This just might be the prettiest thing I've ever sewn!
After making my green floral Elodie Wrap Dress, I knew pattern would be perfect for a length of fabric I had ice dyed this spring. I wanted to use the ice dyed fabric to make a dress for wedding I we would be attending.
Plus, the wrapstravaganza must go on.
Like my green Elodie, I cut a size 20 from the D-cup line. I cut the view with the shorter sleeve, and I cut the midi-length skirt, which has a slightly high-low hem.
For fabric, as I mentioned, I had a piece of Essex cotton/linen blend, prepared for dye, in my stash that I had ice dyed with Dharma Trading Co. Procion Dye in Shiitake Mushroom this past spring.
I did my dyeing at my sister's house where I was able to lay the fabric across her lawn a la Caramiya and spread the ice out in a single layer.
The shiitake mushroom colors is a pretty, warm shade of brown that breaks down into beautiful mauve, magenta, and greyish brown, with bright pops of golden yellow and royal blue.
The print turned out just beautiful, even better than I hoped it would! Sometimes it looks like marble, sometimes a floral print, and up close, especially where the powdered dye hit the fabric directly without landing on ice, fireworks! And the colors are just stunning.
My fabric was 52 inches wide and I had three yards, which is significantly less than the five yards of 45 inch wide or four yards of 58 inch wide fabric the pattern calls for. I
just barely eked out this dress from my fabric, cutting everything flat and taking advantage of my non-directional print to save on yardage, and turning some pieces, like the waistband, on the cross grain.
I ended up cutting the neck and waistband facings from some coordinating mauve cotton scraps leftover from my Harper tunic.
Because of my restrictive amount of fabric, I also narrowed the waist ties so that they're the same width for the entire length (rather than growing in size towards the end) and cut each of them in three pieces rather than one long length.
In this print, you can barely tell I've done this creative cutting, though! Deeply satisfying to squeeze this dress out of this length of fabric. Deeply satisfying in a way that only a sewist can understand.
I am so, so in love with this dress!
It's floaty and comfy; I adore how the skirt moves. And the ice dyed print is just beautiful and so interesting.
All in all, a major winner that turned out maybe even better than I hoped it would!
Perfect for the wedding we attended:
