Découpage Dress

Once again with Simplicity 9153!  And again rounding the neckline and cutting the skirt much narrower and on the fold.

Not as colorful this time, though

I was aiming for a vaguely mori kei/Lagenlook/Japanese Sewing Book/granny chic style.  Not sure if I hit that nebulous target, but I did once again have to patch an area at the top of the skirt before gathering it, as I had to do with this earlier dress...onlyyy this time it wasn't an unnoticed cut that necessitated it, it was me accidentally ripping it when fiddling with the gathers, yay.  And I forgot to change the top thread to something better coordinated than the light gray I used for the rest of it.

Truth is, I hadn't remembered that was what I had done on the other dress until this one was finished.

So I decided it wasn't finished.


The very first dress I made from Simplicity 9153 had appliqués for detail on the skirt, so I decided to use appliqués again--this time for concealment.

Instead of creating an original design like I did with the bluebirds, I decided to cut out some motifs from an existing print, and it didn't take long to decide on this.   Because it's an entire picture cut out from something else--and also because I didn't use embroidery stabilizer, so the resulting texture is no different from the rest of the dress--it really reminds me of découpage.

 I placed the larger cut-out so it would (somewhat) cover the patch on the skirt, and I genuinely like how it crosses the border, as it were, between the bodice and the skirt.

I could probably VERY CAREFULLY cut away the visible part of the patch, because the appliqué stitching completely surrounds the rip

but I was so ready to be done with it the other night that I...didn't.

 The gray thread used for the rest of the dress blended fairly well with the floral print, too.  And, yeah, I still need to trim a lot of threads (see above comment about being done with making this.)

 I used the ¼"ish hem roller attachment again

 and in retrospect I probably could have used it for the sleeves, too.  Instead I did the usual thing and pressed the edges up 5/8", then folded that in half and pressed again--all before sewing the side seams, because it's easier that way--then sewed the side seams, straightening out the pressed areas at the seams, thennnnn folded everything properly and stitched.  It's not too pretty on the inside.

 And of course there are pockets!  And again I did it the lazy way, sewing the pocket bags to the skirt with a narrow seam, so that when the skirt's 5/8" seams are sewn, there is no need to hassle about the stitches all meeting precisely at the pockets.  This is a very bad picture of that.

 Nothin' fancy on the back.  This is overall a lot more subdued than the things I usually sew, and it's still a lot of fun to wear.  I dug the fabric out of my stash*, cut it out, and sewed the dress entirely in one day, even with the impromptu appliqué hassle.  Simple projects go fast.  I gotta try to remember that in the future.

* I thrifted many 9¼ yards of the grey floral and have used it before (and before that, to add a skirt to a thrifted shirt to make a quick dress for a school event) and will use it again