A Tale of Two Floras (and some cider)

Hello, darlings!  Hopefully everyone had a magnificent weekend!  The weather here has been lovely all weekend - the summers in Washington are nothing short of magical.

shhhh, don't tell California...

Friday after work, we decided to stroll around downtown. Anthony's restaurant has a great happy hour, and a stunning view of the waterfront.  A drink and some food later, and we took a stroll down to the pier to look at boats and enjoy the scenery.

We kicked around for a bit more, then called it a night.  I found the most amazing hard cider from Crispin - a magnificent blackberry-pear concoction that is a bit too easy to drink...  So two ciders in, and I felt productive enough to decide that rearranging the entire first floor to relocate my sewing room was a FINE idea, and proceeded to demo the necessary rooms before hitting the hay.

Saturday came far too early (5:30 am to be exact).  Jackie-boy had a golf tournament and I wanted to practice on the racquetball court.  I dropped him at the course, spent about an hour running around the court, then headed home to spend the next 4 hours on moving.  Ugh.  Exhausting, but worth it -- I'm delighted with my new space.

I claim this dining room in the name of The Stitchery!

I was DONE by the afternoon, but I did my best to rally and met up with my brother and his girlfriend for a delicious bloody Mary.  Then we headed north to another favorite brewery, The Slippery Pig.  It was a short, but pleasant visit, and there was even an impromptu acoustic guitar performance by one of the patrons.  Then we headed home and I crashed out hard.

Today was spent finishing up redecorating (after much sleeping in), doing some shopping, and generally puttering around.  We spent a late afternoon/early dinner at Der Blokken (their moto is "woman owned, woman ruled, woman brewed" - that's damn fantastic), where the lovely Katie made me the most heavenly cocktail of chamomile tea, honey, and rosemary infused vodka.  Sigh...

I do have two new projects cut out and ready to start sewing, but since I threw my poor sewing corner into complete disarray for the better part of 3 days, I don't have anything done yet.  To that end, I have a couple of projects from last month to share - my very first and my most recent Flora dresses.

I already blogged about how much I love the Flora pattern in my Hera dress post.  It's taken a back seat at the moment to the Anna dress, but I do plan on making this up again and again.  It's such a special look, and I adore it. I have some 60" wide fabric earmarked to make it up with the pattern's skirt.  But it is hard as hell to get away from circle skirts.

For my first go, I decided to toile the pattern up in a fabric that had been hanging out in my stash for several years (yep, I'm a fabric and pattern hoarder).  I've been in love with the idea of an Alfred Shaheen dress for quite some time, but I've never been able to commit to a pattern.  Flora seemed to strike an inspirational chord; my fabric was only 45" wide, but I had a ton of it, so the 5 gore circle skirt from Butterick 5882 seemed the ideal choice for a mid-century look.

The Shaheen dress, floppy hat optional

As this was the first go at this pattern, I hadn't dialed in the fit.  There is about 1/2" too much fabric in the back, and the darts under the bust needed to be taken in a bit.  But even so, straight out of the package at a size 10, this was love.

The back is straight, my posture sucks

The circle skirt did a bang up job.  If I could wrench myself away from one-directional novelty prints, I would use this a lot more.

Twirl-approved

The bodice is lined in pink cotton, the skirt is unlined as this is a dress that was ear-marked for Texas. And I know from experience that this skirt, when lined, is HEAVY.

The lining is tacked at the waist at the seams only.  It's a technique used in the Gertie pattern, and I think it works great.  The lining is hand-sewn at the zipper with my usual meticulous care and attention to detail.

Frankenstein couldn't have done it better

Flora #1 in the bag.  I adore this dress and would wear several times a week if I could.  But I can't, so off and running on another make I went.

I came across this gorgeous fabric while wandering through Joann's Fabrics and decided then and there that it was destined to be another Flora.

At this point, I already had the Hera dress in the "done" pile, and was feeling pretty confident about the pattern.  I had it cut out already, and it went together effortlessly in the space of one evening.

The Vineyard dress, Bettie Page shoes and hair accessory from Dame Deville

Pattern matching?  What's that?

The bodice fits MUCH more closely than the previous two dresses, but that is intentional. I prefer a more snug fit as I think too much ease (really any ease) looks sloppy. This may also be a holdover from my days of Italian Ren gowns....

let's jump into the wayback machine

Again, I only lined the bodice, using a quilting cotton that I've had for probably 6 years.  The lining is topstitched in place, which keeps the straps a bit more stable.  The straps are lined in the same fabric as the dress, because I think it's a neater finish.

