Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: A Dress For Late Arriving Spring


While much of the northern hemisphere is already in flip flops and tank tops, here in Western Canada we are just beginning to have a taste of springtime weather. While I am anxiously waiting for warmer days, I decided it was time to make something outside of my wheelhouse - a spring/girly dress.

I searched through Fabric Mart Fabric’s website for a piece of fabric that would be the right weight for a warm-weather dress, and also for a print that was different from what is in my closet - which is pretty much a long rack of various shades of blue. I selected a floral rayon crinkle challis in pale yellow with flowers in various shades of pink and seafoam green foliage. As always, I washed the fabric before cutting and was happy to see that there was only minuscule shrinkage and even better, it barely needed pressing after being hung to dry. Those crinkles must attract all the wrinkles! LOL

The pattern I used is Butterick 6873 from the Spring 2022 catalogue. This is a wrap-dress with options for ruffles and sleeves. I made the version with gathered elbow length sleeves and a ruffle on the lower segment of the skirt. 

Maybe I’ve made ruffles like this in the past (in junior high?) but if I did, I had forgotten that it takes a lot of time to gather all of that fabric and make sure the gathers are even. In the end, it was so worthwhile because I love the interest that comes from the ruffle on the lower part of the skirt. And crinkle challis turned out to be the perfect choice for this particular pattern! The fabric has lovely drape so the sleeves and skirt ruffle have definition from the gathers but they don’t add a lot of volume. Nor will the dress be too warm to wear on hot summer days.

This fabric was also a great choice because it isn’t slippery so the wrap pieces over the bodice don’t move much, nor does the skirt. That said, after wearing the dress out on windy days for my pictures, I’m going to add a couple of small snaps to keep things in place.

This was the first time I had worked with this type of fabric and it won’t be the last. It was much easier to work with than regular rayon - easier to press and it won’t show creases which is just what you want for warm summer days.


If you would like to hear more about this project, please visit my YouTube channel - Janine Sews.

JANINE  | @janineerm   

Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: CHALLIS.

Comments

  1. That is a very pretty print and the dress looks great on you. Normally, I don't gravitate towards florals - have owned two floral dresses in my lifetime and one was purchased to wear to a wedding decades ago. Good choice!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The dress is lovely and so are you. Makes me want to buy some crinkle rayon, now. I follow you on YouTube and enjoy your shows. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful dress,excellent fit and print, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a lovely tribute to Spring! Looks beautiful on you...enjoy wearing it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the dress on you. The fabric is perfect for the style.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely!! Don’t you just love fabricmart, though?!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's interesting that your crinkle challis didn't wrinkle much; I have some yardage of crinkle challis and after washing it, the creases became much more pronounced -- not exactly the look I wanted -- so now I'm having to press it and alter my plans for what type of dress to make out of it. Nothing too formal or detail-oriented since with every wash it will crinkle and crease. Your pattern choice was excellent for the material!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very nice fit. I love that dress and I love flowers and pink...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Why Sew A Muslin

Here it is, my September blog post featuring Newlook N6692 and this pretty rayon challis from Fabric Mart! This pattern style is so in right now. The square neckline, cute puff sleeves and the tiered skirt are all exactly what I was looking for in a summer dress. As always I started with making a muslin first!  Let’s get into why it’s important to start with a muslin.  A muslin is basically a practice garment. It prevents you from cutting into your good fabric prematurely.  I usually use a muslin fabric (natural cotton) but you should also consider using a fabric that is the same weight as your fashion fabric. This will give you a truer gauge of how the garment is going to lay in the final fabric. Anytime I try out a new pattern company I make a muslin. This was my first time using a Newlook pattern so I need to know what the ease would be like for this pattern. Also I need to see how the bust would fit me and where I would need to make adjustments. Plus there were some new techniques

Made By A Fabricista: The Love of Sewing - Basic Pieces for a Beginner

Happy Friday All! It has been a while since I made myself a dress. I am excited to sew after not making anything since my last post (whew) and finally sharing some photos.  This past summer has been a roller coaster journey with plans to release a small collection and then deciding that right before the launch to postpone. Sewing has brought me joy over the past 8 years and the mere fact to sew daily for orders had me in a panic mode. I really don’t want to walk away from my craft due to burn out  and decided that if I do sew for others, it would be only for local clients. Moreover, If next year I decide to launch, it would be seasonal and not year round. I really want to share my talent and love for sewing with others but don’t want it to be a full time job and lose the passion in me.  After a bit of soul searching, teaching and sharing my talent with my community will always be my first love. For the past 2 summers, I was blessed to partner with two nonprofit organizations’ local sum

Made By A Fabricista: End of Summer

Summer is nearing to an end but here where I am in Texas the heat isn’t letting up any time soon!  I still have plenty of time to get a few more summer looks out of the way.  In this blog I will be sharing two separate projects. The first project is this denim set; I had the inspiration saved on my list of makes to make.  For this project I got this gorgeous denim and matching thread to start my project. Yes, Fabric Mart will match the thread to your fabric perfectly and with my favorite thread brand Gutermann.  The denim had a very great weight and wasn’t too stiff.  It was very starchy when it arrived, so I did a prewash before working with it.  I’m so glad I did because it had a lot of dye saturated in which would not have been great for the skin and other clothes. For the first part of the set, I drafted a corset with the scallop edge cups, such a cute detail!   To start I used my bodice sloper to make the corset, I was not worried about the design details and focused more on