Saturday, September 17, 2011

Finished Project: Lonsdale Dress

Pattern: Sewaholic's Lonsdale Dress. I followed the Sewalong but finished very late. The sewalong was awesome!

Fabric: Cotton voile underlined with white batiste. I bought the fabric from Spotlight when they were having a 30% end of roll sale. The pink in the fabric is a coral pink but husby lovingly tweaked the pics to boost the colours of the landscape and turned the pink to fuschia. I didn't have the heart to explain that, ummm, the focus wasn't the landscape :)







There were lots of new to me techniques for this:

1) Muslin fitting - This was the first time I made a muslin and made substantial fitting changes. I usually do a tissue fitting.
- sway back adjustment
- took in along the top of the bodice near the underarms - slashed and lapped. In retrospect I think I should have gone down a size in the bodice and done a FBA which may have solved the gaping I had. I'm not sure.
- took a kind of scoop out from under the bust to just before the waistband.

2) Underlining - The voile was a bit sheer so I underlined it with white batiste - the white brought out the white in the main fabric.

3) I used my blind hem foot for the first time. Normally I would hand sew the hem. It's not perfect but I think I will use the foot again, especially for such a large hem.

I bound the centre back seam edge with bias binding. I didn't want to zig-zag it -- no faster way to look home eccy -- but I couldn't find seam binding anywhere! The bias binding is ok, probably too heavy. It's only the second time I have finished a seam this way and I think I'm getting better! Next time will be it for sure!

This dress is so comfortable! I am a C/D cup and I'm not wearing a bra and I didn't feel at all like I was going to have any indecent exposure and I felt surprisingly supported (probably TMI but I thought may some other gals might be interested in whether it was suitable). I'm broaching 40 and have breastfed two babies and this dress is totally wearable.


5 comments:

  1. Thanks for your comment re. my pendrell blouse. I'm pretty sure it was 2 yards. I did alot of temporary laying out before I cut to be pretty sure it fit!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh really nice job Jane. Very flattering!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did well to manage with 2 yards, Caroline. I just managed with 2m which is about 2.2 yards.

    ReplyDelete