6 July 2019
The Fabric Stash Pledge (my self-imposed year of not buying any fabric) has finished! Yippee!!!
However, it was a success and a failure, all at the same time!
You see I didn’t buy any fabric (apart from the 3 metres of Gertie fabric my husband bought for me for my birthday), but I didn’t use much of my stash either. So the net result is that I still have a large fabric stash.
But I did make the yellow dress pictured above from my stashed fabric, a handbag and another dress (Gertie popover dress) both of which will be the subjects of blog posts soon.
I’m quite proud of the pattern placement on the bodice of the yellow dress, both front and back.
I decided I needed an easy to wear, comfortable summer dress which I could just throw on if I wanted to look a little tidier than the usual summer clothing I wear around the house and in the garden of sloppy t-shirt and shorts.
This Vogue pattern from 1992 caught my eye and so I made View D (second from the right) – but a bit shorter as I didn’t have enough fabric.
However, I don’t think the style suits my body shape very well. It is very comfortable and I will wear it when summer comes back around, but it’s not quite how I imagined it (might have something to do with all the pies I’ve been eating since coming back to New Zealand!)
The dress buttons up the front and there is a casing around the waist which you thread elastic through. The elastic pulled the dress apart at the waist, even after I’d put a hook and eye in place to hold it closed.
So I cheated!
I can get the dress on and off without undoing any of the buttons, so I just sewed it shut at the waist! Problem solved and now I don’t have to worry whether it’s going to ping open while I’m wearing it!
There was another reason I chose to make this pattern – all those buttonholes!
I have been avoiding patterns with buttons ever since I got my current Bernina sewing machine because I couldn’t get the hang of sewing buttonholes on it. The method was quite different to my old machine, so I needed to force myself to learn how to sew buttonholes.
They are actually very easy! Plus, my machine will sew on buttons when I didn’t think it would, so that was even better!
Well, there’s not much more to say about the dress or the fabric stash pledge.
Oh, I did go to Spotlight (fabric shop) a few weeks ago and they had a sale on . . .
P.S. I decided I’d never make this pattern again so I put it in my Etsy shop, if anyone is interested . . . It has been sold now.