Sewing Adventures – Embroidered Coral and Cream dress

One of my goals this year is to reduce my stash, by sewing more of it. I have some gorgeous fabrics that I have bought, been given or picked up along the way and they sit in boxes. No more I say, it’s all the good fabrics everyday around here.

This is one such fabric. Bought ages ago in Cabramatta for the princely sum of $10 a metre.

At the time I must’ve been planning a skirt as there wasn’t a whole lot of it. Maybe 1.5m? I also wanted to take advantage of the beautiful edging so some careful planning was required. I measure out a long rectangle that went the length of the fabric panel. That was to become the skirt with only a centre back panel. This left a long narrow top section with the scallop edge still intact.

I’ve been working on perfecting a bodice pattern for myself. It still needs some work but it’s getting closer. I used this pattern and laid it onto the panel to create a wrap over front and V back. I’d like to say it was all carefully planned and calculated but I totally winged it.

The bodice was a simple construction of darts, shoulder and side seams, while the skirt was simply gathered onto the bodice and a seam put into the centre back.

The whole thing is lined in coral cotton silk and there is an invisible zip at centre back. The zip insertion is fantastic but the embroidery means it’s a little tough to raise up and down. In hindsight I should have totally put in a lapped zip. The linking is hands itched around the neckline to keep it in place and there are a few sneaky stitches at centre front keeping the crossover in place. I had a fuzzy supervisor for my hand sewing.

I wore it out yesterday to catch up with my niece and nephew. Their tiny cousin was with them and she loved my dress and wanted to be my friend because I had a “pretty dress”. Kid compliments are awesome.

Fabric: Embroidered cotton from Cabramatta.

Dress Pattern: winged it, bodice based on my own block.

Alterations:  next time I’d raise the centre front cross over a little.