The Long Awaited Vol. 2

(Though not as long awaited as many a post)

The second dress is a much more flirty affair.  Though you would be hard put to get the full impression from my blurred serious-face shot here.  Hopefully when in context, rather than facing the dreaded camera in a dark corner of my bedroom, I don't look so ..grim!

But I can't fault the dress - all summer boxes are ticked.  Cold shoulder, ruffles, belted waist, and a kind of thirties meets seventies Biba-ish vibe that I am very much digging right now.

The back (will edit this post to get a shot of the back) has the shoulder straps running through a channel.

I adapted a Burda tank-topped shift dress to get the pattern, but I suspect if I had been prepared to look at a few more back issues, I would have found the exact pattern.  Luckily I enjoy a bit of pattern hacking, or even drafting, so I wasn't too phased by this.  And I didn't have to add the pockets.  ALL DRESSES MUST HAVE POCKETS!! It has to be yelled.  It's not negotiable.

 Here is a close-up of the top front.  You can see that the ruffle runs from shoulder to centre front.  There's always a problem with breasts and ruffles in that if you have the one, you don't want the other on top.  For fear of looking like a freeze frame of an exploding airbag in a car crash. But I think I solved it here with this ruffle sleeve combo.

The straps, for the interested, are made from strips of straight grain folded like double bias tape.  At the shoulder the ruffle is inserted, then above the breast the dress neckline and ruffle.  All topstitched along the folded edge of the strip. I finished the underarm edge first with another strip of the same sort. Simple.

All the ruffle and any other hemming was done with my new 6mm hemmer foot. Why did I wait? A fabulous addition to the feets.

 The fabric is a rayon crepe "chirramon" from Spotlight. Bought before Christmas for just such a dress. But not made in time.

In many circumstances this fabric would be an utter beast to sew with, but its shifty nature and drape made it perfect for this dress. 

And I love the shrubbery too!
POCKETS!!