Made By A Fabricista: Spooky Season Hasn’t Ended Yet!

When fall started and we moved into Spooky Season I knew I wanted to make something a little witchy. I’d been eyeballing Stitch Witch’s patterns for some time, and after some back and forth on which pattern to make, I landed on the Harlow Dress. I really liked the neckline, the cute elasticated sleeves, and I didn’t have a pattern already with a princess seam a-line skirt. 

I’m a huge sucker for linen, and after perusing Fabric Mart’s stock I decided on this beautiful black linen with a subtle rose jacquard weave. I loved how at first glance it looks plain, but when it hits the light the roses appear.

I love to make things much harder for myself than they need to be. My favorite seam finishing technique, especially for a fabric like a linen, is french seams. They’re so neat and I don’t have to worry about anything unraveling, it’s all neatly tucked inside itself. What I didn’t consider was how tricky french seams with neck facings would be. I had to pick out several seams multiple times because the fabric pieces had twisted incorrectly in the flipping of the french seams. 

(Not counting when I attached the back panel on the wrong way.  I just wasn’t paying attention here.) 

And my seams were cut down each time. So most of the seams in this I ended up stitching with the smallest seam allowance I could and overcasting with my machine. I haven’t washed this since making it, but here’s hoping the seams hold up!

Overall I’m pretty happy with this dress.  I took a lot less photos of the construction since I had so many issues, and the black fabric made it kind of hard to see what was going on anyway. I did end up having to raise the body of the dress up about an inch and a half. But I’m looking forward to giving this pattern a second go at a later date!

Finally I’ll leave you with a pic of one of my assistants, laying down on the job. Till next time!

KAYLA  | @nebulanovem