Monday, July 18, 2016

Summer is for Maxi Dresses

                              

I love an airy maxi dress for hot summer days. I recently made Mccalls 7121 in a rayon jersey from Fabric Mart. This dress was fast to sew and feels fantastic to wear. 
                          

I love this easy pattern and fun fabric options on the pattern cover. When making my dress, I opted to skip the instructions and sew the dress to include an all-in-one facing for the shoulder and neck edges. I wanted to have a clean finish on all the edges and not fiddle with hemming them. To do this, I sewed the front bodice to the front skirt, leaving the center seam unsewn. I then sewed the front to back at the shoulders.

   
                    
Dress back at the bottom of the frame and the separate front pieces are at the top. 
I made the facing by copying the bodice front and back pattern pieces so the top is a double layer. My fabric is very light so it is not bulky. I then sewed the shoulder seams together. I pinned them right sides together to the dress and sewed the neckline and armholes leaving the lower portions open for turning. My Afro Diva Pincushion is supervising every step of the way.

                              

After turning, I opened out the seams and sewed them right sides together, end to end closing all the seams. I tacked the facing to the dress at the side seams and a few places along the waist seam to prevent rolling.

At this point, I tried it on and liked the fit without the elastic casing so I left it out. I liked the slight nip at the waist without the feel of the bunching there.

                                                                 

I have littles who love leg hugs and cuddles. a center front slit is not a good idea. I shifted it to the right side and hemmed it with a twin needle.

                         

I love a racerback and this one is defined, yet provides great bra coverage.

                       

This fabric is luscious and feels wonderful! Thank you to those of you who voted for my bias strip skirt in the PR contest. I used my prize gift certificate to purchase this and 17 pounds of wonderful fabric from Fabric Mart.
                               

It is my first purchase from the site and I am pretty pleased. The fabric quality, shipping and customer service was all great. With the end of Hancock Fabrics, this is a welcome find.

                            

While I have your ear, I have entered a Facebook contest that is based on "likes". Why as an introvert I would enter a popularity contest is still nuts to me, but I am stretching myself. Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you would risk the political and racial posts of friends and acquaintances and vote for my dress by "liking" it. 


This is the link to make my day :) by voting for my Alabama Chanin Handsewn dress.


Thanks and Happy Sewing,
Bianca

11 comments:

  1. That looks awesome! I am definitely going to try that pattern now.

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    1. Thanks! You will not be disappointed. I'm already planning a second.

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  2. Great dress! If I were on Facebook, I would totally vote for you. That dress rocks!

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    1. Thanks! I completely understand. Facebook is pretty miserable right now with the politics and racial climate of the country. Starting to see a lot of unpleasant sides of people.

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  3. Beautiful dress in a great print. Black and white is always such a classic color combination. I like very much that the racerback provides bra coverage - fabulous! Congratulations on winning the PR contest - well deserved! I would vote for you on Facebook but I don't have a Facebook account either.

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    1. Thanks Tomasa! I was really surprised and excited to win. The voter turnout in that particular contest was pretty low. I'm not sure what's happening on PR in that regard. Anyway, I understand about Facebook; it is not as good as it used to be.

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  4. I just found your blog and I followed your link and "liked" your dress. I didn't realize the contest was over. I'm so glad you won! And the reason was because your dress was magnitudes better than any of the other entries. OMG this dress is awesome.
    I love your blog by the way. I'm a quilter and of course I sew too but I'm terrified to try my own clothes. I've made a few things in the past and always had fit issues. Back in the day when I was 6 sizes smaller, I made myself lots of skirts and loved wearing them. But now I'm just afraid. I was looking for posts about the Esme tunic when I found your blog.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for voting for my dress. The contest is still running and I have not won yet but thank you.

      I love the Esme dress! I think I have made six so far! That dress may be a good one to ease yourself back into garment sewing.

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  5. Did you hand sew all of that on the Alabama dress? That looks amazing. I have never been a fan of her books, but you kicked butt and made it so much more fashionable! I'm totally rethinking. I love your mod on the McCalls dress--brilliant.

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  6. One of the major aspects to consider while choosing dresses in summer is comfort. Choose clothes which are comfortable and cool as summer seasons can be quite discomforting. stoned emoji

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