My (not so) Little (not so) Black Dress

This is probably as close as I'll ever get to the proverbial Little Black Dress, but it's simple, it's neutral (dark grey/chocolate brown almost black), it's accessorizable, and I think it should take me to a variety of places.  (Ahhh, this brings to mind some very fond memories of reading one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books "Oh, The Places You'll Go!")

The Pattern:  (I'm not sure where this model thinks she's going - she certainly appears to be ready to soar.  Or something...

Lynn Mizono's Vogue 1312.  In spite of being a declared non-dress wearer, I am warming up to the concept and keep finding more dress patterns sneaking onto my cutting table.  This is now my second made dress!   To add to the 2 (sleeveless, very casual, summer frocks) I already own.   Which makes a grand total of 4 in my closet.   I think this makes me rather the odd one out in this dress-sewing crowd!  At any rate,  this one I wanted to make from the moment I saw the pattern!   There was a bit of a drawback in that it calls for nearly 5 yards of fabric, and I didn't have anything suitable in stash of that quantity.  Even finding something I liked that fit in my frugal budget was proving a challenge!  I'm pretty sure that I used something closer to 4 yards in the end.

The Fabric:  The pattern calls for lightweight fabrics - I ended up using something I would call a "winter weight" - quite substantial, and a bit of a concern because of the possibility that it would pull the dress down.  It's a lovely stretch woven - another find from Fabrix -  a burn test was inconclusive, but the important part of it to me is that it feels quite yummy :)  And in the end  it's stable enough that I think it will hold its shape nicely.   I lined the bodice with a stretch Bemberg rayon, which has just a little less stretch than the fashion fabric, and they played well together.

The Fitting:  I muslined the bodice, and ended up doing my usual narrow/sloping/forward shoulder adjustments.  I also thought the neckline was too wide for me, so I added 1/2" all the way round the neck.  This turned out to be perfect.  The muslin (in a woven) wiggled over my head easily enough, so I eliminated the zipper.   If I make another one, in a summery woven (which is very likely!) I will probably fit the bodice a bit more snugly and add the zipper.

I used a very scientific and precise method of tissue fitting to determine the appropriate length, documented in these pictures:

Length of pattern as drawn

Carefully folded up a precise 4" -
the length I decided on

Note about lengthening or shortening the pattern:  The skirt has an upper section and a lower section; the pattern pieces are marked to "lengthen or shorten here" on BOTH the upper and lower sections.  Unless you really want the upper section to be a different length, I strongly advise simply cutting off (or adding to) the length along the hem edge of the bottom pieces.   If you try to adjust both upper and lower, you will end up with pieces that don't match up.  Trust me.  (Dorothy found the same problem in her PR review.)

I'm 5'4" (almost), and I'm happy with the length shortened by 4".

The Process:  This is a well-drafted pattern, and the instructions are clear and easy.  (Yay!)  Everything went together beautifully.    All of the pictures and instructions that one would need are right in the pattern envelope :)

I did take a little side trip when I decided to add pockets - I blogged about my method here in my previous post.

Here's a look at the partially made dress, with the upper portion of the skirt attached to the bodice.    A short skirt lover could stop right here if they wanted!  The lower skirt is simply 4 rectangles sewn together - very easy to shorten the length after it's all put together, if you wanted to wait until that point.

The Results:

The Pose.
Of Course.
One simply must do The Pose.

Because I'm also going to pose like this
on a regular basis.....

Looking Normal.

LOVE me a pocket!!!

The necklace is a creation by Don Pezzano of Urbandon - if you're not familiar with his work, check him out!  Mostly he designs and makes menswear, but his jewelry is unique and amazing!

So, where should I go with my version of the LBD?

Next up:  A 'should-probably-have-my-head-examined' project - something I made once and  sweated blood and tears over, and in the end get very little (if any) wear out of....and I'm doing it again?   Yes, yes I am.   To be revealed....

The Li'l Ole Lady Dress Gone Wild

Sometimes a project just turns in to 'one of those things', aka "What was I thinking?", then "Can this even be saved???"

My initial issue here was one of fabric choice - I bought this circle/dot jersey from Emma One Sock a couple of years ago.  I loved the swatch, but when all the yardage arrived, all I could see was "little ole' lady" (henceforth known as LOL) fabric.   But hey, it was EOS fabric (translation = not cheap) and I was determined to find something I could use it for.  I kept interviewing it...almost hiring it....but it never quite made the grade.  

Enter Marcy Tilton's V8813.  I saw Barbara V's super cute version up close and personal, and pictures of several other successful versions, and thought this could be a great dress to help me overcome my long-standing Dress Aversion - funky, edgy, comfy, creative potential...what's not to like?  So I finally hired the LOL, combined it with some navy modal, and I thought "Yeah, this will work".  It looked like it was going to take longer to trace and cut than sew - super easy!  I got it mostly sewed up, and thought ... "Huh.   We no longer have the LOL dress, we have the LOL bathrobe!" 

Not the look I was going for.

