Ok I am back in the sewing loft after a crazy month of travel. Last weekend while I was in the midst of making my kid a costume, he wouldn’t stand still while I fitted it so I just pitched it in the corner and went out to F-land to seek my own satisfaction. I came home with a pattern and two different fabrics to make it up in: a brown soft plaid and a brown suede-look woven.

The pattern I chose was Burda 7203 which is now the second Burda I have tried in their more unusual styling and I look terrible in both. No more dolman sleeves, folks. Here it is on the dress form over top of the next project… any resemblance to an Ewok outfit is purely coincidental, I assure you.

20131102-000753.jpg
I really must learn to read Pattern Review on my smartphone while browsing pattern catalogues. Also this is why I have pledged to stop buying patterns. (Yet I can’t seem to help myself!)

Needless to say this garment is simply NoT going to be worn like this, but all that lovely suede mustn’t go to waste. So I am taking it apart and piecing together a dress that will blend bias drape with straight grain pieces… it may look like Jane Goodall meets Tarzan’s Jane, but it should go lovely with my brown boots. Plus it will be a learning exercise. Already I have made progress:

20131102-001226.jpg

I am working on the back right now, which I haven’t photographed yet. I have used up almost all of what was left from the yardage after cutting out Ewok above, because it used mainly pieces on the fold. Next I will begin deconstructing and gleefully chopping up Ewok to put the skirt pieces together for lots of lovely bias drapey goodness. Here is the design sketch…

20131102-001454.jpg

To be continued after I get some sleep…

Continued… I didn’t take any more pictures while the dress was in construction, but here’s the finished work:

20131111-123240.jpg

20131111-123252.jpg

20131111-123304.jpg

20131111-123318.jpg
This dress is sinfully comfortable to wear. I’m a little concerned about the strength of the stitching because there’s just one row on each of the seams that patches it together (combined with fabric glue stick – I shall never baste again). I wore this dress on the plane and to a conference in Calgary, with a cardigan. It is my new favourite thing to wear.

By suelow

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *