Hand-Embroidered Anna Dress

Oh gollies. This one is good. I've been embroidering away, bit by bit, over the last several months, and the moment I put in the last satin stitch, I boogied my booty to the sewing machine. I  am so glad that I was able to snap photos quickly to show you this one hot off the presses! This is the By Hand London Anna Dress, with the addition of a circle skirt and oodles of hand-embroidered leaves.

Now, let me back up and tell you the story of how this dress came to be. Upon concluding Me-Made-May this year, I realized I was itching to do another embroidery project on a dress like my cross stitch one. About that time, I happened upon this beautiful dress from Dethrose Vintage. I had also just started working on my first Anna dress, and zing!  I realized I could do a version of this lovely dress, but in my size, with the Anna v-neck. 

Falling Fern Dress on Dethrose Vintage

The original appears to be painted, but my medium of choice is always needle and thread, so I stocked up on black embroidery floss and put on some Netflix. I cut out my dress pattern pieces then free-hand drew the branches. Then I created a leaf pattern piece to trace around for the leaves. I backed each section in interfacing, and then used three strands of floss with the satin stitch for the actual embroidery. 

Once I finished the embroidery, I checked each piece against my pattern to see if it stretched out and I needed to adjust. Of course it had, and I was able to sort out most of it except for a wee bit of gaping on the neckline I couldn't control without throwing things wonky. Next time, I'll definitely do the embroidery on the fabric raw before cutting. 

I constructed the dress, per the instructions, and added a full lining in cotton voile to hide the big blocks of interfacing on the inside. My outer fabric is cotton linen chambray (so many good words all strung together!) by Robert Kaufman. Even with the addition of the lining, the linen and voile are so light and airy that this dress feels nice and cool. 

It turned out smashingly! My next big adventure is the Susan Khalje Couture Sewing School, a week-long workshop where you bring your own special project. I've got some beautiful cotton organdy and a Grace Kelly-inspired cocktail dress that I've been saving up for the occasion. I can't wait, but boy oh boy, that's going to be an undertaking! 

Sari Dress

This is very special occasion sewing, indeed. My friend Krupa is getting married later this month, and it promises to be a spectacular, multi-day Indian wedding. Another dear friend gave me this beautiful sari from India a little while back, and I just knew it had to be one of the dresses I wore for the weekend. After attempting to hunt for a suitable vintage pattern for months with no luck, I finally decided to draft something up myself. I wanted a dress where the sari was the star of the show, and I think I've done it!

As I'm sure you can see, I chose the border print part of the sari for the skirt. I gathered it so that I could use it exactly as is, without having to do any additional hemming. For the bodice, I used the heavily embroidered section of the sari. I loved the neckline from the wiggle dress I made last November and decided to use that as my guide. It's a lovely boatneck in the front and deep V in the back, perfect to show off the gorgeous print.

I originally had much different ideas for construction. I had planned to underline the bodice, but I found that it sewed fairly well on its own. I used a size 10 needle for the entire time, and just took it very slowly, test stitching on scraps before I attempted anything with the finished fabric. I ended up lining the bodice in a cranberry silk sateen. It feels lovely! 

For the skirt, I thought I would need a lining, but realized it was completely opaque once I got it constructed, so I skipped that step. This section of the sari gathered wonderfully, but didn't take to seams particularly well. It bunched a bit, something a steam iron would normally press out, but I was concerned that high heat would melt it. I used a lower heat and a press cloth, which worked OK.  

The interesting, and wonderfully delightful, part about the sari was each piece felt and sewed so differently. The bodice felt like sewing a brocade, but the skirt felt more like some sort of nylon. It was a thrill to work on, and I can't wait to wear it to the big event! 

Polka Dot Alder Shirtdress

I'm on a polka dot roll! This is the dress that Me-Made May made. I saw so many adorable versions of the Alder during Me-Made May, that I promptly ordered a pattern and got to work. I wanted to get to work so quickly, in fact, that I skipped over a muslin and went straight to fashion fabric. Adventure!

This dress has such a cute shape to it and is a great summer shirtdress. I thought I would find the flat front paired with the gathers to be a bit silly, but in the end, it makes for a really nice silhouette. It's also distinctive from other shirtdress patterns for that reason, and I appreciate a twist on an old favorite. And pockets!

The fit turned out well, despite my devil-may-care approach to it. I only checked my sloper against the pattern before starting to make sure it'd be big enough and the length would work for my shorty torso. The dart placement even ended up being in the right place! I did noticed a little gaping at the bust, although it feels like I've got enough room there. Might be button placement, though. 

I made one change on the fly - the dress is intended to be a loosely fitted shirtdress, but I found it to be a little too loose. I ended up taking out 2.5" of ease at the back bodice only, at the side seams. I've still got plenty of ease left over. I did notice some pooling at my back in these photos, so I'm wondering if I might also need a small swayback adjustment. Or perhaps taking the ease out at the side seam only, instead of evenly distributed across the back waist, created a problem? What do you think? 

Minus that minor hiccup, there's lots of great little details in the construction of the Alder that you can see when you get up close. 

Oh, so cute! 

I do have three tips for you if you're going to make this pattern: 

• Take care to cut the right front off where indicated on the pattern. I forgot to do this when cutting out the pattern, and it doesn't come up again in the instructions when you do the button band. Consequently, I puzzled over the extra couple of inches on my right front for a few days before I got unstuck. 
• Baste the two yokes at the armhole before you attach the bias binding. This is in the instructions, but I believe it is referred to as basting the "shoulder edges" (step 7B). I missed this step and consequently didn't catch a layer in some spots. It wouldn't have been a problem if I'd have noticed right away, but I clipped and discovered it until I went to understitch. 
• Follow the sew along on the Grainline Studio blog. I found the button bands and the corner where you attach the gathered skirt front to be challenging just following the instructions. 

Happy sewing!