Monday 13 February 2017

Trying to make the February dress sneakily safe for work

I managed to avoid the extremely hot Saturday by going to stay with a friend who has air-con. Friday was hot enough, but Saturday got to a crazy 46.9C or 116.4F. Yes I'll admit that I've become a little obsessed with the heatwave this summer. This is that day's low / high.


I'm so glad that I don't know what that feels like, cos both times I've sweated through 45C with no air-con it was more than hot enough. She was actually going out on Saturday, and had no problems with me staying and sewing (or even just sitting & reading).

I took my lobster dress to sew if my back was OK with it, and it was whingy enough that I felt it best to let the ligament heal a little more before stitching. Part of me grumbled as she has an overlocker set up with black thread. However getting it out of the wardrobe and moving it could have been much more trouble than it was worth in this instance. Instead I slowly worked my way through cutting out the February Lost at Sea dress. 

It was obvious that Lost at Sea is an one directional print so I had to carefully cut it out with a nap style layout. The pleated skirt was going to be the main issue, as I typically top and tail the side front and side back pieces (sliding one down as otherwise they'd overlap. I might not be phrasing this clearly). I decided to cut the bodice & sleeves out, and other than the collar & front facing which didn't fit, the overall layout had very little wastage. Then I measured the remainder (308cm) divided by 4 and at 77cm, this was about 3cm shorter than the strawberry skirt. So I got the CF and CB cut out from a 77cm each, and the collar fitted next to the side front and the front bodice facing next to the side back.



Remarkably few scraps, especially when I tried very hard to not have the mermaid's "assets" clearly on the bodice, in the hope that although they couldn't be avoided in the skirt, if they weren't obvious on the bodice I could wear the dress to work.  On the back neck her chest will hopefully be covered by the collar, and on the front it'll be in the yoke's seam allowance.  Sadly I didn't notice the right front has a mermaid that isn't under the arm ... we'll see how the darts go.  I'm also hoping that an anchor isn't on target at a bust point.  If it is, then it'll be weekend or social wear only.

I cut the skirt out so that the dress looks like a fake button through - there will be buttons, but it will be sewn as an interfaced fold/pleat, with buttons sewn through all 3 layers.

I hadn't noticed until I got home on Sunday and looked at the half size pattern #4685 that it's a false button through. My reason for looking at it was to see the skirt facing width, except it has no facings. I'll be doing more than 2 false button holes/buttons on my dress.






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