Well, Fall weather will soon be here, so now is as good a time as
any to play with some plaid fabric (courtesy of a Sew Weekly Pattern Swap).
I just love when an entire dress can be made from bits and
bobs in the stash. And this dress was
one of those projects! Well, except for the zipper . . . but all in all, that is pretty darn good.
I found the bemberg rayon lining in a drawer. And miraculously, I had a dark brown spool of
thread on hand.
To break up the linear plaid I decided to cut the midriff
pieces on the bias. To keep everything from stretching out, I pulled a length of cotton from the stash and cut
duplicate pieces on the grain and treated them as an underlining.
This also was a bit of a relief for all of that plaid
matching. Actually, this particular
plaid was quite easy to match. Knowing
this, I still would have chosen to mess with the midriff section. I believes it makes things look a bit more
interesting!
I also found the bodice shaping very appealing. Silly me, I assumed that those lines were
darts (which could easily be substituted if you hate pleats) and one of these
days I will actually start reading the descriptions on the back of the pattern
envelopes, but this time it turned out to be a happy surprise. They add a little something different to a
very basic silhouette.
I like to use a french seam on my bemberg linings. It
gives me an opportunity to practice the technique, sometimes pressing
the first seam open, sometimes to one side, without having to worry about a
perfect and narrow finish on a delicate fabric with quite a bit of drape. At this point, the finish feels like second nature.
As I was putting my outfit together, I remembered a brown velvet ribbon belt that
I rescued from an old skirt. Instead of
wearing it at the waist seam, I opted for a mid-ribcage look (because of the
velvet nap, it stayed in place all day long!).
Dress: Made by me,
Vogue 8555
Shoes: Colin Stuart
for Victoria ’s
Secret
Necklace: Banana
Republic
