stripey dress

i posted one little preview photo of the top of this dress wayyyy back in may, and i think i finished it sometime in june? can't remember, but regardless, these photos are long overdue since it's now... august!!! i know i know. but at least i have worn it twice!! that's a record, as i'm still in the "i-just-sew-things-but-then-never-wear-them" phase of my sewing. yeah that top i posted about in the same blog post from may... never wore it out of the house. i feel like it looks like nurses' scrubs? i went to all the trouble to french seam the sleeves and bias bind the edges, but i'm not a fan of it. i'm thinking if i rip the sleeves off and re-cut the arm holes to make it a racer back tank top style and then bias bind those arm holes, that might help it become wearable? whaddya think?

excuse my tangent. so i never posted photos of this dress, which i actually do like although the stripes are kinda loud and it feels a little "jamaican maaan"... ("I see pride! I see power! I see a bad-ass mother who don't take no crap off of nobody!" anyone? anyone? is it sad that the most i know of jamaica is from the movie cool runnings? but that's such a good movie! you know you like it.) i was hoping to get some nice outside photos, but these inside ones were the best i got.

the fabric was suuuuper cheap from fabric.com and i didn't notice when i ordered it that it's not a cotton knit. i was expecting a soft cotton knit. major surprise when i opened the package! it's some stretchy poly lycra blend that could easily be a swimsuit. i hated it at first. but it was so cheap i decided to just go ahead and use it, because if i hated the result, i could pretend it was just a muslin =)

i made up my own pattern and used my super new swedish tracing paper, which rocks by the way. get some. i decided to be lazy and made the front and back bodice exactly the same! - since it's so stretchy it didn't matter, and i like the scoop in the back. i referenced a RTW dress and tank top as a starting point. oh and if you missed it, i totally aced the side seam matching, but the only side photo i have is the one i posted here. for the skirt i just did a big ole rectangle and gathered it. i had enough to make it a maxi, but when i held it up those stripes were just overwhelming. i knew i'd never wear it. so i chopped it off. and when i say "chopped" i mean i carefully laid it out a measured it and painstakingly cut it shorter and then did a very tidy job of hemming it.

the bodice is fully lined with the same fabric because it made the fabric feel more substantial and it solved the issue of how i wanted to bind the neck and armholes. (i first typed "arm and neckholes" ha ha, that makes it sound like i have multiple necks but only one arm. love it!)