Wrapstravaganza: can't stop, won't stop.
Obviously, despite my previous concern about Jerry Seinfeld vibes from the puffy sleeves, in the end I decided I loved them and cut them again!
This time I cut a straight size 20 C/D, sizing down in the waist/hip from my Roseclair blouse, which was a 20 C/D bust graded to a 22 waist. I think this is a better fit for me- less looseness under the bust and at the waist.
As I mentioned in my Roseclair blouse post, I prefer my wrap to close with ties that wrap all the way around the waist, rather than shorter ones that tie at the side seam.
So, rather than cut two bias strips to finish the neckline and form the ties, I cut four. I pieced them all together to extend the ties so they would be long enough to wrap all the way around my waist.
Four may have been overkill; the ties are really quite slim and long! Next time I might try to figure out how to get them to be a bit wider. But I like the tie waist for a bit of cinching/shaping.
The long tie on the under-wrap side needed a way to get from inside the dress to the outside, so I had to figure out a good way to form a hole in one side seam to thread the tie through.
I took a tip from the Zadie jumpsuit pattern and left a small hole in the side seam at the bottom of the bodice, just above the waist seam. I finished the side seams separately, pressed them open and then topstitched around the hole. Worked great!
For fabric, I used this lightweight, olive and cerulean blue gingham linen from Fabric Mart. It's a teeny bit lightweight for a dress, I'd say, but definitely cool and breezy for summer!
With this small check/gingham, I didn't bother trying to pattern match along the side seams or across the bodice or anything, although I had some accidental matching down the center front, which delights me to no end.
Like I did for my Roseclair blouse, I cut back skirt on the fold because my fabric allowed for it and I was too lazy to pattern match.
The gingham makes me feel a little bit country for some reason. Tim and I have been on a bit of a county music journey throughout the pandemic. We had been country-curious previously, then watched the Ken Burns County Music documentary early in the pandemic and got totally hooked.
I'd say our tastes lean more towards the liberal country/folk/bluegrass side of things (as opposed to the more mainstream "I want to check you for ticks / she thinks my tractor's sexy" angle).
In any case, I feel like I could put on cowboy boots with this dress and strum a banjo on stage while singing Mule Skinner Blues (the Dolly version with all the hey-heys).
Note: I do not play banjo nor am I a particularly good singer. I do bring some real enthusiasm to my mediocre singing, though.
But I digress... back to the dress: I pretty delighted with my final Roseclair dress! Small tweaks made it work really nicely for me. The joy of sewing, huh?!
Thanks again to Nateida for chatting with me- always fun to talk sewing with a fellow enthusiast!
