If you have seen other dresses that I have made over the past year, you will know that I am a huge fan of Brett Lewis' fabric designs. He is a quilt-maker and fabric print designer in Alberta, which is where I also live, so the designs always remind me of where I have grown up. Before I go any further I want to thank Northcott Fabric for very kindly gifting me this fabric! Please check out the rest of the Prairie Wild collection here, I promise you it will be worth it!
This dress was made using a pattern from the 1940s that includes fish-eye darts, elbow-length sleeves, and a built-in high collar (which is my favourite feature!). This dress does not have a waist seam, so ties sewn into the side seam help to nip the waist in. The tie at the waist also makes the dress very flexible for size, which is great for days where I just want to be comfy.
This is my first casual 1940s dress that I have made, since I have always made my 1940s dresses out of wool suiting in the past. Although the 1940s is one of my favourite eras of fashion (I pretty much always wear fashion inspired by the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s), I very rarely make it for myself. This dress was my first step towards fixing that! I wanted a cotton dress that I could dress up or down and that was comfortable enough for me to reach for it even when I am in a rush. I find that having sleeves and a higher neckline makes dresses more easily appropriate for work for me (I don't have to wear a uniform for work, thankfully), and I always love the look of a high collar for myself. The length of this skirt also makes the dress really functional since it is long enough that I won't have to worry about pulling the skirt down if I am moving around a lot, but it is short enough that I can wear flat shoes with it (I usually wear higher heels when I am wearing a longer skirt - a completely made up fashion rule that I have somehow created for myself).
I think that this pattern is my new favourite one, and I already have a rayon version of this dress in my future plans!
Although I love the finished dress so much, the sewing of it was a comedy of errors. I started off strong by cutting out the entire garment with the pattern upside down... You might not recognize that right away since the pattern is dense and is not immediately recognizable as having a direction, but if you pay attention you will notice that the wheat is facing downwards:/
I noticed my mistake about two seconds after cutting out the last piece, so I put the project away for a few weeks to calm myself down and convince myself that it really wasn't noticeable.
The sewing of the actual garment went very smoothly until I started finishing the seams with pinking shears (scissors that have a zig-zag pattern that prevents the fabric from fraying). While pinking the seams at the shoulder where there are small gathers, I accidentally cut into the front of the dress. This cut was not huge, but it was right at the front of the dress. I pattern-matched a small piece of fabric and patched the spot, so it was luckily an easy fix. Once again, the dense patter of the fabric saved me!
Lastly, while giving the dress a good press before I got photos of it, I melted a section of the hem lace with the iron! Hem lace, also known as seam binding lace, is a type of lace made from synthetic fibres that can be used to finish seams or used at the hem so that you can create an invisible hem. Because the lace is so thin, when you hand sew your hem it prevents any bumps from the fabric being folded up from showing. I had the perfect hem lace for this dress that matches the wheat in the print, and it gives such a lovely finish! Until, of course, I melted a small section of it with an iron that was set to a temperature suitable for cotton, which requires a temperature to press out wrinkles that can melt synthetic fibres. Luckily it was only about a centimetre of lace that was melted, but it really did cement this dress feeling like a cursed project.
Despite the many problems that I had with this project (all user errors), I still really enjoyed the process of making this dress and using this stunning fabric. I love the colours in this dress, and the print makes me feel like I am at home looking out on to a wheat field in August. I spent a day trying this dress on with all of my favourite shoes, bags, and cardigans, and I can confidently say that it fits perfectly into my wardrobe and will be worn many times to every type of occassion.
For all of those seamsters out there, have you ever had a cursed project where everything seems to go wrong? Fingers crossed that my next project will be a breeze!
Thank you for reading,
~Katherine
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