Sewing Adventures – Pink Shibori Fibers to Fabric Dress

Both a happy and a sad day today as I lost a dress and gained a dress. I unpicked my second favourite dress (you can see my original post about it here). It was however in a good cause, I want to remake my bodice block and since I know this dress was made from the original one and it fits well it was a good place to start.

Once unpicked I ironed it out straight and then used it as a guide to cut a new version using this lovely Pink Shibori Fabric.

The fabric is a lightweight cotton sateen. It has a lovely smooth sheen to it and drapes like a lawn. It was given to me as a collaboration with Fibers to Fabric Using many traditional techniques they have a lovely range of fabrics and it was hard to choose what to use!

On cutting out I made the decision to cut on the cross grain. It’s something that I rarely do but with the skirt panels being cut long and wide it was actually more efficient to do it that way.

Once cutting out was done I assembled the darts, shoulders and attached the skirt before hanging to allow it to drop. The skirt has some bias angles happening so I always like to give it a bit of time to see if it will move or not before I continue.

The fabric was lovely to sew with and has a nice polished cotton like sheen to it but weight wise it’s dense like a poplin yet drapes like lawn. It’s actually really nice and I can imagine on a hot summers day it’s going to be cool. I used a fine sharps needle and found that it worked very well.

Sadly my decision to cut on the cross grain came back to bite me. The back ripples a bit where the zip has gone in. I know its because the weave shifted during hanging (which is the exact purpose of hanging) but I must not have got it back to true before sewing. It also makes the bodice have slightly less give. Totally my own fault for rushing in and cutting without thinking it through. I’m convinced it will give with wear and all will be fine.

Sadly my outdoor photos aren’t showing the pink to it’s true potential. It’s been raining (which is great we need the rain) but makes blog photos hard. I rushed out to get these and the sun got so bright it washed out the dress colour. Also wind. Photographing skirts in wind is the worst!

Dress Pattern: My own bodice block and skirt from Simplicity 8048. Remade from a premed garment.

Fabric: Shibori Print Indian Cotton from Fibers to Fabric

Alterations for next time: slow down and be more careful of cutting.