Made By A Fabricista: Sweet and Spicy

Summer is finally upon those of us in this part of the world! June is one of my favorite months. It’s the first time it really feels like summer, it stays light outside past 8pm and it is Pride Month! Pride is a yearlong allyship in my house and I try my best to always listen, show up, see and support my friends and family in the LGTBQIA+ community. Although Pride Month is only once a year, who you are and who you love should be celebrated year-round, not just once a year!

For this month’s make, I knew I wanted to be conscious of my fabric choice this time since it is summer, and it’ll be over 100 degrees here daily soon so I wanted something breezy and light. I opted for this black and white printed crinkle chiffon and found the perfect dress in the Roseclair Dress by Cashmerette Patterns.

I opted for the paper version of this pattern, so I had to get to cutting my tissue paper out. This can be a tedious and frustrating task, so I like to get prepared for the process with an episode of whatever podcast I’m listening to currently to. To make it even easier, I like to iron my tissue patterns on low to get all the wrinkles out. Then, I use an old blade in my rotary cutter and lay my pattern pieces out on my cut table and cut it like fabric. It makes it go so much more smoothly AND quickly! 

This particular fabric was sheer, so I needed to do double layers of everything that needed to be covered – bodice, top and middle skirt. When I tell you this fabric is not for the faint of heart… I mean it! As a singular layer, this fabric is breezy and gorgeous. When working with multiple layers, everything slips and slides and takes three times the amount of time to do anything!

My pro-tip for working with super slippery fabrics is to use either washable spray adhesive to keep your layers together, or to use washable glue sticks around the edges! I know it sounds weird – but I promise it will save your sanity! I used glue sticks for my project and it was a huge time saver. As mentioned, I also chose to double up layers of my fabric for coverage but also to skip out on having to line the dress. This pattern doesn’t call for a lining, but with this fabric being sheer it needed layers. I chose to glue the edges together and then treat the pieces like one, so I created the bust darts across both pieces instead of sewing them individually. Another good time saver!

 I wanted to be able to style this dress sweet and spicy and changed up the look with shoes and accessory swaps. For my sweet, I opted for a hat and a cute pair of closed toe wedges. 

For my first spicy look, I went with some of the harness accessories I have. I’ve seen these pop up all over social media lately and knew I wanted in on the trend. I made this chest harness from some leftover faux leather in my stash and some rivets and o-rings from some other bag making projects.

I also really wanted to style this waist belt I recently picked up, so I layered that overtop the dress and I love the different look it gives! I really like the contrast between the ruffled tiers and the metal chains, and I think the black and white pattern is fun, but not too overbearing with the bold accessories.

This fabric was challenging to work with, but I know that I will get a lot of wear out of this dress this summer. The instructions were straightforward and easy to work through, and I already have plans to make another version of this dress – but this time in a single layer fabric!

Thanks for reading – happy sewing!

CHELSEA | @thatssewchelsea

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Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: CHIFFON.
You can also find our collection of Cashmerette Patterns HERE.