The thoughts, sewing projects, and fabric oglings of a dedicated sewist.

Self-Drafted Dress

4/14/14
I blogged about the jacket from this outfit a few days ago, but in my typical long-wind-y-ness, I had to break the post in two to talk about the dress.



The dress is ridiculously easy to make: no closures, bias tape to face neckline, serged rolled hem, four darts, four pieces total (unless you don't have enough fabric and you have to cut the front and back bodice with a center seam, ahem). I copied a dress I wore a lot in my late 20's that I eventually gifted to my best friend who's been wearing it for the last 10 years. I borrowed the dress back and made her a new version for Christmas using my trusted Patternmaking for Perfect Fit book by Steffani Lincecum to make the pattern. I then made one for myself with some adjustments. When I tried the dress on to see if I wanted to make any fit changes, it felt way too baby-dollish for this mama.


And when I put on a belt, the belt sat about 1.5" lower than the waist on the dress.



So I took care of those lengths and got this dress:


I used a rayon challis and I love how cool and drapey it is. This will feel wonderful when the temperature is in the 90's this summer.


And for someone who wears a lot of pencil skirts, it's nice to be able to twirl every now and again!


The fabric was so lightweight that my test hem was a mess. I used a technique from Angela Wolf's Craftsy Creative Serging class (highly recommend) and pressed the hem under 1/2" so that I could serge a rolled hem through a double layer of fabric. This took care of the messy stitches. I just trimmed away the excess fabric carefully with sharp scissors.


I'll be looking for some cute rayon challis prints this summer to make a few more of these (they only take about 90 minutes to make now that I have the pattern) and I'd like to try the dress with a poplin, too. I think I've found this summer's go-to easy make, and it's not even summer yet!

12 comments on "Self-Drafted Dress"
  1. I love both! I actually like the baby doll on you :)

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    1. Ha! The babydoll makes me feel silly, but I'm glad you liked it!

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  2. Cool !! Fits you comfortably :)

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  3. Love it! and thanks for sharing the tip on the rolled hem.....

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    1. I'm glad it helped! I was really happy to find an easy fix to a problem I'd had more than once!

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  4. I can't believe this has no closures - it looks so fitted! What a great dress!

    I don't know if you've been to the Vogue on Roosevelt lately. I was in there yesterday to pick up some lining, and they've really upped their game. They told me that someone bought the whole building and is redoing everything - there's a new facade on the street side and a new parking lot out back (for which you can get validated). Anyway - they've reorganized and straightened and cleaned up, and I saw some rayon prints that were tempting me - but I was strong!

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    1. Wow! Now I'm curious! I'll have to schedule a trip. Any chance you want to meet up there or would it ruin your diet?

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  5. Love the dress. Better than the original. Love the color on you too.

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  6. Love my dress, Lisa... and I finally sent you pics of the finished product. I am looking for more material so I can make a second one, with no sleeves (let's see if I can figure out how to do that... I'll do the arms like I do the neck? Love- m

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