black dress with brown stripe
October 5, 2012
Another hand-woven cotton and vintage fabric dress. The black fabric is hand-woven cotton, and the brown from a roll of fabric that I found nestled among countless delightful rolls in a quiet little alley. There is nothing like the feeling of pulling out rolls of fabric, each more wonderful than the next, and collecting them in your arms until you can’t hold anymore!
Initially I had planned on making a horizontal neck line for this dress. I tried the top part of the dress on and decided that it looked better at an angle. The line worked better with the strong vertical line of the brown section.
The brown fabric on the bodice is sewn at an angle onto the black bodice. The angles of the shoulder, neck, and front pull the eye into the waist and then opens up again with the skirt.
The brown section almost pours out of the waistline, and onto the skirt. I matched the brown panel from the bodice to the skirt. The black part of the skirt is gathered on the back to create more fulness in the skirt. It is a pleasant view to look at when sitting down…
The back of the dress is all black. Because there is so much going on with the pattern and embroidery on the front I left the back plain. It is important for me to have some major elements of simplicity in design. Things can get too busy.
I haven’t managed to buy bias tape to line armholes and the like, so I came up with some fabric left over from another project. So the armholes are lined with purple and black spots..
another bedspread dress
May 8, 2012
It is delightful to me how two different pieces of fabric, with the same general format can inspire two different designs. By general format, I mean size, color scheme, etc. The difference in these two pieces of fabric was the geometric pattern printed in black. One piece of fabric seemed to be based more on squares, and the other on circles. From that difference came the two different dresses.
Circular vs square neckline, and on and on.
The second dress is also a tunic shape. A bit on the large size. Again, the patterning creates an illusion of shaping!
The sleeves are a little bit more interesting. I added little pleats on the cuffs, and they pouf out a little bit.
The sides of the dress match up nicely, with circles being created at the seams. I love how geometric this fabric is. The cutting and sewing are easy because of the patterns.
The rest of the dress is pretty much straight down. I am thinking that it would look good with a belt, but I don’t have one yet to try it with.
simple cotton dress for warm weather
May 6, 2012
This is a dress pattern that I have made before, but with a new material. I found the fabric in one of my new favorite spots in Bangkok, Pahurad. It is a street completely packed with fabric vendors. All kinds of materials are piled, stacked, and stuffed into every possible space. I would be happy to wander around for a few days just to see everything!
This material is Japanese cotton. It is thin, and I have a nice slip to wear under the dress. (It would either need a slip or a lining.)
The fabric came in three different colorways. I bought several meters of each, and plan on taking the additional two colors to the dressmaker with my dress and the pattern.
So far I do have only one difficulty with my interactions with the dressmaker. I don’t speak Thai, and she doesn’t speak English. We manage to communicate many things with pointing and smiling, and the rest we figure out by calling someone on the phone, or stopping by and talking with someone who can translate for us.
I would like to have her make some dress samples for me in different sizes, but so far I am not exactly how to tell her that is what I would like. This whole dress making business is certainly a good motivator to learn a bit of the language!!
bedspread dress..
April 19, 2012
I have a sewing machine, fabric, and time to sew! I got this piece of fabric from India, and was going to save it for a tablecloth or something like that, but I held it up as a dress, and loved it!
First thing was to cut the neck, square to match the pattern. The dress is rather shapeless, and almost more of a tunic. There is so much complexity in the pattern on the material that I didn’t think that it was necessary to shape the dress itself.
I decided on gathering the sleeves to add a little finishing detail. Because there is so little shaping, it needed a little something to add dimension.
I tried belting the dress, but the fabric pattern didn’t lend itself to the shape created, and the dress ended up looking a little bit top heavy.
The length is a little shorter than I would have liked, but I wanted to end the skirt at the end of the pattern on the fabric, so no choice there…
The border is really beautiful, and I experimented with my new machine to sew the border by machine instead of by hand. (I got to my room this morning, armed with all my supplies, carefully collected and selected, only to realize that I didn’t have a sewing needle…)
The machine stitch worked well though, and I am excited to have learned how to do it.
I think that the fabric was tie dyed somehow, and there is a strong band of white going around the dress. I am considering dying the fabric a little with some coffee to darken the band. I think that I will have to wear the dress a little first to decide if I like the band or not.
The material might end up being a little rough for a dress, but I am going to give it a try, and wash and wear it a bit. I noticed a tag saying that it was a bed sheet a little bit after I had cut the hole in the top for the head…
denim workhorse
December 9, 2011
I have made a lot of these dresses. They are comfortable, easy to wear, and easy to make! (The pattern is a slightly adjusted version of the schoolhouse tunic.)
I usually take over a spot in the house to lay out the fabric. My current favorite is the floor in the bedroom. I place the pattern down and trace it onto the fabric with a chalk spreader tool.
Then cut the fabric…baste, and sew. Below are the sleeves, basted and ready to pin into the bodice.
I really enjoy the process of pinning the sleeves. I have found that fabric is much more malleable than I would think, and pinning the sleeves allows for all kinds of adjustments and refinements.
I started sewing the bodice with blue thread, but it was the wrong color, and so I switched to orange. The contrast was pretty with the dark blue.
I hemmed the bottom of the dress and sleeves by turning the material inside out. I actually have enough fabric to make another dress with the reverse side out, and I might do that. I had a hard time deciding between the dark and light sides of the fabric..
The hem at the bottom of the dress was a little funny, and so I added some tucks around to even out the seam. I guess that they add character..
a dress for a day like today
August 18, 2011
Today was beautiful. Misty, and almost rainy in the morning, then breezy, cool, and sunny all day. I was working at home, and wearing this dress, which I made a few months ago, but haven’t been able to wear.
This dress makes me feel like baking bread, or picking apples. Or roasting pumpkins. Things to look forward to!
The pattern came from a garage sale, and was a little bit too small. So I added a bit of fabric to different spots, experimenting to increase the size.
The fabric is cheap flannel. There is something satisfying about making a dress for $12, plus time. I am hoping that the flannel will hold up to a little bit of wear though…you pay for what you get!
The front of the dress is gathered, and I added some fabric there to increase the size. I also changed the placket a little, and had to adjust it quite a bit more when I realized that the lines of the pattern weren’t matching up well…something more to worry about with plaids!
The sleeves are long, but need to be worn pushed up past the elbows. Otherwise there is just too much green going on! I never put buttons on the cuffs, and if I push them past my elbows and then pull some extra fabric down they seem to hold up well enough.
The pockets are awfully handy. They are conveniently located on the front of the dress, and can hold quite a number of things. The only problem is that the fabric isn’t too strong, and I am worried about the corners of the pockets tearing. I suppose I should have put some interfacing on the underside of the dress for reinforcement, but I didn’t think of that while I was making the dress.
The back is simple, with a bit of shaping at the neck. I was hesitant about putting that in, but I did anyways, and it seemed to work out all right. Again, I was having a little trouble adjusting the fabric so that the lines matched. I am going to need to be a little more vigilant about that!
living in the woods and making stuff 