In my last post I talked about dyeing fabric with marigolds. That was Tuesday, and yesterday it turned into a real dress that I wore at night! That’s some pretty good turnaround! Of course, I’m lucky enough to have this awesome job that allows me to sew all day!
So here it is, my Cambie Dress!
This color is pretty accurate to real life, although it looks much different on me than the dress form because I actually have some color in my skin. The Cambie pattern is very pretty, and the dotted Swiss is delicate and youthful, and the green color is pale and soft, so everything came together to create a very lovely dress. But I had to funk it up a little, so I added a bright orange zipper.
I did a handpicked zipper, which the Sewaholic designer Tasia gives a tutorial for here. I used a bright orange thread, and I used it again for the blind hem. Handpicked-zipper stitches and blind hem stitches are supposed to disappear into the fabric, but not on this dress!
Now I’m going to show you a terrible picture of the back.
I tried to color-correct for the dress, and the background suffered for it. You can’t win ‘em all.
Okay, the dress fits me a lot better than it fits the dress form. But I love that zipper! Also you can see the unevenness of the dye. It’s not so apparent in real life, actually. I love the subtle mottle of the color, I think it adds character to the fabric itself. It’s very beautiful!
This ain’t my first rodeo with the Cambie dress, so I made a few small alterations with it this time. I let out the side seams 1/8″ each, and it fits much more comfortably now. I also brought in the top of the zipper seams because I have a problem with back gappage with every pattern I make, and this is a huge improvement.
I think I’m going to have to make more changes to it, though. I didn’t spend enough time fitting it well, since I made the bulk if it yesterday to wear to a thing at night. The back is too high and I have to do some weird maneuvering to zip it all the way up. And the hem is a little long for my tastes. But in all honesty, I’ll probably wear it a lot before I get around to making any of those changes.
I think that this dress will be absolutely perfect for picnics, and I’m excited for this dreary weather to turn around so I can get some good use out of this dress!