Made By A Fabricista: Stripes For Spring

Hi everyone!  

It’s finally warming up here in southeastern Pennsylvania and I wanted to make a light, flowy dress for springtime. I snagged a vintage Laura Ashley pattern from Joanns on one of my last trips there. I somehow didn’t have anything in my pattern stash with a sweetheart neckline, so I thought it would be a good addition. The pattern calls for a giant gathered skirt, so I knew I would need something lightweight and drapey for it.  Something like a pink striped cotton fine seersucker.

The fabric is light and has a really nice drape, almost like a challis. I knew it would gather beautifully. I  got to work cutting everything out, with help from my assistant.

When I say the skirt is massive I mean it.  I ran into an issue right away where my fabric isn't wide enough to cut the back panel without opening the fabric out. And my three yards of fabric wasn’t enough to cut two back panels. I ran into this issue last year when making my pinafore dress. In that instance I pieced the missing width of fabric. I also could have shortened the skirt. However I got lucky and the fabric was still in stock, so I snagged an extra yard and got the full skirt out of it. This skirt deserves all the length and volume!

The rest of the dress sewed up nicely. I lined the dress with a white challis fabric from my stash, and decided to add a lining to the skirt as well, just cutting out a smaller gathered skirt and tucking the raw edge into the bodice lining with the outer fabric. Since neither fabric had much weight and I kept the lining gathering to a minimum it didn’t add much bulk to the waist seam. 

The dress has an interesting overlapping design in the back that was fun to put together. And these wonderfully oversized patch pockets on the front.  They hold my phone no problem but be warned, they will snag on passing doorknobs!

I’m looking forward to sewing up more cute and flowy garments for the spring and summer season! I’m also picking up a serger this weekend, so stay tuned for my foray into knits! 

KAYLA  | @nebulanovem