Made By A Fabricista: All’s Well that Ends Well or The Story of My Romantic Two-Piece Dress

“All’s well that ends well”

That phrase popped into my head (in my mother’s voice of course) as I sewed the last stitch on this two-piece dress.  Why, might you ask?  Because I made so many silly sewing mistakes along the way. 

Hello Sewing Friends! It’s Sharon from Sharon Sews with my latest Fabricista make. 

As I started to plan my next make, I knew I wanted something that would work for those early spring days in Texas that begin cold and gloomy but end warm and sunny. I decided to use a lightweight rayon crinkle challis, in a darker floral print, to sew Vogue 2127, as I fell in love with the pattern cover illustration. 

I pictured myself wearing this romantic top paired with that flowing skirt catching the breeze just right as I ran through an overgrown meadow filled with flowers, butterflies and songbirds. However, any overgrown meadow where I live would likely be filled with baby snakes this time of year, not something I wish to encounter wearing a dress and sandals. 

The pattern is described as a two-piece dress, but to me it’s simply a matching top and skirt. I like the versatility of two pieces as I can wear them together, or pair the skirt with a tee and the top with pants.  

Rayon challis is one of my favorite fabrics to sew. It comes in beautiful colors and prints, its flowy and drapey, gathers beautifully, and is comfortable to wear in the summer heat.  Even though it is not a recommended fabric for this pattern, it was what I wanted to use.

The crinkly texture of this fabric adds some interest, but when you’re wearing your garment, your body heat can relax the crinkles a bit. I have found crinkle challis works best in simple, unstructured styles, with few seams and details.  

Naturally I ignored my own advice :-) 

The front of the top has seven button and loop closures which required sewing narrow bias strips. If you’ve sewn those tiny bias tubes before you know they can be challenging with any fabric, but this crinkle challis did not want to behave. To help control the fabric, I used spray starch (which washes out), so the fabric behaved enough for me to make the loop closures. If I hadn't had starch handy, I would have sewn the seams with a strip of paper underneath to help stabilize them. 

This pattern requires nearly ten yards of lace.  While I do keep a supply of notions and trims on hand, I didn’t have ten yards of black lace and had to order.  When I read the notions on the back of the envelope, I saw that I needed 4-3/4” wide lace. I couldn’t find that width in the amount and timeframe I needed, so I settled for a beautiful 4” wide lace.  Unfortunately, it was too wide and heavy and just didn’t look right on this top. 

I carefully removed the lace with my trusty seam ripper and debated about leaving the lace off completely. But that detail was one of the things that attracted me to the pattern in the first place so I began my online search again for ten yards of black lace. 

I double checked the notions and had a good laugh at my expense. It turns out the lace was supposed to be 1-3/4” wide, not 4-3/4” wide, which is why my original lace didn’t look right.  I was only able to find 1” wide lace and told myself I could “make it work”. (If you were a Project Runway fan I’m sure you heard that in Tim Gunn’s voice.)

When it was time to attach the narrower lace to the center front of the blouse, I discovered the rayon stretched ever so slightly when I sewed it on. Out came my seam ripper (again!) and off came the lace. I used the spray starch along the center front to help stabilize the fabric and resewed the lace. Whew, much better the second time!

Let’s move onto the cuff saga. The cuffs have button and loop closures, and I mistakenly added only three loops.  In addition, I managed to sew two identical cuffs, instead of a left and a right cuff. Since I had to take them apart, I figured I might as well as add the missing fourth loop, which really does look better. 

But wait! There’s more.  Because at this point, Murphy’s Law had decided to grab a chair and stick around a little longer. 

The waist of the tiered skirt is supposed to have ten elastic casings, but mine only has nine. I guess my measuring wasn’t as accurate as it could have been, but who will ever know? Well, besides us. But let’s make that our little sewing secret. 

I dutifully inserted 3/8” elastic into five of the casings and took a break. As I prepared to insert the remaining elastic the next day, I happened to glance at the instructions. Turns out the elastic is only inserted into every other casing. Oops!  I guess it pays to read the instructions, ha!  I fixed it and the result is a trendy detail that is also very comfortable to wear.  

When it was time to sew the lace to the skirt I crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, and hoped the fabric wouldn’t grow slightly as it did when I added the lace to the top. Thankfully, I discovered sewing the lace on was pretty easy, just quite time consuming as the bottom width of this skirt is more than 60”.  That width, combined with this lovely fabric, gives it a delightfully swishy movement when I walk.

I may have spent more time sewing this than I originally planned, and yes there were mistakes, but in the end it was worth it. I have a dramatic and romantic spring outfit that can be worn together or as separates. 

As I stated earlier, “All’s well that ends well”.

If you’ve enjoyed my Fabricista posts, come find me on YouTube and Instagram for even more sewing fun and inspiration. 

Until next time, Happy Sewing!

SHARON  | @thesharonsews