I love this dress! I didn't love it in it's original form - a long blouse - but I love that I changed it into a dress. BWOF has design details that I almost always love - in this case it was the pintucks. I also love the fabric. It's a tropical weight wool that drapes beautifully and feels great to fondle and even better to wear.The orignial design had side slits. I was prepared to include them, but luckily I didn't need them for walking ease. I think the slits would have added a casualness to the dress that was incongruous with the fabric.
About half way through this dress I began to get nervous. When the front and back were sewn together, I tried it on and I was really happy with the way things were going. That's when I started to get nervous. I thought to myself, "I'm really loving this dress!" and I was afraid something would go wrong!
A Little BWOF Mystery: The cuffs were supposed to be pintucked, too. After marking and sewing 19 pintucks in each outer cuff, the outer cuff was considerably smaller than the inner, un-pintucked cuff.
I assumed I'd pintucked the wrong cuff, so I checked the measurements and cut new cuffs. During this, I realized I had NOT pintucked the wrong cuff. According the the instructions, there are supposed to be 19 pintucks in the cuff 5/8 inch apart and sewn 1/8 inch from the fold. The cuffs were the same size after only 5 pintucks were sewn. There is either something I missed in the instructions or my beloved BWOF provided bad measurements. I prefer to think BWOF made the mistake, although that is unlikely.
I almost ruined this dress with the wrong buttons. I was obsessed with finding the right color button. I was able to match the color, but, blinded by my obsession, I didn't realize the buttons did absolutely nothing for the dress. Carolyn advised me to think of the buttons as jewelry for the dress. That statement woke me up and I went out to get better buttons. Moral of the story: sometimes you do have to sweat the small stuff.NB: I used the word "pintucks" fourteen times in this post and the previous post. Call Guiness! That's gotta be a world record!
When you described your cuff pintuck dilemma, I was having flashbacks to my last physics exam :)
ReplyDeleteI love your dress, too :) Ahhh, details.
Great dress, the pintucks look fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love this dress. Can you make me one? The fit is sooo flattering.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I need a larger picture. I want to glory in all the wonderfulness of this dress! I want to see all the details...puleeze!
ReplyDeleteIt appears to be a good fit. I can't see any of the details on the dress. I'd like a larger close up photo. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI'm with Carolyn, I need another photo to see the details. What I'm seeing looks great, though! Do you think making a muslin contributed to the success factor, or was it just luck?
ReplyDeleteNice dress, great detail, I also wonder if the labor of the muslin was worth it? Looks great on you, I can just imagine how it feels.
ReplyDeleteGreat dress. I adore the pintucks. Thanks for the "review" of the Cool Couture book. I agree with you that most of Kenneth King's design are more elaborate than my work-a-day and church-going lifestyle; but I'm hoping I am creative enough to incorporate some of his techniques into my kind of sewing/designing. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I will be in your neck of the woods again. I am working in our Philly office all next week. Do you know if there are any fabric and/or yarn shops near Arch and 4th in the historic district? Thanks.
Oh, it makes a marvelous dress on you! I think this would be great for summer with short sleeves. Yes, yes, Carolyn is right. You have to sweat *all* the stuff!
ReplyDeleteI love your dress and you look so great in it! The buttons are perfect for this dress!
ReplyDelete