Border Hearts

 I finished this dress over a week ago--I have already worn and washed it, and am only now getting around to recording it here.

It's another hacked Simplicity 9153, made with fabric printed in Côte d'Ivoire, according to the selvedge.  This is not an actual wax print--it's a fancy fabric print (it says on the selvedge that it's screen printed.)  I got it from the friend who brought their relative's destash fabric a few years ago--many thanks!

I recently donated several of the loose dresses I'd made in the past, because I never wore them, but I still wanted to replace them with things I might actually wear.  I had wanted to make something from this fabric for years, but, as with most wax prints/fancy fabrics, the very strongly directional print motifs are cross-grain, and I hadn't wanted to deal with wearing a bodice that was cut cross grain to cooperate with the print.  I eventually realized I could cut the bodice on grain in a way that obscured the direction of the hearts

and simply gather the skirt to use the border print.

The border and hearts were repeated on both selvedges, but this edge had just enough extra print that I could make a proper hem without obscuring any of the border.  (No-one will ever get close enough to see the words.)  I ripped the fabric lengthwise at about 5/8" above the top of the big heart motifs in one direction, so what's left over is missing 5/8" from the tops of the motifs.

The motifs kinda sorta lined up at the shoulders, but I wasn't really worrying about pattern matching anywhere.  I hemmed the sleeves with the usual process of pressing the raw edges under after sewing the shoulders but before the side seams, unrolling them to sew the side seams, then folding them back to stitch from the inside.

Of course there are pockets--I use Simplicity 9153's pockets with a lot of other patterns.

And the back!

There's not a lot to say about this project (I managed to type more than I expected.)  I expect I'll be happy I made it when the big summer temperatures are here.