Tag: lawn

Summer dress three…

Panelled dress - front

Inspired by the dress I made last week, Vogue 1301, I made another one today. I drafted the pattern myself, using the Cochenille Garment Designer software, and made alterations as I went along. I forgot to lessen the amount of ease included, so the armholes are still a bit big, but overall I’m really pleased with this one.

As you can see, the seams are overlocked on the outside, making it super quick and easy to put together. The pockets look a bit high on the mannequin, but my waist sits higher than hers, so they’re actually in the perfect place for my hands.

Panelled dress - back

The belt is my usual 2″ sash, nice and long to make a bigger bow. The neck and arms are bound with vintage cotton bias binding. The fabric’s a cotton lawn from Fabric Land, and I think I have enough left over to make another dress!

The first priority is to make some kind of petticoat to go underneath. I’ve just ordered a 1970s lingerie book, having seen the gorgeous pictures on Miss Peelpants’ blog. I can’t wait to make some pretty things when that arrives. In the meantime I can wear the purple petticoat that goes with my my Phase Eight dress, which should make this one safe to wear for work.

Vogue 1301

Vogue 1301

This is Vogue 1301, a Koos van den Akker design. I’ve been stalking this pattern online for ages, so as soon as it appeared in the UK I snapped it up. The recommended fabrics are chiffon, georgette and gauze, all of which I hate sewing with a fiery passion, so I decided to go for a fine cotton voile instead. I also decided to go for plain black, figuring that would have an easier place in my wardrobe than the four contrasting prints pictured on the envelope! It also meant that I needed much less fabric – only three metres in total.

Despite being marked as “advanced”, the pattern came together really easily. All the seams are sewn on the outside, and then finished with the overlocker. The dress has a simple three-piece lining, so you don’t have to make the entire thing twice. I used cotton lawn for the lining, which was probably a mistake as the two layers tend to stick together. (And it shrank A LOT when I pre-washed it.) Next time I’ll use bamboo, which is much more slippery.

Vogue 1301

The finished dress is actually extremely full, although it doesn’t look it because the fabric’s so thin. It’s pretty shapeless, so I added a large belt. I think the only thing I’d change about this pattern is the shape of the armholes. They’re enormous! It does say “cut away” on the envelope, but they come down almost to my waist! So this dress can really only be worn with a vest or a t-shirt underneath, unless you don’t mind showing your bra to all and sundry.

The belt I made up as I was going along. The wide part is from Butterick 5371, and the ties are my usual 2″ fabric sash belt. The ties are offset (at the top on one side and the bottom on the other) so that they don’t get all tangled up as they cross over in the middle of the belt. They simply tie in a bow at the back. I lined the belt with velvet, the idea being to stop it from sliding around over the top of the dress.

I think I need a plainer belt for every day wear, but I’m really pleased with this dress. Although I made it for the summer, with a contrasting t-shirt and socks underneath, I think it’ll actually get a lot of wear all year round.

Handkerchief Hem Skirt

Handkerchief hem skirt

I’d been thinking about making myself a floaty black skirt for a while. My seersucker skirt‘s been worn almost to death, so I thought I ought to have a backup plan for the day it comes out of the washing machine in pieces. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for months, thankfully the fabric’s more resilient than I’d thought!

This time I wanted a more floppy skirt, full and drapey, with an asymmetric hem. I looked at patterns, browsed through fashion magazines, and eventually had a brainwave in the middle of the night. This is made from my simple circle skirt pattern… only instead of rounding off the hem of each quarter piece, you just leave it as a square! So it’s effectively four squares sewn together, with a little shaping at the top for the waist.

As usual it has pockets in the side seams, and my trusty elastic waistband. The edges were done very simply on the overlocker, because I didn’t want to make hems that might spoil the soft draping of the very thin cotton lawn. I’m not sure this would work as well in a heavier fabric (even a shirt-weight cotton might be too much), so next time I’d like to make one with two layers. If I offset the points at the hem I think it could look really pretty, especially if I went for contrasting colours.

The only problem with using a fabric as lightweight as lawn for a skirt (aside from it being a bit chilly if you happen to live in a country that’s apparently not having a summer this year) is that it creases like crazy! This skirt was beautiful when I took it off the ironing board (yes, believe it or not I did iron it!), but within seconds of putting it on it was all wrinkly again. I think I’m going to have to adopt the same approach as I have to linen, and simply not mind looking a bit crinkly around the edges.