dress

Summer bicycling dress

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Happy Birthday, Sir Paul McCartney!  ❤  And what does Sir Paul’s birthday have to do with this dress?  Answer:  I wore it to his concert last July.  I finished the dress around this time last summer; just a couple of weeks before he was coming to town.  That made it super easy to decide what to wear to the concert.

Pink dress front

This dress met several objectives–

  • It is ‘bike-able’, meaning the skirt is loose enough to enable mounting the bike and pedaling.  A little bit of spandex in the fabric helps with that too.  The skirt is just long enough that I don’t flash passing drivers.  The fabric is a twill which makes the skirt a bit sturdier in a wind.
  • The dress has built-in reflector motifs for visibility.
  • And last but not least, the fabric came from my stash.  Every bit of stash reduction helps.

Pink dress reflector bodice

Why did I choose this dress for the McCartney concert?  Obviously, because it has a Swinging 60s look.  But there’s more.  I thought maybe when the stage lights panned the crowd, the reflective elements of my dress would light up.  I don’t know if it was visible from the stage, but it was fun wondering if I stood out in the crowd a teeny bit. 🙂

More views of the reflective details:

For biking, I added a kick pleat in the back, and gave it a strip of reflective fabric, too.Pink dress reflector kick pleat

The reflective buttons were made with reflective tape and a covered button kit.  IMG_20180618_132658800

Pink dress mirror selfie b

Coco dress and the pup-prentice

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After seeing many great examples in the blogosphere, of the Coco dress pattern by Tilly and the Buttons, I finally downloaded the pattern and gave it my own try.  The pattern is wildly popular, and now I know why.  It was fast to make, the fit perfect, and the style cute and comfortable.  There’s no need for me to do a full pattern review.  It’s been done elsewhere, by better reviewers.  You might want to start by checking out the Coco Pinterest gallery.

So, about my version:  I went wild with the print.  This fabric had been sitting on my stash shelf for several years.  It is a spandex swimsuit knit.

dress mannequin - rsr

This fabric is stretchier and lighter weight than the pattern recommends.  But, it worked really well, with the exception of the collar, which drapes like a cowl instead of staying rolled in place.  For lightweight fabric such as this, I suggest using an interfacing in the collar for extra body.

Because the print isn’t crazy enough (hehe), I went through my stash of trims, and added some stripes down the arms.  I’m super happy with the result.

Dress sleeves - rsr

New phone camera doesn’t do so well on mirror selfies. 😡   Not sure if it is the mirror or lighting.  But here is the dress at the end of its first wearing to the office.

dress - rsr

When I originally purchased the fabric, it was to make some quick, wild summer car seat slipcovers.  Those worked out great, too.  But I bought way too much fabric, and the rest sat on the shelf, almost going in the donation box more than once.

The ‘Pup-prentice’

I can’t forget to credit my foster ‘pup-prentice’.  He insisted on helping at every step; even when it meant crawling under my chair and up through the sewing cabinet.

 

dress2 - rsr w pupprentice

 

Sound of Music Dress

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So, I was making this dress, but was attacked by a months-long spell of whatever is the sewing equivalent of writer’s block.  Then came the breakthrough.  And then another breakthrough, and ta-da!  The dress is complete.

Long story short:  I was trying to make a dress of this cut and construction, worn last year by the Duchess of Cambridge.

Kate-Royal-Solomon-Islands-Mulberry-Midnight-Blue-Eyelet-Dress

[Images from WhatKateWore.com–a great blog!]

But I didn’t like the silhouette it created in my chosen fabric.  So the half-constructed dress hung on my dress form for months, with the gathered skirt held in place with straight pins.  I started adding silly things to it–beads, a belt, a jacket, etc.  I didn’t take a photo at that time, so this is a recreation of the sad ensemble.

IMG_3972a

IMG_3971a

Then I stopped seeing it in the room altogether.  Then I saw the picture of the Duchess wearing that dress again, and resolved to complete my dress, love or hate it.

I put it on and stood in front of the full length mirror.  Then I unpinned the skirt to try adjusting the waistline.  But when the skirt was off and I saw the straight portion (which I had not yet cut to length), I had my first AHA moment.  It looks better as a straight, sleeveless shift.  So, finishing it simply meant adding a back closure, armhole facings, and hem.  Done.

IMG_3970a

At that point, I mostly liked the boxy shape of the dress, but wanted to take out just a bit of the fullness.  I did not want to belt it or add darts.  I was considering back pleats.  Then came the second AHA moment.  I don’t know how this one happened, but thank goodness it did.  I took two strips of fabric and criss-crossed them on the back.

It pulled the perfect amount of fullness away from the front…,IMG_3976a

and gave the back a distinct softly gathered look.  I love the result.IMG_3975a

Here is the dress on me. IMG_3980c IMG_3982b

(And yes, that is a bit of armhole facing that I didn’t get tucked in.  Argh.)

To put the dress on and take it off, I just need to unbutton it at the neck back, and unbutton the sashes at the bottom, and slip it over my head.  IMG_3977a

I’m calling it the “Sound of Music Dress,” because the fabric is from some old curtains I never liked.Curtain moment

I’m also calling it the “five-rectangle dress,” because it is made out of rectangles of fabric. The body is all one rectangle, seamed up the back and shoulders, with armholes and a neckline cut in and faced.  The collar pieces are rectangles, and the criss-cross in the back is also of course, made of rectangles.

I still want to make a dress like the one I started out to make.  So it’s back to the drawing board for another try.