Hi friends! The season of sunshine is shining down on me! Here’s a beautiful sunshine yellow and lavender dress that I made using the Vogue V9265 pattern. Although the end result is glorious, making this dress did not come with out its challenges. But I’ll tell you about overcoming the challenges later. First, let’s talk about this lovely fabric.
Fabric Choice
This multicolored Lady McElroy Marie fabric is a wide 55 inch 100% cotton lawn that is non stretch. The print of the fabric features yellow flowers and purple tulips, and if you look closely you will also see blue and green flowers and stems going through out the fabric.
Although this fabric have a multidirectional pattern, I would use caution when placing your pattern pieces. Mostly, I found that the direction in which the pattern is printed from left to right is not equal (I.e. there are more tulips facing one direction than the opposite direction). I failed to notice that fact before cutting out my pattern pieces, and as a result majority of the tulips on the front skirt are facing down instead of up. This is the only issue I had with the fabric.
I’m in love with the texture and luster of this fabric; it has a soft hand and a slight sheen. Although the sheen is barely noticeable, it adds to the rich and bold colors.
Pattern Choice
The print of this fabric screams “please make a dress with me.” I honestly could not avoid making a dress with this fabric. Although I wrestled in my mind on whether I should make a dress or a two piece skirt and top, I was overwhelmed with the thought that this fabric would look best as a dress. So that’s what I decided on.
The fabric is lightweight and semi-sheer, so a lining maybe necessary for most projects. This was something that I had to account for when I went through the pattern selection process. Eventually, I selected the Vogue V9265 pattern for this fabric because this pattern requires a lining, have custom cup options, princess, seams, and an a-line skirt. Generally, I look for majority of these things in a dress pattern. In addition, the pattern features round neckline, bishop sleeves and a center back zip for the closure.
Alterations and Adjustments
Unfortunately,I made a mistake and cut of the wrong size for the skirt. As a result, the waistline of the skirt was smaller than the waistline of the bodice. Thankfully, there wasn’t a huge difference between the size 14 & 16. In order to correct this mistake, I gathered the bodice at the waistline. Surprisingly, this worked out and I was able to attach the bodice to the skirt without any additional problems. However, the waistline of the garment was now too small. I then added about ½ inch more to the garment by reducing the seam allowance of the back center zip. It’s not perfect, and I need about ¼ – ½ more to fit the garment comfortably. No other alter or adjustments were made or needed.
Although I ran into a few issues with this project, I enjoyed working with the fabric and pattern and I think the two complement one another well.Thanks for stopping by and reading today’s blog post. Have a great sewing week!
Tea
Crumpets, Tea & Sewing 