I’ve made a summery little dress for myself.
This is dress F from the Japanese pattern book Stylish Dress Book, by Yoshiko Tsukiori. I’ve made this pattern up once before here, and that polka dot dress is still in my wardrobe and remains one of my perennial favourites. I don’t know if this new one is going to topple its big sister from my favourites list, but anyway, it’ll still be a goodie and bound to get worn a lot in this long, loooong, very hot summer we’re having!
I made a couple of teeny changes, adding inseam side pockets and also leaving off the sleeve ties. Instead the sleeve opening has a button sewn on to close. Still looks quite cute and meant I didn’t have to try to sew and turn out those skinny-binny sleeve ties in this lovely but rather challenging fabric.
I know… it doesn’t look particularly challenging in my pictures; it appears from a distance to be a quite ordinary duck-egg blue, handkerchief linen. Only closer inspection reveals random dots of what appears to be clear plastic, splattered all over it. This has the happy side effect that in the sunlight it appears to sparkle like diamonds, *squeals, oooh pretty!* and the less than happy side effect that it was quite difficult to actually sew the splatters and they don’t fold well at all; also it, how shall I say this? presents an Ironing Challenge, to say the very least.
See, obviously linen requires the hottest setting on your iron but the plastic splatters turn into soft and sticky, glue-y spots that stick to your iron and everything else when they’re subjected to heat. I’ve pondered it for four years; four! since I bought this lovely stuff from the Fabric Store in Melbourne! wondering what I could make with it that would do it justice, finally hit upon this. Also, reflected all over again upon how super silly it is to leave lovely fabric languishing in le stash when I bought it for the fun of making it up and wearing it, what the heck.
Happily, I think it did work out! 🙂
During construction I pressed either using my ironing cloth or on the wrong side of the fabric, and had to peel it off the cloth or the ironing board each time! and wondered if the splatter dot situation, while a cool concept and I visually I loved it! was in practice going to be a massive pain to iron.
Well I’ve washed and ironed it once now and fortunately I don’t think the dots are going to be a problem. I ironed the dress inside out and even though it does stick together it’s no biggie to just peel the layers apart while turning it right side out again. And the plastic does cool and dry hard again pretty quickly. Thank goodness.
The hem line has a tuck around the bottom. This is actually a crafty fix of a cutting booboo. You see, when I made my first dress F I had screenprinted my own fabric and I forgot to note that I had actually lengthened the pattern pieces to fit my print. Actually I find it good practice to add by default like, at least 10cm in length to any dress from a Japanese pattern book. Anyway, this time I carefreely cut out the pattern as is… result; scandalously short dress. Darnit.
Fortunately I had enough fabric to cut extra lengthening bits and sewed them on to the bottom, hiding the joining seam up inside this tuck. You can’t see the join on the inside because I turned up the hem long enough to enclose everything. The hem is hand-stitched using invisible fell-stitching, and I caught the upper fold of the tuck in the same stitching to secure all the layers together.
Problem solved!
In fact, I have to say that this is a very simple dress which belies its unexpected difficulty-factors! but I am so pleased that it all came together quite happily and satisfactorily in the end. 🙂
Details:
Dress; dress F from the Stylish Dress book, by Yoshiko Tsukiori, plastic splattered linen
Hat; Vogue 8844, ivory corduroy, details and my review of this pattern here
I just love that fabric – no wonder you fell in love with it. It sort of looks as though you have been splashed by that gorgeous ocean – giving the dress a nice cool feels, sort of been under the sprinkler look. The hem fix works nicely – adds a bit of weight to the bottom of the dress.
whoops, nice cool feel….
Great looking make from a rather challenging fabric and I just want to stare at your fantastic location from here where it is extremely cold and snowy
What a beaautiful dress Carolyn, I'm sure it will become your new favourite. The only thing that could possibly stop that from happening would be the ironing factor! Oh linen, why do you need ironing?
Very nice dress and lovely fabric! Looks very crisp and airy.
Your dress looks perfect for summer. Replacing the ties with buttons was an inspired idea.
Lovely……a "complicated" fabric used with the simplest of styles!
This is so beautiful and feminine. I love it! I have been debating on whether or not to get this pattern book, but I am definitely going to get it now. One of my girls loves all the Japanese style clothing, so I need to try out the girl's patterns too.
This dress is just so beautiful, I love everything about it. The fabric is a dream and functional for your hot weather. It is such a lean, elegant look.
Very chic…. Worth the four year wait I think!
Your dress is a lovely casual dress. I can see how it would be a nightmare to work with!
