The Week of Apparel Sewing, part two

As mentioned in last week's post, I spent a week at the beach, sewing garments. Now I will show you the long planned dresses.

Cinderberry Stitches's newest line, Salt Water came around the time that I was making those first few Flip Flop Dresses in May, and as my daughter has kind of an obsession with mermaids and dresses, so they were an obvious match made in heaven. So, I bought three prints for the dress, and several more for my stash, because adorable! And then it hung around for weeks, until I dropped it into the pile of projects to take on vacation.

This is the least embellished of all the Flip Flop dresses I've made (no pockets! no bows! no contrast hem!), but I went with the contrast sleeves to relate the bodice more to the skirt. It looks, well, a bit plain. I really like the print, but it doesn't carry off the large space so well.

Obligatory sleeve close up:

I'm sure you are wondering now what color this dress really is. The bottom photo is much closer to real life than the top. It's a corally bodice with a pale pink skirt.

After I made the border print dress that I wore at quiltcon, I've been scrutinizing border prints for their suitability for the pattern. Many aren't quite right, either printed half way and then reversed, or they are long gone (ie that amazing print from Nordika that I would so make a dress of if I could locate 2.5 yards of it in teal.) But I did come across an equally awesome one this spring, from Sarah Watson's Biology line for Cloud9. And did nothing with it for a long time, and I had left the pattern pieces out on my desk, where they got ripped and scattered, and somehow, by cleaning off my whole desk (for once!) I managed to track them down, and the instructions, but not the envelope and not the rest of the pattern, which is sort of a problem, because I used the wrong sized skirt, and had to guess where I should add in extra pleats to get the thing to fit the bodice. Oh well.

Also, this is the one project I had to run out and get things for, because I had forgotten the bias binding tape to finish the armholes!

But I also ended up using that on the hem, after discussing options about hems on Instagram. The pattern runs from selvage to selvage, and I didn't want to obscure the flowers by folding up the bottom few inches. So, I sewed it to the bias tape, and folded that up, and sewed the other side down.

In addition, I didn't like the options I'd brought for the pockets, so I drove over to So South Haven, and they had this Oliver and S print that was perfect!

Then... the bad news is that the interfacing I used, pellon's SF101, shrunk in the wash, and now the midriff band (and the neckline facing) has a weird puckered texture. Apparently, one is supposed to prewash this stuff (warm water, hang dry...) but I didn't have an issue with the other dress, so, I was just floored at the issue. I have been pointed to Fashion Sewing Supply as a place to buy interfacing that is not prone to shrinkage. Which I will try when I've recovered from this disappointment.

Anyway, I can still squeeze into the dress:

But I may remake the bodice (or at least, remove, remake, and reapply facings and midriff). With different interfacing. I have quite a bit of fabric left, because I was cutting a different way then the layout diagram suggested, so I bought an extra yard in case I needed it. And I guess I might, but I'm not ready to go back and fix it yet. The disappointment is still too raw.

In the intervening week I have finished up another quilt top, so I now have eight to quilt, but at least only one of those needs to be basted first. So, hopefully, you'll be seeing quilts in this space soon!