It's Toile Time!

[b15erk]

All but finished now, just the buttons to do, and guess what, I have no suitable buttons!  Amazon it is then 

The facing/yoke finishing that I was fretting about, turned out to be easy.  I just overlocked, and then ran a row of stitch in the ditch along the back yoke.

I have made mistakes on this dress, with hindsight I should have practised the yoke/sleeve arrangement first, it's straighforward, but I haven't done one like that before, and I overthought it.  Also, instead of Overlocking, I should have done a HK finish on the back neck facing.

The next one will have a pleat at the back though, as I'm really not fond of gathered backs.  I could alter it, but it would be a lot of faffing around at this stage.

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

Jessie

[b15erk]

Having almost (just needs buttons) finished this Shawl Collar Shirt Dress, I'm fancying another.

I have four choices of fabric.  A heavy-ish lilac cotton mix, with a lovely drape; a beautful Glazed Cotton (I think)  less drape, but fabulous Fuschia Pink flowers; then there's multi colour with a very 60's psychedelic vibe, quite heavy, lovely drape, totally man-made-something...; last is I think favourite for the challenge, a really nice cotton lawn, not much weight to it, and definitely sleeveless (not a lot of fabric).

While I'm umming and ahhing deciding  :thinking: , I'll do some paperwork.

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

Jessie

[b15erk]

And then I found this

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

It's been in the stash longer than I can remember, and is a lovely cotton lawn.  I keep hauling it out, and putting it back again, as I found the design too challenging.  I've decided though, that this pattern is perfect for the experiment.

I plan on doing a two piece back, with sleeves is I can get it out of the fabric.

I may be some time cutting this out...

Jessie

[b15erk]

All cut out now, but hardly following a plan, it's cut as well as I could get it out of the fabric, which is three very large sideways patterns.  Unfortunately, the fabric also had a great chunk cut out of it on one of the pattern repeats.  I decided to go with it anyway and reduce the stash.

I wasn't able to cut out big sleeeves like the last one, as I didn't have enough suitable pattern fabric left.  So, I've used the original sleeve, but had to go shorter. 

Just had a sandwich while was typing this, so I'm going back to fuse some interfacing.  I might as well, as I have some ironing to do anyway.

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

 
Jessie

[b15erk]

Time to try on, when disaster struck!  Up to this I thought it didn't looke too bad...
 
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

  

Jessie

[Surest1tch]

That fabric is beautiful @b15erk

[b15erk]

It is lovely fabric to work with @Surest1tch , but unfortunately the pattern is set at irregular intervals , which I only realised when I tried the dress on.  The pattern is out by about 2" on the front button band.

I've nearly finished it now, but can't think that I'll ever wear it...

Jessie

[b15erk]

I did a very silly thing.  Even knowing that the pattern wasn't matching at the front, I went ahead and finished it, and it looked awful - the eye was drawn straight to it.

So, my answer to it, is to unpick the left front - I cant do the right front, as I have done, and cut buttonholes.  Then, I will re-cut it, 4cms higher.  This will leave the left front 4cmc short, and I'll either find a scrap to extend it, or, have a hi-low front...

First, press and re-cut...

Jessie

eta The inseam pockets were really good, but I may end up with just one ...

[b15erk]

Almost there with the alteration.  I removed the left front of the dress - lots of difficult unpicking as it has all been overlocked.  Tbh, I should have removed both fronts, and moved one up and one down, but, hindsight came too late...

It wasn't as bad as I expected, I just had to keep checking that the fronts were matching after moving the pattern piece up by 4.5 cms, which is what is needed to make the match.  It all went very well, although the seams had stretched out a bit, so I had to keep steaming them.  The pocket isn't quite as good as the first one, but I did manage to save it.

The one thing that I've tried - which I wasn't intending to, was adding an piece to the hem.  I was intending to go for a hi-low hem, but then I had the idea to add a piece of fabric to the shorter hem... I had no matching fabric, so I made do with an almost match.

I will rely on TSP members to tell the truth.  Should I have stuck with my original idea for a hi-low hem, or does this look OK?  I was just loathe to lose the extra length.

Off to do finishing touches now - snipping threads, neatening the inside, and giving the whole dress a darn good steam.

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

Jessie

[toileandtrouble]

looks good to me.

[b15erk]

Well, it's done, and I'm not altering it any more - I've spent far too much time on this.

I'll leave the hem as it is - unless DD (AKA Hawkeye) notices, then I'll consider changing.  TBH if I need to do that I may well cut it down to a shirt...

I love this pattern - the bodice is lovely, but the skirt    I may have a think about re-modelling the style of the skirt - it just looks so   

Now to continue with my entry for the 2:1 competition, and I'll draw a line under this pattern - for the time being...

  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
   [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]  

Jessie

[Lachica]

Great pattern matching @b15erk.

[SewRuthieSews]

I think that's worked out really well, you have some fun fabrics to pull from in your stash.

I've got a few of those older Style patterns, though I'm guessing either my mum or my ex MIL gave them to me as I'm almost the wrong vintage (I'm 51 but was sewing as a teen in the 80s). As ex MIL was sewing larger sizes, those are more likely to work for me.

[toileandtrouble]

You could continue the joining line round the rest of the skirt and make it look like a deep hem.

[realale]

That's a good save @b15erk and well executed. Unless you point it out I doubt many people would notice the extra you've added as it's so well matched. Anyway, it's a design feature isn't it?!!