Summer lovin - happens so fast! Too bad I'm too lazy to bust out the GOOD camera. So you're welcome to peruse these lovely iphone photos. Great quality eh? Good ol self timer app!
Fabricland had a sale on all of the cotton sateen fabrics and at $4/metre I couldn't go wrong. Lovely prints too! I bought 4 different cotton sateen's and immediately started scheming what I wanted to make. During a recent $1.99 sale on the McCall's website I ordered 10 or so patterns, one of which was M6955: a Laura Ashley Easy project. 
I adored the racer back of the dress and figured the cotton sateen would be perfect for the silhouette of the dress. The fabric would also help the dress to feel snug against my body but still provide me with lots of breathing room with the stretch content. Yay!
I made a fair few adjustments to the pattern. I cut out a size 10 because I wanted to accommodate for the stretch of the fabric and opted to finish my dress with binding instead of bias tape to reduce bulk and make my life 100% easier. This type of finish is the quickest for me while using my serger. the more projects I can complete using only my serger the better! I busted out this dress in >3 hours total from cutting to wearing.
Back to those alterations I was talking about. After completing my Flora bodice, Belladone Bodice, and V1102 Bodice I began to notice how the flat pattern bodice needed to look for it to fit my body shape better. As soon as I cut out this flat pattern, it looked nothing like I knew it should to fit me. It would fit terribly straight from the envelope. So I starting slicing into the neckline and taking out wedges as I knew the neckline would gape - I then evened out the curve of the neckline. I did this to both the front and back necklines. I also took wedges out from the shoulder strap and turned the straps inwards to fit my narrow shoulders better (bodice shoulders always fall off my shoulders - they never will again!). Next I twisted out a dart from the arm scythe in to the waist darts. By the end my tissue pattern pieces were covered in tape missing all sorts of chunks and pieces. And finally, no dress is complete without the addition of in-seam pockets! I really should have used a lining fabric for those instead of the cotton sateen as they are quite bulky and make the circle skirt stick out across my hips.
The only changes I'll make for my next version of this would be to lengthen the bodice by 1/2" so the waist seam sits a little more comfortable when I move and lengthen the skirt by 1" and opt for 3/4 or 1/2 circle skirt instead of the full circle (which really likes to catch that breeze). Other than that, I put an invisible (or not so invisible) zipper in the centre back, finished my binding edges at the back neck above the zipper (and refused to put a hook and eye out of sheer laziness), and turned and stitched my hemline. The entire dress (besides the darts and zipper insertion) is finished on my serger - Yay for quick dresses! And YAY for easy summer cotton dresses!
Details
Pattern: M6955Size: 10
Fabric: Cotton Sateen
Adjustments:
- Removed a wedge out of the front neckline to reduce gaping
- Removed 1" from the shoulder length
- Took out a dart from the arm scythe and turned it into the bust darts
- Removed a wedge out of the back neckline to reduce gaping
- Finished the edges with binding instead of a facing to reduce thickness.
- Added in-seam pockets to the circle skirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment