So let's get started! First up is my new dress, the very popular Chalk and Notch Fringe Dress. I wasn't sure I really liked the style for me when the pattern first came out. I had only seen it on women who were definitely not my body type, so it was hard to imagine how it would look on me. At some point they re-released the pattern with a larger size range from what I gather, so that there wasn't just a standard A/B cup bodice, but also a C/D cup bodice, and I started seeing more and more curvy sewists in the dress. Of course being the ever fickle sewist I am, I was suddenly obsessed with the pattern despite having not given it a second glance for the longest time. So I decided to give it a go for myself.
I did need to add length of course to the bodice, but then forgot to take length off the skirt, so it does fall somewhat longer in the hemline than I think the designer would have intended. I'm not sure I'll take the skirt off and shorten it or if I'll just leave it as is, with a mental note to shorten it next time I make the pattern. I chose to make View A with the buttons and sleeve tabs in a size 18 C/D. The only modification I made was to lengthen the bodice. The dress is very simple to sew, but I took my time, sewing it in little chunks of time here and there.
I'm loving my new method of sewing in small chunks. I find it so much more relaxing and enjoyable than trying to get things done all in a rush! So much so that I'm planning to take part in the Instagram challenge of #seweverydayseptember that was proposed by Sheona of Sewisfaction. It'll be a great reminder to myself to slow things down and even doing a small sewing related task every day is good enough!
Anyway, back to the dress. I sewed it using a rayon challis that I had purchased from
Fabricland earlier in the summer. They had it in a navy colour way that I really wanted, but sadly didn't have near enough fabric left on the bolt, so I went with the black instead. I can still pair it with my favourite red Lotta from Stockholm clogs, so I was happy. (Does anyone else base the majority of their fabric purchases on a favourite pair of shoes?) I can also wear it with my black pair of course but why when I can wear red?
I'm pretty happy with the dress. It's comfy and has pockets (who doesn't love a good pocket?). I'm just not sure about the length. Should I shorten it? What would you do?
This was one of the dresses I had planned to make in July for #30daysofdresses, but that didn't happen obviously. Neither did the Kielo Wrap Dress I had planned. (I should get on that one soon!) I did sew two other dresses though, so that was pretty good I thought! Unfortunately I can't show them to you yet because they are for the Minerva Blog and won't be up for a while yet, but I thought I'd show you a sneaky peak of them today.
Now, lets take a step back in time for a moment to July and the #30daysofdresses challenge. I'm happy to say I did it! There were only a few times that I chose to wear my Samara Pants* instead of a dress but other than that one pattern, all other days saw me wearing me-made dresses. There were lots of repeats. Turns out I don't have thirty dresses in my wardrobe and quite frankly I'm ok with that. It was quite evident that there were some dresses I obviously love more than others because they were on heavy repeat rotation throughout the month, whereas others I was happy to just wear once or twice throughout. I thought that I might immediately go back to pants and shorts as soon as the month was over, but I've found myself still wearing dresses far more often than pants. Possibly in preparation for winter when it'll feel too cold to even contemplate a dress unless I absolutely have to... lol I was pretty pleased that I managed to document it all on Instagram too except for one day that I forgot until I was already in my pjs. It was a repeat day anyway, so I felt it really didn't matter. (for those curious, it was my SOI Heather Dress).
So if you're still reading after this marathon post, I'll leave you with a look at how the rest of the month panned out for me. I've put the links to the patterns below (clockwise from top left)
P4P Sunshine / Sweetheart Mash Up
P4P Sunshine / Sweetheart Mash Up
I'm going to sign off now, because I've got some housework that desperately needs doing and another project I'm working on right now for Minerva that is calling my name and two boys that are claiming they are starving and "WHEN IS IT GOING TO EVER BE LUNCH MOM???"
