I cut a bodice from some of the fabric I got in the last visit to the craft thrift store, and then realized that I didn't like how the construction of one of the other fabrics (also from the craft thrift store) I had picked for it contrasted with it (the bodice fabric is a very fine cotton, the other fabric is a great print on a very distinctly poly cotton blend.) I put aside the bodice pieces, along with the rest of that fabric, which was way too short to make much of a skirt, and poked around in my fabric stash to find something that would work well with the other fabrics I had already cut for the visible facings and edge bands to go with the former bodice fabric.
Since I have been working on refining both my fabric stash and my ability to keep new acquisitions within a relatively coherent aesthetic, I pretty easily found a piece of fabric I thrifted nearly a decade ago, but was never quite sure what to do with. There was just enough of it that, at one point, it was probably very close to being turned into a small button-up shirt, but that phase of making so many small button up shirts did end before that happened. There wasn't quite enough of it to make a full dress, but, when adding more fabric? Just right.
The appearance of this dress, when in isolation on the hanger, is a bit deceiving. It looks like a modest, vintage-style kid's dress. But! It's made with the same base Fake Burda 6401 pattern I always use, with the addition of several design ideas borrowed from the Gunne Sax pattern I adapted (minus all the lace. I still don't have a natural inclination to use lace, even though I got hundreds of yards of it from Deb's Lace last year, specifically to encourage me to start using it more.) So, this dress has a very high waistline, and is barely knee-length on me. On the hanger, it looks fit for a chubby (word is descriptive, not judgemental) ten year old--which, honestly, I guess that would be getting back to the source idea of the babydoll dress? Maybe if I had used the lower neckline option, it would look (and, well, be) a little less modest. Maybe I'll get a picture of it being worn, eventually. (Have I mentioned that my 28mm DSLR lens isn't working? The 50mm lens I'm using for now just barely lets me get back far enough in this room to get this whole dress in frame--that's why the cat hook isn't visible--so taking whole-outfit photos would have to be done either outside, where I could get far enough away, or with the old grainy point and shoot, until whenever it is I get the 28mm lens taken care of.)
When I saw this fabric in the thrift store, I thought the design was smartweed --after a decade of reflection, I no longer think it is, but I sure can't figure out what else it might be. Maybe, in a brighter colorway, they might look like cherries? I've always liked smartweed, though, so I still think of this as the print I thought was smartweed.
The gingham is a nice cotton (so much gingham is poly cotton), and has a slight texture, in the form of slightly heavier yarns along the edge of the vertical stripes.
...although, I did use the gingham on the cross grain for the laced panels at the center front, because, when I decided to try that design element, all I had left that was big enough was a strip I had cut from the edge of the fabric because there was a small vertical rip in it. This gingham was a gift, from someone whose Aunt had done interior decorating, so had signs of being used for other projects already. You know how much fun I have with things other people have left over.
The pink fabric is the craft thrift store poly cotton I didn't want to use with the other fabric. I think, between this and the previous dress, I'm going to have to be harsher on myself about not succumbing to cute prints when there's so much polyester involved--granted, I didn't realize the polyester of the previous dress's fabric until I was already working with it. This one, though, I knew was heavily polyester.
That's why, when I was serging edges and the serger thread kept skipping stitches jumping around and getting caught where it shouldn't be, my first thought was, "Well, that's just polyester for ya." You can see a bit of bad serging here (and also: pocket bags)
I kept having the same problems when serging the 100% cotton parts of this, though, and I started worrying about the age of the serger possibly tottering toward needing a real tune up--until I remembered that...well...I couldn't remember the last time I changed the needle. Everything was fine after doing that. Maybe someday I'll remember that a dull serger needle causes so many weird problems. Maybe.
I applied the sleeve bands in the usual way, pressing in half, then one edge to the inside before sewing the unpressed edge to the wrong side of the sleeve, leaving the ends free, then sewing the sleeves to the bodice before sewing the side seams and the sleeve seams. After that, the free ends of each sleeve band were sewn together, then the rest of the bands were sewn to the wrong side of the sleeves, and then the pressed edges were folded to the outside and edge stitched down.
Yes, this creates visible stitching, which I know a lot of people don't want, but I like it.
The bias band on the neckline was mostly applied the same way, leaving the ends free to join up after sewing most of the rest to the wrong side of the neckline. Bias still confuses me if I think too much about it, so I had to actively back off on questioning what, exactly, I was doing to make the diagonal join on the back of the neckline.
On past visible facings, I was using the EzyHem to press the edges under 5/8" (when I didn't sew lace on at 5/8" instead), but, this time, I cut the interfacing 5/8" less on the outside, and just pressed up around that. Probably not as precise, but delightfully faster.
I acknowledge that the blue in the gingham does not perfectly match the blue in the print. Nor do the pinks of the different prints perfectly match. However.
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