Tuesday 3 September 2013

Swooshy Swishy Goodness Dress

Swooshy dress

It's another Butterick Repro B5748, this time true to the pattern unlike my previous version. I love this dress - it's so swooshy and fun to wear.  I wore it to work today and spent all day twirling and swooshing the super full circle skirt.

Swooshy dress

The only change I made to this pattern was to do an FBA and to raise the shoulders. Interestingly I had my lovely friend Marjorie assist me with the hemming and in the process she marked the shoulders and I learnt that my shoulders sit at quite different levels. My right one is nearly 1cm higher than the left! It's due to an old injury that I knew had left over effects, but that was one I wasn't aware of!

Normally I am fine hemming skirts by myself, but this dress was different. The circle skirt requires the dress to be hung and left to drop for a couple of days.  The result?  The hem looked like I was drunk when I cut it! Check out my instagram pic here. It was crazy wonky, up and down, not a little bit, but inches of difference. I blame the fabric.

Marjorie has this wonderful old tool, from maybe the 80s that puffs chalk at the prescribed level as I just stood there and spun around!! A marvellous gadget!! Then all we had to do was cut and sew - genius!

Swooshy dress
I stopped twirling for a minute ;)

I finished the skirt with my first proper rolled hem, I tried photographing it, but due to the dark fabric the pics were rubbish, you'll just have to take my word for it that its pretty good, I am pretty proud of the effort I put into it.

The fabric is a mystery super flowy drapy blend bought at Walthamstow earlier in the year. When I bought it I thought it was black, but in some lights it seems like a super dark navy. Either way, I don't care, and I am treating it as black!

Swooshy dress

The fabric was hideous to sew, it moved so much and was too floppy. In retrospect I would have used a pattern with a less fitted bodice, but c'est la vie, it is not awful and the circle skirt really works with the drape, and besides I can twirl!  Who can complain at that!?!

No more Winter sewing for me - Summer is well and truly on the way here - already it has been 25-28 degrees most day - if this is Spring, I think Summer may be hideous. I foresee many more summery dresses in my future...Cambie, perhaps a Saltspring, definitely a Belledone, who knows what else?

What are you all working on for the new season?

14 comments:

  1. Oooh, it's lovely! All your hemming effort was worth it. Really pretty!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, I love wearing it, it's so girly!

      Delete
  2. Your dress is just lovely Liz! Swish on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perfection ... Can I swish with you.?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Right, that's it, I have to buy this pattern! Your dress is gorgeous, I love the colours in the fabric. Also, thanks for the notes on hemming the skirt. I haven't make a circle skirt before, so they could come in handy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome, the circle uses a ton of fabric especially if it is only 115cm wide, but it looks good :)

      Delete
  5. Beautiful! I was going to ask what fabric that is because i love the drape, but i guess it's just a mystery! I just made a dress from this same butterick pattern and i love it =) (also i'm pretty sure one of my shoulders is higher than the other, but i'm just going to keep pretending it's not!) and i need to find one of those chalk puffing hem guides, because that sounds amazing. actually can i please get a high-tech laser level that cuts the fabric off at the same length? - someone invent that please

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fabric feels kind of like rayon, but has some poly in it I think. Really should do a burn test to narrow it down. I can tell you it was £1/m in Wathamstow!!
      Loving the high tech laser idea, but wouldn't it potentially cut your legs off too?!!!

      Delete
  6. Liz, your dress is lovely and now fits perfectly. I am sure you did a really good job of the rolled hem too.
    If anyone wants to know, the hemming gadget is called:- NEWEY Hem Marker, and was made in West Germany, most likely in the 70's and 80's. I bought mine in 1981 and they were readily available in NZ and Australia. I am sure you could find on on eBay or something similar.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wowzer! What a stunner of a dress! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh, wow!! That is swishy! Looks really terrific on you, great fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooh, love it! I think I have this pattern too, maybe I should dig it out. After all you can't beat a good swooshy dress.

    ReplyDelete