Finally finished this dress and am so pleased with it! It's big, it's bright, it's twirly!
It was a beast of a project and I have things to say about it!
This is the Roberts Wood Drafter's Grid Dress, which I started way back in November, I definitely took my time with it. Mostly the cutting took forever because there are so many pieces to keep track of. And maybe sewing, too, because I had to make sure all the tiny pieces aligned. OK, the whole thing was time consuming.
Was this pattern a complete impulse purchase, and a very expensive one at that? Yep and yep. Do I wish I had waited until it was on sale two months later? Also yep. Oh well.
Worth it, though!!
The Drafters Grid Dress is really a cool pattern. So many pieces, and so many possibilities! It's very modular- you can do a dress, a skirt and top, switch the length of the skirt or sleeves, add elastic to the waist and cuffs, play with different color combos, use scraps...
Roberts Wood made some cool videos showcasing different construction options as well as different color options- I feel like the world's your oyster here!
I cut a size 20, which worked well. My measurements were between 20 and 22, but the dress seemed fairly oversized, so I went with a 20.
I did a muslin of the bodice and one sleeve, which I think was a good idea to confirm fit and also to just practice sewing and aligning the tiny pattern pieces. I was able to cut my muslin out of old muslins, which was satisfying.
The fabric is linen viscose noil, a super drapey fabric with a light textured surface.
The dress is a combination of some linen viscose noil I got from Stash last year (the bright, yellow-y green), combined with leftover linen viscose noil from other projects.
Since the Drafter's Grid Dress pattern pieces are so small, you can use up those long skinny lengths of fabric along the selvage leftover after you cut out a project. I love using up sewing leftovers!
The blue, originally from Stash, is left over from this Fringe Dress, the green from this Shirt No. 1, and the black from this Zadie jumpsuit. So happy to have those scraps used up, out of my stash and onto my body!
The dress is designed for three colors, or at least the pattern pieces have markings for a three-color version. So adding in a fourth complicated things a bit, particularly when it came to cutting out, but I didn't have enough of any of the leftovers/scraps to do only three colors. Figuring out which color went on with which pattern piece was tricky,
To keep track of all the pieces after cutting, since my fabric didn't have an obvious right or wrong side, I used painter's tape to mark the pattern piece number as well as the direction for each piece, because it wasn't always obvious.
I think it would have been chaos without clear marking! Each piece has shaping and is unique; they're not just squares. And I think there are around 70 unique pieces, with some cut mirrored, and some skirt pieces cut up to 6 times! That doesn't count the waistband and sleeve facings or pockets, either, if you use those pieces.
Things I Did and Changes I Made
I serged all the seam allowances, which was a bit of a pain. But I thought this fabric was too shreddy for pinking and there was no way I was going to french seam all those seams. I could see lining the bodice next time to avoid finishing the seams there, perhaps.
I skipped the center back zipper. This is just a personal preference because I don't like the feeling of zippers, texturally, and I find them hard to zip up. The neckline is high, but I found I was juuuuust able to get my head through without any type of closure.
I used pre-made bias tape for the neckline; I thought it could use a firmer fabric around the neckline to support the weight of the dress. And speaking of weight, this dress is quite hefty! I put it on my kitchen scale and found it weighs 2 lbs, 10.75 ounces (1212 grams). On paper that doesn't seem like a lot, but it's weighty!
I opted for the elastic waist option. I like the dress without the elastic, too, but I thought in this fabric it needed the elastic because of the weight of the skirt. However, I found 2 inch elastic worked better than the 1.5 inch the pattern called for, filling out the casing better. I stitched in the ditch over the elastic on a couple vertical seams in the waist and sleeve to make sure the elastic didn't twist.
When topstitching the neckline and hem, I switched thread colors so that the stitching matched each section. A pain in the butt, but worth it!
Changes I Wish I Had Made
I wish I had cut the center back pieces as one, removing the center back seam. There was no reason to have a center back seam but for the zipper, I think that would have simplified the elastic waist casing, too. I should have committed earlier on in the process.
Similarly, I wish I had committed to sleeve length earlier. I wasn't sure I was going to do the full length sleeve and wanted to try the dress on with the different length sleeves, so I sewed each sleeve row onto the full constructed dress one at a time, which was a pain to wrangle given the size of the dress.
I wish I had stay stitched the top of the skirt. I finished the skirt first and spent a bunch of time swanning around in it, and it got stretched out along the curved edges of the top skirt row. Not the end of the world, but I had to unpick several tucks and ease it in.
My Final Thoughts
I really love this dress! So much fun to wear and such an interesting project to sew. An organizational challenge, but not a difficult pattern to follow or so, by any means.
I could definitely see making more iterations of the Drafter's Grid Dress given all the mix and match possibilities and the potential for scrapbusting. Separates? Just a skirt? A short-sleeved version?
