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!

The Trans-seasonal International Dress of Friendship

I wasn't kidding about my desire to make something colorful and patterned after all that Whiteness of The Shirt.  Saturday morning I got started on a  project that's been in my mind for a long, long time.

This is a dress sewn by an American using English fabric given as a gift by a Canadian originally from South America!  Behold, Cambie #3:

with Frye Corrina Campus Wedge

If you've been reading for a while, you may remember that my dear friend Andrea came to visit last June, and when she did she brought me a very generous and lovely gift of two meters of Liberty lawn in Landis B.  This print is really incredible - it looks interestingly mottled from a distance, but up close, you see that there's an architectural theme:

Andrea chose this for me because she knows I'm interested in architecture.  This print came in a few different colorways, but this one is perfect for me - these colors go with so many things in my closet and are really perfect for any season.  I made a few different outfits to demonstrate.  Above was Summer, worn on its own with some sky-scraping Frye sandals.  Below is a look I'm hoping to be wearing very soon for Spring:

with Frye Carson Harness flats and an old green jacket I just love

But the reality is that I'll probably have to wear it this way for a while longer, a la Fall and Winter:

with Frye Fiona Moc oxfords, tights and my Exeter sweater

(Do you notice a shoe theme?)

The fabric also goes very nicely with these tourmaline earrings I made a few years ago:

hand-formed and hand-wrapped

This fabric was really interesting to work with.  It is so smooth and silky, and it must be quite tightly woven, because I could hear every needle prick going through!    Construction-wise, I made this one mostly like my first Cambie.  Cambies number 1 and number 2 were really muslins for this version - this fabric was so precious I wanted to be sure I was making the right size before cutting into it.  My first Cambie was a size 6 with no alterations, and at the time I felt it was a little loose.  So number two was a size 4 - it looks great on, but is really tighter than is comfortable for me.  The other day before cutting this dress out, I slipped on my blue Cambie again and decided that is the fit I really prefer, so this one is a straight size 6.  Really the only thing I did differently was to "unsweeten" it by making the neckline straight, and to add some fusible tricot along that edge to help with the flaring I was getting on my previous two versions.  I do think that I'll need to do a neckline adjustment in the future, although I'm probably the only one who notices the slight gape.

This time around, I decided to get a "fancy" zipper - and by fancy, I mean twice as expensive as the ones I usually buy.  Sadly, the quality ended up not being commensurate with the price - it was very stiff, and I was never able to correct the way the ends diverged from each other:

It's even too far apart to close that gap with a hook and eye!  Good color match though!  And again, no one will notice but me.  At least it's even, so it almost looks like a design feature.

I tried again to do a narrow rolled hem on my lining - with limited success!

Quite a steep learning curve with that little foot!

But despite these little flaws, I'm in love with my new dress and hope to wear it a lot.  Thank you again, Andrea, for this amazing gift!

Cambie Muslin Mega-Post

I finished my size 4 muslin of the Cambie Dress on Friday, and I have a lot of thoughts about it and a lot of photos, which I've tried to condense by making collages.

Here's the dress on a hanger, front and back.

I really like this dress, and when I put it on this morning to take pictures, Hubby said, "Wow, I think that's the best thing you've ever made!"  One of the things I like is that the olive green background of the fabric is pretty much the same color as my eyes (color is accurate above).  One thing I don't like so much is that for some reason which I haven't been able to figure out yet, the waistband doesn't meet up in the back, although everything else does:

On the other hand, thanks to my new invisible zipper foot, I've done my best zipper insertion ever.  Look at the difference when compared to the Parfait dress I made a year and a half ago - at the time I was pretty darned proud of myself for that zipper!

The purpose of making this dress was to experiment with fit.  I made my first one in a straight size 6, as Sewaholic's size 6 measurements are the same as mine.  I was happy with the dress, but felt that the fit was somewhat looser than what I've been seeing around on other ladies.  My ultimate goal is to make the dress in a very special fabric gifted to me by Andrea; before I cut into that piece, I want to make sure I have the fit I want with this pattern.  I also wanted to try out the full-skirted version just to see how I liked it, as A-line is my default skirt shape.

The verdict?  Well, I'm not really sure.  The size 6 fits.  The size 4 also fits, but in a different way.

When I first put on the dress Friday afternoon (admittedly after a lunch that had left me feeling bloated), I felt that it was just too constricting, although it looked good.  I'm really not used to wearing very close-fitting garments, especially in the waist.  It occurred to me that this might be in part because of the border print I used:  to get the correct placement of the print, I had to cut the pieces across the grain rather than with it, so there is no horizontal give in this dress.  I'm curious enough about how much this affects the fit that I'm planning on doing a third muslin in size 4 just to find out.

It also occurred to me that getting the right fit depends on first deciding what that means to you:  I've decided that fit is a very subjective thing.   I'm happy with both my dresses; they both fit, and I think they both look good on me.  I haven't yet decided which silhouette I like better though:  the relaxed easiness of the first one, or this more retro fit.  I'm also not in the least surprised that Hubby prefers the closer fit!

