During our recent trip to Melbourne I found this great Tie Dyed "denim" with floral from Lincraft of all places. I could immediately picture this as a #partyPeplumDress so I snapped it up. I had a $10 voucher so that eased the pain of the $20/meter price tag (WHY is Lincraft so expensive I ask you when most of their stores are a total schmozzle)?
The first thing I did to the pattern, with the help (again) of The Boy, was to make sure the skirt was the same length the whole way around (23 inches) rather than dipping "up" at the sides into the peplum (19 inches). Dave measured and I marked it out on the pattern (I find I need three hands with most sewing tasks so he comes in helpful).
I also then traced a second skirt pattern so I could cut the front and back at the same time (and I'm making the front and back skirt are the same length the whole way around as I'm not into the "high-low look"). And, for the record cutting on our tiled floor = NOT fun!
Things started off pretty smoothly with my sewing. I'm getting fairly good at French Seams, but I always really have to think about what goes together first...wrong sides or right sides? At this stage of the game I was feeling pretty darn confident in my ability to punch at this dress toot sweet! Pride becomes before a fall as they say...
And then I tried the dress on. Oh dear!
Despite finding the arms a bit tight in my Daisy #partyPeplumDress I did nothing to fix the problem for my second go around with this pattern. I think I kinda forgot about it to be honest. I wouldn't say the arm openings are "restrictive" but they seem to be wider than they need to be so they cut into the front of my arms.
So I did what any clueless beginner would do....I hacked into the dress with scissors until I thought it felt...OK. I also hacked into the dress until the arms were no longer even on both sides. Whoops! I actually think my shoulders are uneven...so whilst things looked OK whilst I was cutting it became clear when I put them on that the bodice was now wonky.
But look how nice my pink bias binding looks on the arm holes...so pretty!
Another problem I noticed with the Daisy Dress was that the bodice was a tad too long at the back for me. I have quite a large caboose and my big butt stopped the bodice from hanging nicely into the skirt. Ergo the fabric all bunched up and was quite "puffy" at the back. This "big butt bunching" seemed to be more of a problem on this version of the dress...I've got NO idea what going on here (has my bum grown)?
Anyway...I knew I had to shorten the back piece of the bodice so it no longer hit me on the derrière. Because I'm lazy I tried to do this whilst the skirt was still attached to the bodice...as you'll see by my THREE rows of stitching. In theory I know what needs to happen to fix this but I just cannot be bothered to unpick the whole dress to fix its bunchy back.
And that my friends is the end of this story about what was to be a lovely floral tie-dyed denim dress - the answer to all my summer dress woes. Now it's just hanging on my bedroom door...accusing me of being a terrible seamstress and it's right. But I'm just a beginner so it's all a learning experience.
I'm not sure what to do with this dress now? Throw it out?
In case you're wondering I AM going to make this dress again. I raced up to Lincraft right after this fiasco to see if they had more of this fabric and they did. I bought 2.5 meters and once I make up a 'muslin' of this dress I'll be ready (I hope) to chop into this fabric. I LOVE this fabric and I was SO sad when I knew I botched the dress and now I feel like there's hope again.
On my next attempt I will be:
- Reducing the length of the front + back bodice from an XXL to a S - which may seem drastic but it's only 2cms and I think that's a good start. I'm not sure what to do with the vertical darts though - do I use the Size S now?
- Reducing the arm hole from an XXL to an XL - which makes it 1cm smaller on the side.
- Praying to the sewing Gods that everything goes according to plan.
Are there any shorten lines on the bodice piece? Usually you can shorten in the middle of the bodice. How were the darts when you cut the XXL? If they were ok then I'd stick with them as a base rather than going down to an S as you aren't changing the width only the length. Good luck with it. It sounds like you are learning new things at every step and that's what it's about.
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