Enter some of Marcy T's silk screens, and I thought "Yes, I can save it with this!"  I seriously wish I was one of those talented people who can really visualize the completed project in their mind, but I just ain't.  I'm a go-with-the-flow person, and I just have to watch it unfold and figure it out as I go.  In this case, I watched it unfold...and flow...and go...and fold up...and flow some more...and nip and clip....and rumple...and.... well.  You get the picture.

I really couldn't bear to take pictures along the way, so we'll just jump to the end result.

The construction:  Gratefully riding the coattails of those who have gone before me, I took the wise advice to do the gathering on the center front piece BEFORE sewing it on to the front side pieces.  Doing the gathers AFTER sewing it all together was, imho, the silliest possible advice in the pattern instructions!  I did the gathers themselves per the pattern instructions, using a zigzag over a length of perle cotton, then pulling up the gathers - easy peasy!

Mostly I followed all of the other instructions, which were very clear, very thorough, very good.  Until, of course, I completely stopped following instructions.

I cut a Small, and ended up bringing the V point of the neckline up about an inch.  I also took the side seams in by about 1" on each side (for a total of 4"), from the bottom of the sleeve to the top of the pocket, tapering at each end.  I used the View C pockets, with a contrast lining and faux piping.

The Embellishments, etc.:  I really should have taken shots of the bathrobe stage.   Really, you would SO agree with me that it looked like a bathrobe!  I hadn't sewn the center strip (the LOL) on when I started silk screening - thank heavens!  It's really hard enough trying to manipulate the fabric flat when just a few seams have unflattened it!  Dixie wrote a recent post with an excellent tutorial on her silk screening methods.  I aspire to her artistry, but meanwhile, I'm learning....here is a brief description of what I did, and the tools I used:

This was the last piece I screened onto the dress.
I used Marcy T's Riffle design, which is in place on the fabric,
a syringe to draw up the paint,
A squeegee (this was a larger one that I cut to size),
the paint,
and a touch-up brush.
What is not seen is VERY important - a bucket of water to place your screen in
immediately after using it, so that it doesn't clog up.
(ask me how I know that this is VERY important....)
Everything is laid out on a large plastic sheet on the floor, but the sheet really should be larger than this to catch the drips from the water bucket.

I drew up the paint in the syringe, and squeezed it out -
you can see the largish bead of paint on the left of the screen.
Too much is better than too little!
The squeegee is ready to push the paint through the screen as you pull the squeegee across.
I'm still learning how much pressure is required, but I'm discovering that more pressure is  good - I started with a tendency to not push hard enough.

After the paint has been drawn across the screen.
You then lift the screen off the fabric by lifting one side of the screen,
holding the fabric down,
and try not to make a mess of things.

The results.
This one wasn't too bad :)
After you let the paint dry, set it with a hot iron, and it's done!

After this I sewed in the center front piece (LOL), and assessed the situation.

It was now looking sort of like a hip, Asian version of the LOL bathrobe.    Still not ready for prime time.  I tried various shoes on with it.  No help.  I tried to manipulate the pockets in about 79 different variations of gathers and buttons and folds and stitches.   Some versions sort of worked, some not so much, but what was NOT working was the baggy pockets as designed.  In this fabric, in spite of the updated direction I was moving in, those pockets still screamed bathrobe! to me.  

The length.  Aha!  The length!   Too long on my vertically challenged bod.  I also just wasn't crazy about the uneven hemline - it wasn't until I took another look at the pattern pictures and realized that it's supposed to look like that ... I guess ... but it wasn't working for me.   Evening out the hemline meant, basically, cutting it WAY off grain.    Oh well, whatever works.  I tried trimming it.   Still too long.  Still uneven.

At this point, I figured, if it wants to be uneven, just let it be so, and embrace it.  Did I mention that this was a late night sewing session?  I was, without doubt, getting goofy.  You want uneven?  I'll give you uneven!  My version of embracing the unevenness was to do a serged rolled hem, stretching the kerfluvvin out of the fabric as I fed it through the serger, and I got the ultimate in wavy unevenness!

I had already decided on the pocket solution at this point, which was to stitch a fold in the center of each pocket and add buttons, completely changing the shape of the pocket opening and, I think, a better flow with the rest of this dress.   I used 4 unmatched clear, cut plastic vintage buttons from stash.

And called it done.  And fun!  And functional  :)

Well....not totally done, because now I need some new shoes, since nothing I have seems to work well with this dress (except maybe boots and leggings for Fall wear).   In the meantime, I have what I would call a fun knock-around-the-house playdress that could be dressed up a little and taken out to dinner, or funked up and taken out to a fun, arty event.   It's definitely comfy to wear; I worked through my LOL issues and now I can just have some laughs :)  (I  do have more of the LOL fabric though....what to do, what to do......)

Meanwhile, I'm happy with what I've got.  I'm wearing it now, and it might just stay on all day :)

Not the most figure-flattering piece,
but I'm going for comfort here, and in that mode, it fills the bill nicely :)

Random thought = Shoes.  I should write a post about shoes.  Not because I know a lot about them; more because of what I DON'T know!