It's such a lovely simple dress but that fabric sounds quite challenging. And I like that you made the hat. I've often seen these accessory patterns but you don't see many of their results… Your hat looks nice and works well with the dress.
About the lengthening: Couldn't you just have cut the lengthening piece in double width, sew and press its sides first, turn it right side out and sew to the bottom of the dress as one layer and finished the seam allowances? The end result would have looked just the same and you wouldn't have had to hem separately.
Oh, by the way: Have you seen that Burdastyle is now sending the "Blog Top 50" list with its newsletter? It's announced on the site. As we already knew, our blogs are both on that list, but it's nice to see the whole line-up.
Lauriana; thank you! the method you described is quite close how I did finish the lower edge and I did only hem once 🙂 sorry I didn't explain it clearly; I sewed the extension to the lower edge and folded the tuck and hemline up where I wanted them to be, pressed, pinned and just hemmed the lot in one pass, catching the top fold of the tuck in with the lower edge.
Thank you for letting me know about the Burda list, we sure have some excellent company 🙂
It looks lovely. that style of dress really suits you. How about using baking paper between iron and fabric when pressing.
I really like it and I have to laugh because I cut a dress off rashly last week and it was too short so I used the selvedge edge which did not have tulle ribbon to make a contrast hem to extend it. Good really because I think the ribbon would have worn my tights to pieces to the smooth edge (below the lining) won't be a problem.. Jo x
Beautiful dress despite such difficult fabric. I love the button/sleeve detail.
This is gorgeous, and I love the fabric in spite of its difficulties. I have made this dress several times and I wear them all constantly!
I don't want to image what a pain that fabric has to be to work with. Beautiful result though!
Beautiful. What an original (but tricky) fabric! I have that book but overlooked this dress. I shall give it a try. Thanks!
A wonderful dress, perfect for your current conditions (of which I am extremely jealous).
I think you are secretly living in my dreamworld – it is so miserable and snowy here that all I think about is being on the beach in a flowy linen thing. It came out lovely, and that fabric is so unique! Also, had to click through to the hat page because I've been wanting a hat like that for ages. Clearly I need to just steal your wardrobe.
A lovely dress from very difficult and interesting fabric. I've never seen any like that. Perfect for your weather (oh, well, we have some spring flowers now so spring is on its way! So I'm not completely envious just a bit!) Your hat looks good too.
A lovely dress from very difficult and interesting fabric. I've never seen any like that. Perfect for your weather (oh, well, we have some spring flowers now so spring is on its way! So I'm not completely envious just a bit!) Your hat looks good too.
Lovely! I can't wait until it gets warm enough for me to wear my japanese pattern book dresses. You are so inspiring!
I loved the photos. The dress is so cute as well.
that is a great dress and perfectly suited for a beach cover up. winter is ending and I am dreaming of white summer dresses 🙂
I was thinking 'ironing cloth' when I was reading this, but inside-out apparently works OK. You must love this fabric to put up with its eccentricities!
A perfectly "Carolyn" dress. Very very lovely!!
Perfect dress for the hot weather, and the fabric sounds amazing to look at but a challenge, however you have made it shine.
Hello Carolyn! You look so pretty in your white summer dress, when I´m here freezing! ah! When will the summer come? Or at least the Spring!! You always choose the right pattern for your fabrics, and yes, it looks like a dream fabric but then turns out a nightmare to sew.
another carolyn-y cute a-line summer dress! i am yearning for summer now!
What an interesting fabric. I understand that it was hard to handle, but it really gives some interest to the simple lines of this beautiful dress.
I love the sleeve- so summer!
Awesome work! That is quite appreciated. I hope you’ll get more success.Watch it
The fabric sounds a nightmare to work with but it looks fantastic! i love the simple style of the dress for hot weather. I've got a Japanese dress book & really need to have a look in it for summer dresses – even though summer in the uk isn't quite as hot as yours!
What an unusual fabric! The fabric did present its challenges but you persevered and made a beautiful summer dress. Gorgeous!
I love your dress, it's so summery! Thanks for reminding me of the pattern, I have always wanted to make it as a beach tunic – your photos match my plan perfectly 🙂
Lovely! Great dress, great fabric (dot problems were worth it), great pictures!
Wow! absolutely love it! It's now a must on my list 🙂
Great Summer Outfit! Beautiful pictures! 🙂
Beautiful little summer dress! I must admit that I already got inspired by your idea of using buttons instead of ties 😉
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Hey there…your dress is so gorgeous. I would love to make it for my niece who lives in an island. how can I get a hold of this pattern. your work is so wonderful. thank you for your input. I really learn alot from your blog. xoxoxox