and tie in a knot. On the other side pull the threads as much as you want it gathering and even out the gathers out with your finger tips)



The zip



(TIP: over lock the fabric where the zip is going to sit before you sew in the zip)

The neckline

I over locked the neckline, then folded it over and stitched it in place.

Darts on the back 



This helps the dress have a closer fit

(TIP: Make sure all the edges are nice and neat inside as you sew.  Using an over locker saves me so much time)


The Hem


The hem was then over locked, folded and pressed over then stitched in place. nice and simple

The final dress


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