Rhapsody in Blue

Here is the finished dress - finally!

I was so enamored of the Butterick 6413 bodice, I decided that I needed to make a second version of the dress, this time with a circle skirt.

One floral fabric design later, with some digital printing help from Contrado, and my creative vision is complete!

I had to cheat to make everything fit on my yardage, so the skirt is slightly less full than a complete circle, but it still turned out almost exactly as I had hoped.

In fact, I was so pleased with the way it turned out, I couldn't be bothered to wait for the warm weather to arrive before wearing this one out a few months ago.

This particular garment has already had another outing now that warm temperatures have arrived.

I just love how comfortable this is to wear.  And my obsession with tea length dresses is far from over.

I still have the finished version of the pencil skirted version of this dress to show you, so you have not seen the last of this pattern.  And if the bodice was not quite as distinctive, I might be tempted to make another!

Dress:  Made by me, Butterick 6413

[Disclosure:  Contrado provided me with this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]

Genus Rosa

My original plan for this fabric was to attach a circle skirt to the bodice pieces of Butterick 6413.  

Unfortunately, I just could not make the circle skirt fit on my yardage without cutting one of the skirt pieces upside-down, which I really did not want to do.  This print is directional and I know I would regret cutting one of the skirt sections wrong side up.  I cut the back skirt pieces, taking a slight wedge out of the circle to narrow the piece.  This means that the center back is no longer cut on grain, but I would rather have that issue than have the print upside down!

With the "scraps" leftover from cutting the skirt, I was easy to cut all of the bodice pieces.  I was even able to do a pretty good job matching the roses.

To stabilize the neckline I used rayon seam binding.

For the lining, I had just enough fabric to cut a duplicate bodice out of my fabric.  I did not have enough blue bemberg on hand, and there was really not enough of the rose print for another project, so I went with the roses.

I deviated from the given instructions slightly because I do not like to have both the fashion fabric and lining stitched together before inserting a zipper.  That application has always seemed sloppy to me - if I am using a lining, why not enclose everything?  And I certainly don't mind the hand sewing.

Perhaps I should have used a lighter weight fabric for the lining, because when it came time to gather the upper bodice, gathering everything down to two inches was challenging.

I attempted to bend the fabric to my will with the help of a zig-zag stitch.

But my machine had other plans.  I can count on one hand the number of times a needle has broken on me, and each time it scares me half to death.  The sound my machine made was  horrible, which does not help.

Everything turned out okay for the dress and the machine, in the end.  I did have to use a thimble and a very thick needle to get everything gathered, but I won the battle.

There is still a bunch of finishing work to be done, including the dreaded evening out of the skirt hem, but this is definitely beginning to look like a dress!

[Disclosure:  Contrado provided me with this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]

Fabric Design with Contrado

I was recently contacted by Contrado with an offer to try out their fabric printing services.  Yes, please!

They offer a massive amount of textile choices (over 95) - maybe a little too many!  Navigating the fabric selections was challenging for me, and names like "Archway" and "Boston" are not especially helpful when trying to suss out the natural fibers from the synthetic - if I had to change anything about the experience, it would be that.  There are various filters to apply while perusing the online fabric selection, but none of them include fiber content.  Contrado was kind enough to send me a swatch pack to make the choice a bit easier.  The swatches also make it easy to see how fabric content affects the dye. 

And there are a few natural fibers to be found.  I was very tempted by the Lima Cashmere which is a wool/silk blend.  There is also a Viscose Twill, and even a Silk Satin.  In the end, I decided to go with Cotton Satin.  It is 100% cotton sateen with a nice mid-weight hand.

Then it was time to come up with a design.  And surprise, surprise, I went with roses.  This time around, I decided to learn just enough of Illustrator to create a repeating pattern.  For fabric design, I think it is definitely a better choice than Photoshop.  The fact that I can make something as large or small as I want is fabulous.  Hooray for vectors!  And because it is so difficult to find oversized florals at the fabric store, I went big!  

