Hi there!
Apologies for the long absence on here. I’ve been self drafting for the past few weeks in preparation for my holiday. This look and the next few posts will be dedicated to my most recent self-drafted makes. I hope you enjoy them.
When I was thinking about garments for my vacation, I wanted clothes that felt vintage, but timeless, modern, but with a twist, and most importantly, I wanted garments that just felt like me. Back when I first started sewing in March of 2021, I was sewing any and everything to get practice sewing and constructing. When I started self drafting earlier this year, I had a bit of a challenge finding my voice, so to speak. It can be quite tough finding a balance between what’s cute on Pinterest or Instagram and is your style, versus what’s cute because the algorithm says so. In any case, you didn’t come here to read about my thoughts on social media and marketing. I present to you my green gingham dress.
When I think of my perfect garments for a summer holiday, I immediately think of romantic, flowy, puff sleeve dresses. Dresses that are bright and colorful and just feel fun. For my first make, I had been toying with the idea of a gathered bust with a midriff waistband and puff sleeves. I also wanted a fuller skirt, so I opted for a gathered skirt with pockets.
Fabric Choice
I opted for a cotton/tencel blend gingham fabric from Fabric Mart Fabrics. I believe it’s sold out on the website, but things do come back in stock. The fabric was a dream to sew and didn’t give me any issues.
Bodice Construction
To make the bodice, I used Helen Joseph Armstrong’s book as a guide. I contoured the bodice, which I later realized wasn’t necessary because the bodice was being gathered anyway. In any case, I contoured the waist darts using the standard 3/8 inch measurement on either side and used the guidelines to separate the midriff from the bust area. For the sewing portion, I gathered the lower bust and used elastic for the upper bust.
I also contoured the back following pattern making guidelines. I drew a balancing line at the mark of 1/4 of the total measurements of the center back and connected the darts from the back darts from the waist. One of the key parts of the bodice is to always make sure that the side seams line up on the front and back, which I did.
If you’re reading along and are like girl, what are you talking about, an easier way to do this is to measure your bust from where you want the neckline to sit and measure it down to the waist and then attach the waistband of your choice to the bodice.
Sleeve Construction
I then moved on to the sleeves. The method I used for the volume was the slash and spread method . I doubled the length of my sleeves to make them fuller. Sleeves are so odd because they take up so much fabric only to become these tiny parts of clothing once sewing is done.
Skirt Construction
At this point, I was so exhausted that I had never been happier to make a gathered skirt. Granted 0 it was because I knew that it would fit the midriff regardless. I drafted the skirt using the book’s method. However, just take your waist measurement and double it to create the gathered skirt at the length you want. For example, if you have a 30 inch waist and you want a 20 inch gathered skirt, cut 2 30 inch rectangles by 20 inches (one for the front and the other for the back), add your seam allowances and voila. I ended up adding self drafted pockets 4.5 inches from the waist of the gathered skirt, but any pattern pocket will do.
I really love this dress. It’s a great summer staple and I’m so thrilled to be wearing it on vacation. As always, thank you so much for stopping by and reading. It feels so good to be back.