And, as usual, I used a regular zip and inserted it using an invisible zip technique.

Cause I can, that's why

note to self...turn on your flash

And there you have it.  Two lovely Floras and a weekend wrap up.  Tomorrow's Monday, kids, hope everyone is ready!  I'm not, so I'm going to drink another cider and stare out the window at the glorious sunset.

Everyone's got to start somewhere...

My first dressmaking tale is one of two tragic projects that never quite lived up to their potential, later joined in a union of new dress bliss.  Let's begin....

A little over a year ago, I saw a new line of patterns emerge in Butterick's retro line - Patterns by Gertie.  B5882 immediately earned a place in my heart; I was enamored of the pleated, boned bust and multi-piece circle skirt.  It would be mine.  Oh, yes.

I decided to make this for my 40th birthday and proceeded to buy the obscene amount of fabric required (in progress shot below).  Much swearing later and ripping of stitches later.....

The instructions, like most of the Big 4, were a tad difficult to follow (to say the least).  I used plastic cable ties for the boning and twill tape for the casing, as this is what I used in the past in Renaissance gowns.  FAR superior to the store bought boning in its own casing.  Yuck.

The dress was fully lined, weighed a ton, and I was very pleased with myself.  Then I put it on.

Meh.  The bustline hits in the exact wrong place.  Rather than being cut beneath the bust like this dress (which I own), it cuts it in half, then the pleated insert takes up the rest.  Which, if you have any sort of bust at all, just perches on top of what should be lovely cleavage.  In my opinion, highly unflattering.  I also think the bias cut trim that creates the straps needs to be wider.  Not a total fail, but not a success by any means.  And so the dress was banished to the land of Don't Really Want to Wear Again.

I took the remaining fabric and whipped up a quick gathered skirt that I wore a few times, then grew bored.  It, too, was banished.

Then I saw a dress from the always fabulous Dolly Clackett (the link goes to her make-up), and inspiration struck.  Could these two sad, lonely projects be saved?

I used B5748 a few times before - I'm particularly smitten with the scooped back.  At a straight up pattern 10, I knew the gathered skirt had plenty of fabric.  I pulled the dress and boring skirt from exile and went to work.

 

Skirt and pattern.

 

 

Never-quite-reached-potential dress.

Then, I had to removed the bodice (this pic shows the zipper I smugly thought I could salvage, but was WRONG, so that had to be ripped out too).

Next, I had to deconstruct the gathered skirt.  In my infinite patience and mild mannered way, this meant taking my shears to the skirt and cutting off the waistband, then hem, and either side of the zipper. I left the lining in the skirt that came from the dress, but did not line the new bodice because the fabric didn't need it.

New bodice action shot.

As the new bodice wasn't lined, I needed to remove the excess fabric at the armscye and the neckline (the pattern is drafted to account for the now non-existent seam allowance).  I staystiched these areas at 5/8", then trimmed it down to almost the stitching line.  Then I used bias tape to finish the edges.  I used a normal zipper but inserted it using the method for an invisible zip, because in weird way it's my favorite method.

Don't judge me.  Or do.  It's fine.

Oh, that's right.  This is also a side-closing dress.  I despise side zippers, even in ready-to-wear (forever now known as RTW).  Sooooooo, I just moved the zip to the center back.  This was actually a cinch, because it already has a center back seam, which accounts for the seam allowance needed to install a zip, so there's no funky drafting involved (normally I would just add 5/8" to the center back to achieve this).

The whole project took about 4 hours from start to finish.  B5748 is one of my favorite bodice patterns, and I've paired it with several different skirt variations.  But the bias cut, 5 paneled skirt from B5882 is my favorite version.  Fully lined, it almost can get away without a petticoat.

Sassy.

Super sassy.

An ending fit for a fairy tale.  Happy new dress that will see loads of wear.  Paired with fantastic shoes from Miss L Fire (purchased on a screaming good sale).

So that's it, kids!  Post #1 is in the bag.  Now, it's time to have a slice of amazing chicken and pesto pizza and a tall, cold drink to combat our current heat wave.  But I'll leave you with an outtake for the road.

(yep, I'm in the middle of twirling...)

Cheers!