So making this dress has given me a lot to ponder.   I've been concentrating for some time on what adjustments my body needs:  lower the right shoulder, reduce the right hip, lengthen the right leg, do adjustments for small bust and broad back.  And I've known for a while that I don't always need to do these adjustments, depending on the pattern.  But I hadn't realized until now that the third variable is my feeling about what fit I want.

I didn't actually do any adjustments on this muslin - I made a straight size 4.  I did however bring the shoulder pieces down further than recommended into the openings at the neckline, and more on the right side, which brings that shoulder seam forward.  What I ought to have done is sew the right shoulder seam about a quarter of an inch deeper.  Maybe next time.

Interestingly, I have a couple of gapes on this dress which I also have on the larger size:  one at the peaks of the sweetheart neckline, and the other at the back of the armhole.  I haven't yet figured out how to deal with these (or even if I need to), although for the neckline I'm thinking a little interfacing would help.

And of course, no post would be complete without me confessing my errors.  I had decided that I wanted to skip the pockets on this one, because I've always found pockets on full skirts to be kind of tedious - you have to shift so much fabric around to find the opening.  What I didn't realize until I'd cut out all my fabric and begun sewing is that the pockets on this version are not at the side seams:  those seams have been brought in toward the center to make the pockets more easily accessible.  Thankfully, my print was busy enough that it doesn't really show.

I also found this version a little trickier to sew, just because of the mass of fabric in the skirt.  I felt like I spent way more time shifting it all around, and of course there's more to deal with in the gathering and hemming.  Still, I like the end result - it's very feminine, and goes well with my red pumps!

Detour

Remember way back in the summer when I made this Portfolio Top?

I was so in love with the fabric, that when I found three more remnants of it at Vogue shortly thereafter, I bought them all!  And I've decided that it will be great for Muslin #2 of the Cambie Dress.  This time I'm going to make the next smaller size, and the full-skirted version.  Here's what I kind of think it will look like:

And no, I haven't finished my pencil skirt.  Or my Exeter sweater.

Spambie. I mean . . . Cambie!

I finished my dress this weekend!  And I took a picture or two this morning . . .

Here's the "real" picture.  This one was the best of the bunch.  Also, please note that I made an effort with my appearance!  Hair and makeup!

OK, let's get down to brass tacks.  I love this dress.  The more I look at it, the more I like it!  And it feels so good on - very comfortable. 

You may remember that I cut a straight size 6, since Sewaholic's size 6 measurements are mine exactly.  In the end, I'd say that for a closer fit, I could probably go down to a size 4 on top, and possibly even on the bottom if I used a heavier fabric (this one is made of cotton lawn with a synthetic pongee lining).  However, this little bit of roominess makes the dress very comfortable to wear and easy to move in.  So I'm on the fence. 

Although this fabric is very pretty, I truly did mean this to be a muslin, both to check for fit and to practice the techniques involved.  This is the very first time I've made a fully lined dress, and I think that's one of the reasons I was putting it off.  But it really wasn't hard, and the pattern instructions were clear enough that I was able to figure it out.  But just to make sure, I checked on Tasia's blog - there's lots of great extra information that helped me confirm that I was on the right track.

My intention is to make this dress again using the gorgeous Liberty fabric Andrea gave me when she visited.  That fabric is precious, so I want to make sure I have the right fit before I cut into it.  My current plan is to wear this muslin a few times and see how I feel in it.

But you want more pictures and less discourse, right?  Pleased to oblige!

The dress itself.  With closer views of the pockets and sleeve/strap area:

I'm very proud of my invisible zipper.  It took a lot of re-sewing and cutting, but I finally got the two sides to match up perfectly!

Some fit photos.  I included the back view even though it is fuzzy.  I don't know why, but sometimes my camera just decides not to focus even though the settings are the same as all the other photos.  But at least you can see the shape of the dress from the back.  Let's just pretend it's "soft focus" because I'm old.

And some "outfit photos."  I think this dress looks pretty cute with the Miette!

And the one you've all been waiting for:  the Silly Photo!  Here I'm channeling my inner school teacher, and shushing you:

I'm hoping that anyone who is interested can see some of the fit wrinkles by clicking on the pictures to enlarge.  I'd welcome any advice anyone cares to throw my way!  I find it interesting that there's a horizontal wrinkle at my right shoulder (visible in the back view photo), because that's my lower shoulder!  There are some horizontal wrinkles at the sides of my ribcage as well.  That said, I realize this fabric makes those all a little difficult to see!  But much the better for me to get some wear out of this dress!

Cambie

I'm finally getting started on my Cambie muslin today. 

I washed my fabric on Thursday, and then cut it out and made my markings.  Yesterday I was running around doing errands most of the day, so today is the day!

I'm using a floral cotton I bought from Anna in one of her destashes.  The background is dark blue, with random arrangements of flowers in white and black.  The cloth is very nice quality, and it felt good to work with a woven after all the knits I've been using lately!

I'm making View A, the A-line skirt, because I'm testing the fit.  I'm very curious to see how this pattern fits me "out of the box" because the Sewaholic size 6 measurements are my measurements exactly.  Can you imagine being able to make up a dress with a fitted bodice and not having to make a single adjustment?  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!