The Seamwork Mojave dress/beach cover-up/kaftan/tunic thing caught my eye right away when it came out, but I only just got around to sewing it while on my recent Labor Day Seamwork bender (see also: Seamwork Akita, Seamwork Mesa). I love the neckline and the little gathers below the bust...
Turns out I had the perfect fabric for the Mojave in my stash, the
perfect occasion for which to sew a beach cover-up, and the perfect
excuse for a new cover-up.
The fabric: some kelly green gauze I have had in my stash for several (4?) years now. I bought it from Fabric.com on clearance. It was
ridiculously cheap, if I recall. It's quite thin and sheer, very soft, a bit shifty to sew
with, permanently wrinkled, but perfect for this style of loose kaftan.
The occasion: a good friend's wedding weekend extravaganza at a gorgeous vacation house on the Chesapeake Bay.
The excuse: I somehow managed to lose my other me-made beach cover-up, a batik Burdastyle Anda,
which is not the end of the world, as it had seen far too many scuba
diving trips and had a permanent seawater/locker room funk ingrained in
it.
My sewing notes: this is a very quick and easy sew, as advertised.
Even quicker, if like me, you skip finishing the seams separately and
pressing them open, but instead opt for finishing them together and
pressing them to the back.
I did have a little bit of trouble sewing the two adjacent pieces of
the yoke together. I ended up with a small space between them, which is
fine, but not how it's supposed to look. The slit is a bit low-cut
anyway. I think next time I might try to devise a way to have the yoke
be one piece with a slit, rather than two separate pieces that abut one
another.
Also, the neckline is really wide on this dress. Really wide. I know
my incompetence with the yoke is exacerbating this, but I still think
it would be really wide even if I hadn't screwed that up. It slips off
my shoulders a bit, so I imagine it would be tough for a woman with
narrower shoulders than mine. You can see it sliding wider and wider below, opening at the center yoke:
I also had to topstitch the back facing down, as it would not stop flipping outwards. (Forgot to take photos of the back, sorry, but it's a basic back piece with no darts.)
I still really like the final product, though! I just know that if I were intending to wear it as anything other than a beach cover-up, I would need to make some adjustments to the neckline/yoke to make it work.
Here it is in action in the wild, if you will, at the Chesapeake Bay wedding extravaganza:
