For years I’ve avidly read about the Tessuti sewing competition and always wanted to enter.. this year I finally got myself organised into ordering some of the fabric in a timely fashion! Buying fabric online is always a leeetle bit scary but I trust fabric stores I’ve visited for real, and Tessuti’s is one of Australia’s best. This year the fabric is this rather lovely ivory/blue cotton/linen/viscose/1%elastane plaid. It’s satisfactorily thick and crisp, with a good hand, so the skirt of my dress sits out nicely in a softly stiff way, if that makes sense. The rules for the competition are kinda open, kinda restrictive… open, in that you can make whatever the heck you want… the sky’s the limit! Restrictive, in that all visible parts of the garment must be made entirely using of the competition fabric… no trims, no dyeing, no embellishments like beading, smocking or embroidery, no contrasting fabrics. Hmmm, a nice challenge!! *rubs hands together with glee*
I had some very grand ideas to start with, but after lots of mulling it over decided to just make something I wanted to wear, you know? and what I love to wear more than anything else is an interesting little frock. So that’s what I made! A lengthy but enjoyable perusal of my pattern stash followed, and I plucked out Simplicity 3745, a pattern I’ve used twice before, version one here and version two here; so I know how it works for me!
Sooo: how to use the fabric creatively to add some visual interest to the garment??
Obviously, being a plaid one could play with on-grain vs bias cutting… I made a little mud map of the areas of my pattern, they numbered six, divided them into three each of bias and straight-cut sections, with the straight cut being the predominant look and treating bias-cut sections like a sort of “contrast”, of sorts; and I arranged my 3 bias-cut areas and 3 on-grain-cut areas so as to alternate. Plaid orientation proved a little tricker than first anticipated when I realised the ivory “square” wasn’t a square at all, but measures 2cm x 1.75cm. Meaning I had to choose between “true” bias-cut, which would have been a little off-kilter as far as the appearance of the plaid goes… or slightly off bias, and having the folds/seams going neatly through each of those little white centre points at each junction. I chose slightly off-bias, and having the plaid-matching arrangements looking sharp.
As another point of visual interest to my dress; I turned to my tried and true method (my tutorial for “framing” in a pieced garment with an inset strip is here) of inserting an inset strip to define the design and seam lines of the garment. I cut strips from the fabric, and sewed them in so the bluest, most solid-in-colour part of the plaid design made the dividing line. Ususally I would cut my inset strips on the bias, in this case of course to get a nice solid-ish blue line they had to be cut on-grain.
I was a little worried it wouldn’t work out, that they would pucker and not lie flat and smooth around the curved seamlines, but fortunately the on-grain strips went in perfectly nicely! Must be thanks to that little bit of elastane…! I used this inset strip technique to outline the neckline band, the two sleeve bands, the bodice band, and also the upper edge of the lower edge band.
As another way to add a little bit of visual punch: I sewed strips of the fluffy-edged selvedge along the lower hemline of the dress. I’d experimented with cutting bias strips and shredding them a bit to get a bit of a fringe… something I’d seen on the hemline of a white linen dress made by Tessuti’s once upon a time. However the skylines fabric is so densely woven that it just wouldn’t fringe up at all! Then I noticed the selvedge… aha!!! It had that perfectly fluffy little fringe all along each edge already! I cut strips of the selvedge, including a blue line of the plaid, and stitched this to the bottom edge of the dress. Initially I had thought to use this finish on the edge of the sleeve bands as well, but it was visually a little bit too busy and I ended up removing the selvedge off the sleeves. I do like how it looks along the bottom edge though!
Closure: I used a 46cm, ivory invisible zip. and yep! busted a gut getting this thing sewn in as invisibly as possible!!
This degree of pattern-matching took extremely careful pinning and slow sewing, and just one or two unpicking sessions when some bits weren’t as perfectly lined up as I wanted. I’m super happy with how it turned out in the end though!
Oh! pockets! of course I added inseam pockets. well, obviously, that’s practically a given, if I can possibly wrangle it – in anything – then I do!
Innards; I overlocked all raw edges using ivory thread in my overlocker… and look, tessuti’s sent out one of their labels for us to put in our garments… #feelssoprofessional!!!
Les Innards…
NOT les innards…
So that’s it! done and dust-eeeerd!! I love wearing this thing! It feels so feminine and… girly, is the only word I can think. Girly, in a good way, I mean. Hehe, I asked my husband’s opinion…he replied, “Swiss milk maid” ummm… okaaaay? Would not have come up with that on my own, but I’ll take it!
Details:
Dress; Simplicity 3745, in a cotton/linen/viscose plaid
Shoes; akiel, found in an op shop many years ago
