I finally finished the damn thing — the Hotpatterns dress, that is.
I had *exactly* enough of the red flower material for the yoke — it’s Liberty, of course, from a piece I gotten in London years ago. (I made a blouse out of the rest and hardly ever wore it, because I don’t wear blouses. and then I tore the blouse. Arrgh.) I found it while digging through my gigantic bucket O’ Scraps for something else, held my breath and yes! There was enough. The main body of the dress is a remnant I gotten for $3 at vogue fabrics a couple years ago. (I gotten about eight yards of it, and I think I have enough for maybe one a lot more dress.)
I’m planning on doing a write-up of the pattern on PatternReview, because, my god, the instructions made NO sense. I finally gave up trying to follow them and just put the dress together the way that seemed logical to me. (They were also misspelled. $20 for a pattern must get me at least spell-check!) So if you are a beginning sewer and haven’t put in several dozen flat sleeves or can’t pull gathering in your sleep, don’t try this at home. The pieces fit together great, though, so once you figure out the order, it does go pretty well. I only had to “sew with the iron” (that is, press the hell out of pieces to make them join up well) once or twice, and those were probably my errors, not those of the pattern.
I really think this pattern would work best with lightweight fabric that has at least a little stretch, which is what I will try next time, even though I found three other liberty scraps that are dying to be put into service! I guess I could always make the main body in stretch and keep the yoke and waistband Liberty.
I’m a little unhappy with the neck–I have to look up that post in threads about what to make with gappy v-necks; you can see in the picture that it doesn’t lie as flat as I would like. and the midriff band is not completely even. but hey, it’s done, it fits, I really need to find a heavy jet bead choker to opt for it, and I’m wearing it tomorrow. and I’m sure that this will be construed in some jurisdictions as “permission to stalk”, but if you happen to be in new York (where I will be on Tuesday–not for anything to make with fashion Week, I hasten to add), and you see this dress on some random person, feel complimentary to say “Hey, aren’t you A dress A Day?” Whereupon I will blush like a rouged radish and stammer a confused affirmative.
Here’s a somewhat fuzzy closeup of the fabrics:
If I have time to hit Paron’s while I’m in nyc (doubtful) maybe I’ll get hold of some stretch lightweight black silk and see if I can resurrect the pink stretch silk camouflage print that I sacrificed to a failed project last year. I swear, the best part of this pattern is being able to use all the bits of fabric I’ve saved as too great to throw away but too small to do anything with. (I don’t quilt–rather, I don’t quilt WELL.)
Share this:
Twitter
Facebook
Like this:
Like Loading…
Related
Ten things I’m going to Make just As soon As I get around To ItDecember 11, 2008With 64 comments
Rude? Or just Clueless? Or Something Else?April 19, 2007
Finally, A new DressFebruary 11, 2009
