July is here and I’ve made a new summer dress

July is here and the heatwaves arrived. Not much energy to do crafting. But still I’ve managed to finish yet another summer dress from the infamous book of my previous post. I ranked it as the perfect summer dress. Plus it’s really easy to sew. All you’re gonna need is 2,5 meters of fabric and about 20 meters of elastic thread. And some patience to sew the elastic thread parts. The only problem now is that I need at least two variations of it. And around autumn I will need the sleeved versions too. Good thing that Marimekko was on sale this week and I got a good grip on it. Can you imagine marimekko dress with this pattern? I can.

This is called brilliant pattern design, don’t you think? You just cut straight pieces of fabric and then let the elastic rectangular details do the fitting job. How didn’t I think of this? (uhm cause you don’t design patterns, that’s why). So here is the technical drawing of the dress.

And here it is finished and modelled by me:

and a view of the details:

Once more: the book is called “Dresses with Straight Stitches” and has ISBN-10: 4309280196

 

Japanese books collection and my new linen dress

At first there were just 3 of them. Then another 2 came and they had company, then two more from ebay, then 3 more were sent with a swap, 4 more were approved and 2 more to accompany the set of rakuraku hooks in their long trip fron Japan. And now they sit and talk all together in their native language and from time to time I take them off the shelf to just browse or consult or meditate thinking what my next project should be. And ofcourse I’m talking about my ever-growing collection of Japanese craft books. There are so many projects I want to do in them that could be enough for a life time of crafting. Yet, I want more. They have stopped serving their usual role as patterns and inspiration and we have moved all together to the collector’s land. I’m usually grabbing books about sewing and crochet, rarely knitting, felting and when I’m done with these, I’m gonna start origami and paper crafts.

Since I have them adorning my craft book shelf, I thought, why not giv’ em a review. They deserve it after all. Once in a while (meaning when I find time and I’m not sleepy) I’ll try a simple review of them, after all not all of them have “see inside” features, if you try to figure out online which one would be useful to you and your craft. If there are any, I’ll show off a thing or two I’ve managed to complete from said book.

I’ll start with one of my favorite books so far. Comes with ISBN-10: 4309280196 and it’s translated into “sewing with straight stitches or lines or something”. And guess what: there’s not a curved line anywhere in this book.

No ready patterns are available but the drawings are more than enough to make your own. Don’t be easily put off by it, it’s as simple as doing elementary math and using the ruler right. Each design comes with a simple math calculation that has to do with your bust and hip size. Then you apply your number to the design and just enlarge what you see with your found measurements. Illustrations for the process are enough, if you have some experience in sewing. Each design has a drawing of the amount of fabric needed and how to cut the pieces and then numbered ilustrations of each step you’ve got to make.

The book features mainly dresses. Unique ideas about how to transform a rectangular piece of fabric to a lovely dress or tunic. There are 15 basic designs and most of them have two variations like long/short, sleeves/no sleeves and other decorative ideas. All of them count up to 26, numbered with the english alphabet A-Z. And trust me you’ll want to make most of them. Light summer clothing, with linen, cotton and simple colors.

For me it was the kind of book I fell in love simply by looking at the cover. Even if anything else inside was useless, I had to get it for the cover dress. In the meanwhile, a flickr and swap friend posted another creation from this book and I was convinced. Right now I’m currently working on three projects from it. The first one which is finished is, guess what! (insert suspense drums here) The cover dress!!!

Made with linen (I love linen dresses for summer), I impovised at the closure and used buttons with the same size but wiht different colors from my stash. The interfacing was really important for this pattern. Don’t even think to omit it. It will give shape to the neck and button closure. I regret not having used a thicker one, but I can live with it.

Math worked great, sewing it was easy. I made a small mistake at the neck size, just remember that you’re gonna have to calculate it according to your measurements, don;t count on the numbers given. Who knows maybe it was written somewhere… in japanese. So here it goes. (shoulders don’t look so good on the sewing dummy, look better in real life)

(back side)

You’ll have to excuse me for not ironing it to perfection before showing off. But you know linen… and you don’t know how hot a Greek summer is… Hot summer and ironing don’t match, I tell you. And what for anyway, in the end it’s gonna turn like a linen dress that you wear in real life in no time. sigh.

Verdict: a simple rectangular piece of linen, shaped at the waist with the attached cord, fabulous side button closure, neck that you can wear closed or open. Beautiful.

 

Vintage Wrap Dress: complete

To be honest it was completed a month ago. I rushed to finish it, cause I wanted something nice to wear at my niece’s christening. I had this pattern in the waiting list for a while and just wanted an excuse to make something that I would wear only 2-3 times each year. And I had this fabulous Japanese textured cotton fabric, my friend Miwa send me. It was whispering to me in my sleep: I want to be a retro dress. Oh, well, ok then:

Here’s the Butterick Retro 1952 Wrap Dress, made at the biggest available size of 22.

Review or things to keep in mind if you ever decide to diy:

I was expecting it would be an easy-peasy pattern as advertised. It is, if you have the perfect silhouette of the sewing dummy. If not, you have to take extra care to move around the darts to fit you. This garment bases its fit on the darts and also on the right front closure of the back piece. If you get these correct, you’re finished. So don’t go and chop your expensive fabric right away. Use an old sheet and try placing darts and playing a bit with the arm opening to find the correct fit for your body. I found out I had to chop the arm opening a bit because my torso size is rather small compared to my bust size. Then I found out that in order to create a nice fit at the waist the back piece has to button tightly on the front. This way the waist forms nice, the arm opening closes (and your bra won’t show up, important right?) and the dress won’t pull at the back by its weight, when you move. And since I said move, here is the biggest problem of this garment. It’s obviously made for “retro” women who would go out for a drink or a dance, stand straight and avoid any other major body movement. The garment assumes that, if your handbag falls down a nice gentleman will bend and give it to you. Cause if you do it by yourself the front part of your dress will raise and not come back in its place, because the full and heavy back part will not allow it. You have to use your hands for it. So unless your fabric is silky and very slippery, be prepared for the fact.

For closure on the back I used hooks and eyes and for the front snaps camouflaged with buttons.  The biggest challenge of the dress is draft the back piece’s underarms right to fit your body. Or else they will look saggy. Other than that, it is easy and comfy to wear and does the nice full skirt effect that makes you feel oh-so-retro. Don’t be fooled by “cutting the fabric at the morning, wear it by night”. Be prepared: it needs a lot of time to do the hemming and sew the bias tape on it.

I also like the way the floral pattern is place in the top and bottom pieces. It was pure luck cause I didn’t have enough of it to fool around.

PS- I will mention that during the time I was struggling with placing the darts for the 5th!!! time, I got up shaking the unfinished dress above my head, announcing to my boyfriend that it was the last try. If I didn’t succeed I would chop the top and make the rest a nice and full A-skirt. I’m glad I didn’t do it… so i’ll take a spin!