Yet another Cambie.

I finished my Cambie #4 on Monday morning.

This one is made from a fabric I'd been ogling for quite some time on Fabric.com; a month or so ago I decided to just go ahead and buy it.  It's called Bromley Voile Arbor - I bought the teal/navy combo and it looks like there's still some available. 

I love blue and orange together.

Several shades of blue, pink, orange and coral - just beautiful.  The fabric also has a very soft, silky hand.  I'm tempted to try out the citron colorway, but I have a feeling it would wash me out.

A week or so after I got the fabric, I went shopping at the Textile Discount Outlet with Lisa of Poldapop.  I went looking for lining for this dress and picked up a deep coral polyester which looked like a good match under fluorescent lighting, but turned out not to be at all in natural light!  No matter - the color is lovely and it's super soft.

And then I got started.  I took this picture, just because I liked how it all looked spread out on the table:

For this dress, I used my straight neckline front bodice and the full skirt.  I even added the in-seam pockets!  In an effort to overcome the chest gape I've gotten with all my other Cambies, I offset the center front by 1/8" from the fold at the top, angling down to on-fold at the waist.  I really thought this would work, because when I pinned out just such a tuck on my other dresses, it cured the gape.  But no:

I've tried so hard to get rid of this.  In addition to the adjustment I did here, I've also tried interfacing the seam edge and easing it slightly.  All of these help a little, but don't eliminate the problem.  I'm starting to think that this might be happening to me in part because of my fabric choice:  all four of my Cambies have been made from very lightweight voile.  It could be that my wee little chest is just too broad an expanse for it to hold its structure.  I'm wondering if underlining the bodice would make a difference.

The other option I have is to rotate that extra into a bust dart, but since it's so little when pinned out, it hardly seems worth it.  At least I notice this on other Cambies I see around too - not all, but some.  Otherwise I'd be getting a complex about it!  More experienced sewers:  any words of advice?

I really love full skirts, but I HATE doing gathering!  It always seems like such a nuisance to get the gathers even, especially across an entire waistline.  On this dress, I decided to make things a little easier for myself and stitched my gathering lines for the skirt front and two back pieces separately - it worked like a charm and I'll likely be doing it this way from now on.

Nice, even gathers.

On my two latest Cambies, I've also cut two waistbands from the outer fabric and used one on the inside.  Not super original, but I think it looks pretty.  Here you can see my vibrant lining:

This lining washed and dried very nicely, but it was a pain to work with!  It frayed like crazy, and no matter what I did, my serger just ate it up.  So I ended up using French seams on the skirt and hemming it with my narrow rolled hem foot.  Even that had some iffy moments:

I am getting better at using the foot though.  I also did a narrow rolled hem on the outer fabric to give myself a little extra length.  And also because, by the time I got to the hem, I was really ready to be done working on this dress!

Here's my dress hanging up:

When viewed from a distance, the dress appears dun-colored.  I guess I should have expected that, since that's what you get when you mix blue and orange!  Here's how it looks on - I couldn't decide on which picture I liked best, so I'm posting them all, as usual!

I like this length for such a full skirt.

As you can see, I've got some fit wrinkles on the back bodice.  I have such a hard time analyzing these things - I really don't have the foggiest idea what these particular wrinkles mean.  Anybody?  They won't stop me from enjoying the dress though.

Using my pockets.

And finally:  the twirl test!

I just have to add:  every time I get out these lovely coral sandals I get sentimental, because while I was in the store buying them 8 years ago, I got a phone call from Hubby letting me know his sister was pregnant with our second niece!  These shoes always make me think of my sister-in-law and my niece!