Once I was happy with the design, I uploaded it to the Contrado website.  It was easy to rotate the image so it follows the cross grain (I intend to make a circle skirt that will have to be cut crosswise).  And here is the actual fabric!  It arrived a mere four days after I completed my order, which is awesome. 

Before sending my yardage through the wash, I cut a bit off to see just how much the hand and/or color would change.  The fabric is still quite crisp after a bath.  There is perhaps a tiny bit of fading if I stare at it closely, but not as much as I expected with the darker colors, and certainly not noticeable if I do not have my original reference scrap.

And now it's time to cut this up and start sewing!

[Disclosure:  Contrado provided me with this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]

Cutting into the Good Stuff

My fabric has arrived - all seven yards of it!  My Fabric Designs does not have an option to purchase half or quarter yards (although I hear that there is a possibility this may change in the future), and I was not sure that six would be enough.  The pattern repeat is rather large, and I did not want to end up short.  This has turned out for the best because all I have left is small scraps now that everything has been cut out.

But first things first . . . I tested my fat quarter in some soapy water before hand washing all seven yards.  Even with a bit of scrubbing, there does not appear to be any color transfer when the fabric is wet.

Before cutting into the print, I needed to cut out the underlining layer.  This time around, I used a mid-weight quilting cotton.

Yellow tracing paper was used to transfer my stitching lines to the underlining.  The marks are easy to see, but not so visible that they will show through the cotton/silk fabric.

Next, the underlining was pinned, cut out, and hand basted to the cotton/silk.

And then the fun begins!

There is a whole lot of hand sewing to be done, which just so happens to be my favorite!

[Disclosure:  My Fabric Designs provided me with a coupon code which was used to purchase a portion of this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]

Rose de France

Just around the time I started my fabric design journey, it came to my attention that The Marin Symphony is having a fundraising event next month.

And you know what that means . . . time to make a new dress!

Pictures of this vintage Dior dress have been haunting my dreams for many years, and I have decided to do something about it.  So, of course, I needed an oversized floral fabric.  And this is what I came up with.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed some of the prep-work for the actual dress.  I am trying my hand at draping, and also using pieces from different patterns I am familiar with to get to my ideal design.

There are not very many images of the actual dress, and the print makes visualizing details a bit challenging, but I am going to do my best to create my own version of this gorgeous floral confection!

[Disclosure:  My Fabric Designs provided me with a credit which was used to purchase this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]

[Click on images for source]

Swatches

For my first My Fabric Designs order, I decided to get swatches of my designs to see how everything translated from computer screen to textile.

I have to commend their customer service - every one of my emails has received a quick response with answers to all my questions.

From placing the order to delivery took nine days, right in the window of the 7-10 day delivery noted on the website.

And now that I have the fabric in hand, I have to say that it is rather thrilling to see my own design printed on fabric!

For my blossoms, I added a subtle texture to the image to see how much would come through in the printing.  The short answer is, not that much.  I think a heavy hand is probably better for this process than subtlety.  The edges are slightly fuzzy, but I was expecting that.

The colors also seem slightly muted on the cotton textile.  

But now that I know that, it is an easy adjustment.  That may also be a function of fabric choice.  Silk, for instance, takes color more vibrantly then cotton.

And about that grain line . . . I may have set myself up by being paranoid, but there is a definite issue here.  Most of the cotton swatches were pretty close to being on grain.  The linen silk blend, however, was printed extremely off grain.  Looking back at my swatch book, I see a similar issue, although not quite to the extent of the polka dots.  So I am definitely going to stay away from parallel and perpendicular lines!

The larger pieces (fat quarters) that I ordered are not nearly as off, but that may be due to the fact that the silk/cotton blend is slightly more stable and less shifty than the linen blend.

Overall, I am quite impressed with the outcome and cannot wait to start sewing with some of my new fabric!  I am also curious to see how this process will hold up in the wash . . .

[Disclosure:  My Fabric Designs provided me with a credit which was used to purchase this fabric, but the opinions posted here are my own.]