Sewing Adventures – Deer and Doe Magnolia Dress

I fell in love with the Deer and Doe Magnolia dress as soon as it was released, v neck, faux wrap and oddly for me I loved the long version.

When you are short you are always told to never wear floor length dresses because it will make you appear shorter. But you know what no one ever mentions? The fact that they feel awesome to wear! Suddenly you are swishing down the street like some kind of goddess, so hang being short and bring on the long goddess dresses.

I wanted to make a wearable toile and had spotted this rayon challis at Lincraft of all places. This is now my second fabric purchase from Lincraft in 20 years, woo crazy stuff I know. It was originally close to $20 a metre and while cute was not worth that, I kept waiting till it went on sale and finally got it for about $6 a metre which was perfect because this dress is a fabric eater! Even without the sleeves there is a tonne of fabric useage.

Sewing wise it all went really well. In the future I’d re toile the bodice as the princess seam is now where near my bust causing some odd drags at the underarm and I need to shorten the bodice from shoulder to waistband by about 1.5cm. I also found I could get it on without the zip so didn’t put the zip in which was good as I have a sneaking suspicion this fabric would not have liked having a zip put in.

The fabric is a dream to wear, its opaque so no lingerie, cool and breezy on hot days and doesnt crush too much over the length of the day. These photos were taken about 5pm and I’d been wearing it since 9am so that’s pretty good. The bad about the fabric is that it keeps growing. I had hemmed it to wear with my flat summer thongs. It’s now at the point where I have to wear my boot clogs or I trip over it. I think I’ll wash it again this week and then cut off the hem and re hem it back to a non trip hazard length.

While I’m at it I’m also going to sew up the leg split. I’m not sure how I managed it but I have a crotch level split. Which which good for hot weather does rather flash people more than I am comfortable with.

Pattern: Deer and Doe Magnolia

Fabric: Rayon Challis from Lincraft

Alterations: reduce thigh spilt, reduce bodice length, move princess seams to be on bust