A Day Dress

I have had some success with Charm Patterns offerings, and also had some issues (this jacket facing comes to mind).

But the latest release had me intrigued.

Intrigued enough to deal with taping many, many pieces of paper together.  (I am not a big fan of PDF patterns.)

I cut the oversized pocket on the bias so that it would stand out, and also so I didn't have to worry about matching some portion of the on grain pocket with the skirt.

I think Archie approved of the choice!

The pattern instructions use one of my favorite techniques which uses a scrap of silk organza to stabilize an internal corner.

I highly recommend this option for any gusset you may come across in the future.

I strayed from the instructions for the application of the actual gusset, though.  They wanted the small triangle top-stitched into place.  I prefer to stitch the actual seam and pivot at the corner before doing any top-stitching.

At this point I was slightly concerned that the dress wasn't coming out the way that I had envisioned it.  But there was no sense in stopping at this point.

For the interior tie, I pulled out some white petersham that I had stashed away.

My fabric has an off white color included in the mix, so I decided to tea dye for a better match.  The tie will not actually be visible when worn, but I will know it's there!

I did encounter a bit of confusion with the buttonholes.  They are not actually marked on the bodice front which was slightly disconcerting to me.  Also, I did not relish the idea of using a machine to make the buttonholes, and a hand worked version would have been problematic because this particular textile has a tendency to fray.

In the end, my trusty bound buttonholes came to the rescue.  I did have to pleat the opening edge into place before working the bound buttonholes, but it wasn't as much of a pain as I though the spacing might be.

And I had just the right contrasting buttons to use.  I believe these came from an estate sale some years ago, and I still have a bunch of the mother of pearl buttons which seem to come in handy quite frequently (as seen here).

Provided the fabric isn't too sheer or lightweight, bound buttonholes have yet to let me down.

I used a fusible interfacing even though my fabric probably didn't require the extra stability.

And at this point, I decided that perhaps this dress was going to turn out okay.

I finished my edges with seam binding, per usual.

The waistband went on without issue.

I do like a waistband treatment like this because of the lovely interior finish.

As for my fabric choice, it was perhaps a bit on the heavy side.  Those gathers were a chore to get pulled up to the proper length, and those sections are perhaps more bulky than the should be.

But in the end, it worked.

I do love once the seamlines start getting finished, and the garment starts to come together.

Buttons were stitched into place after I fused a small piece of fusible interfacing to the interior.  As designed, those buttons are sitting in the middle of the bodice so they have no other reinforcement.

I also used bound buttonholes on the waist tab.  Those were not the most fun thing to turn right side out!

But I wasn't too sure about the asymmetric button placement; something looked off to me.  So I decided to add two more buttons as decoration to fill out the waistline treatment.  This leaves five bodice buttons and five waistband buttons, and somehow, that looks better to my eye.

In the end, I am quite pleased with this dress. 

It's a classic design, easy to wear, and I think it looks rather nice on.  The only real downside is the amount of yardage required.  Then again, a different skirt could be easily substituted to save on quite a bit of fabric.  So I may try that at some point in the future (might as well reuse the pattern pieces since I went to the trouble of taping them together!).