This is my second attempt at this pattern; the design from page 10 of Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi; my first was here. I loved the design, but unfortunately that first dress was kinda disastrous. Firstly, I didn’t love the fabric I had used, which was a super-cheapy thick-ish polyester selected for its colour only from the remnants table. On top of the doubtful quality of the fabric and the fact that it didn’t drape very well, my finishing off of that dress was of equally doubtful quality… I didn’t have enough of the blue to cut facings, and used instead a tobacco coloured fabric, a too-thin and also-nasty scrap of polyester. And I didn’t fit the dress properly to myself, and allowed too much seam allowance around the armscye, but sewed a normal width seam allowance, resulting that the dress dug into my armpits in a painful and irritating way, and to unpick the stitching plus understitching around the armscye just seemed all too difficult, since I had sewn them up scrupulously well, and combined with the nasty fabric quality… (deep breath) I guess in hindsight I was treating the dress like a muslin, which is how it turned out as I wore it precisely two times. I know, I’m embarrassed by my wastefulness, too… I can only hope that someone at the Salvos with smaller arms than me saw something good in that thing…
Enough with the saga of sewing failure…
The good news is that I still loved the design enough to really want to have a go at a better one, using nice fabric. Et voila!
side views (one is more interesting than the other…)
Details:
Dress; drafted from the Japanese pattern book Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, in slightly nubbly, charcoal-marle polyester/wool suiting
Petticoat; (honestly can’t really remember the pattern I used for this), black satin, another picture here
Top and tights; Metalicus
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough
back view
Dressmaking details:
There is only one front piece and one back piece, but the shape of the pieces is such that the bodice area is on-grain, but the skirt section is on the bias. Resulting in that lovely ripply drape.
This time I carefully measured the bodice area, armscye and the hip area against an old favourite Burda 8511; and made the necessary fitting adjustments to the armscye. The fabric is a rather nice thin and very drape-y, but still a bit nubbly wool/polyester mix suiting fabric in charcoal marle. For the cord casing around the “hole” I made bias tape from the same fabric. The cord is a 120cm brown/black bootlace.
I cut the facing pieces from the same fabric so that the fabric selvedge edge forms the lower edge of the facing. These pieces are not interfaced; I think the fact they are cut on the cross-grain, while the bodice is on-grain will provide enough stability to this area, and I love the softness of the finished bodice. The neckline and armscyes are under-stitched and not topstitched. The other raw edges inside the dress are overlocked to finish, and the hem is hand-stitched.
Nice! Now, I'm really starting to think I should make this dress too.
What an unusual pattern. This time around looks so much better than the first. Very nice, job well done.
Love it!
What a special, lovely dress. Very original and flattering on you.
Unusual and lovely dress.
A unique dress, I really, really like it. It doesn't look particularly easy for a beginner sewist such as I to try, but I'd like a dress like this one day 🙂
I want one of those! It looks very wearable.
Very cool dress and very flattering! I have this book too and I love to look through it but have yet to apply the designs to anything. Thanks for the inspiration!
That drape looks absolutely lovely on you! I wonder if it would work without the hole…?
I love this look!
wow! I wish I could sew it! very cool!
very interesting, well done. I have to get this book and give something a try.
This is great! It's really artsy. I've seen so many wonderful things from this book. I may have to pick it up because I'm completely intrigued by one pattern piece being on-grain and also on the bias.
Another hit!! I love the gray color and, of course, the way she have styled it!
I'm starting to think I may have to pick up this book — really nifty dress.
what a beautiful design. mieke
http://www.gebreidesjaals.blogspot.com
Ah, when you sew from Japanese pattern books, I buy them. Fortunately I already have pattern magic. But in the book the dress looks like a somewhat contrived experiment and on you it is a great dress!
A very original model, no doubt. Really flattering on you! Love it!
Love, love, love it! The grey is great with the under colors. This book has been sitting on my night table for a while. All the fabulous designs are still working around in my brain – not ready for cutting fabric yet!
Oh I love it! It's so interesting.
This dress makes your waist look teensy tiny!
This is fabulous, so glad you gave it another go. I have this book, perhaps I should try it..
Love this! I was instinctively drawn to this pattern but wondered how I would carry it off. Duh, with a t-shirt underneath. Thanks for snapping my brain back into action.
A very interesting style. Works very well on you.
Super cool. I love how the side cutout makes your waist appear smaller. That's a nice feature.
What a funky outfit! Very artsy! I'm sure you rocked Perth in this outfit today.
Your dress looks fantastic! I have this pattern book and this is my favourite dress from it. I hadn't considered tackling it but now that I see it on you I might. It has enough quirkiness to be interesting but a good classic shape that I think would suit my figure. How hard did you find it, honestly? I've drafted a few of my own patterns before but not sure if this is beyond me.
I think it looks fabulous. Much better than the first, although the first was really okay but I hate thinkgs that fit tight in the armpits! You did great on this version.
that. dress. looks. AMAZING!!!!!!!
great dress!
Hi Carolyn
A very helpful post and a very lovely dress. I'm glad it worked out the second time around (this reflects well on Pattern Magic as it proves that the designs in the book aren't impossibe to realize).
I'm just finishing a sleeved version of the dress with gathered hole sleeves and I'm exhausted, but in a good way!