I love fabric as much as the next seamstress but I'm not much of a one for hoarding. Well okay maybe I am, I keep all my gig tickets and could find the candle from my 24th birthday cake or the spoon I nicked from Tom's house in a matter of seconds. With fabric though, I hate to buy and stash without a project in mind. Having two meters of this lovely lovely fabric in my stash since June last year has quite frankly been making me feel very anxious. It seems some things you just can't rush though, this was gonna be worth the wait.
I've had my eye open for the perfect pattern to pair it with, I even bought a New Look kaftan pattern thinking I had made up my mind, before I looked back on some old pics from last year and remembered how much I loved making the Serena pattern from Simple Sew. It's a Maxi dress pattern, but as I mentioned last time, and as you may have gathered, I'm more of a mini-dress kind of girl.
I love the shape of the bodice on this dress. I had a little trouble with gaping on my first version so this time I wanted to tackle this. To start with, I decided to interface the front bodice. My fabric is quite thin. Initially I used a medium weight interfacing, but it soon became clear that the bust darts would turn out a bit lumpy if I did this. Hastily I peeled my interfacing off (so professional), and chose a thinner one. I faced both the main fabric and the lining piece as it all felt quite delicate. I added a little extra stability around the neckline with the medium weight interfacing. Brilliant idea! I am now a 100% interfacing convert! I am going to stick it to everything! I love how the bodice instantly has shape but doesn't feel weird and stiff.
I had drawn on to my pattern the darts I had added to my first Serena. After stitching these in I wasn't sure they would be necessary. On my first I was faced with a little gaping around the underarm area and my darts were after thoughts to combat this. At this stage though, the extra stability in the neckline and the tiny bit more I'd taken from the centre front seemed to be doing the trick. It's really hard to tell fit at this point before the shirred back panel is in situ or before the straps are fastened to the back.
Shirring is something I both love and hate. When it all starts to take shape it looks really neato, but there's so much to go wrong. My problem seems to be pinging elastic when I have cut the tails too short. I really tried this time to make sure they all stayed put but I had to redo a couple, and don't tell anyone, one has pinged since completion :O
I used the foot width as a spacing guide, but think next time I will draw the lines on a little wider apart, for accuracy and because I think I could get away with less lines which equals less ball-ache haha! It's a bit fiddly matching your raw edges when you attach to the side panels because the elastic is pulling it all over the shop, but you just have to show it who's boss. Love it when you flip it all the right way round and all those edges are hidden inside the lining. Suddenly so neat!!!
The pattern advises stitching your straps into the back panels, but I knew I would want to shift the placement of mine around a bit once I had it on so I skipped this bit for later.
I'd made my own skirt pattern for the dress because I didn't want to cut it in panels as suggested. It looks ace on the maxi-dress but for the mini just not necessary. I can't remember how much I faffed about with the skirt last time, I know I fancied pleats instead of gathers like Crafty Clyde's lovely version, but when it came to it gathers just looked better with my fabric. I had settled on gathers again, for some reason my back skirt pattern piece was bigger than my bodice? It was solve-able just by tapering the side seams but really can't remember what I'd done with it last time!! For future reference I have not yet altered the pattern piece, but have saved the offcut of the side seam in the pattern packet to remind me for next time.
I decided I wanted to make the straps adjustable as my others have stretched out a bit and keep sliding off my shoulders. Luckily I'd got a couple of hoops and sliders knocking around and I remembered how to thread them so they actually slide. I made another shorter little strap to sew to the back with the hoops attached.
It wasn't until they were attached and dress pretty much finished that that underarm gaping seemed to appear! Why now! It's not major, I think it could be fixed in a number of ways, but all would involve unpicking the skirt from the bodice (but my gathers are so perfect aghhh) and getting inside the lining. I could then either increase the seam allowance at the underarm (a further cm just for that stretch maybe), or incorporate my bust dart that I thought I didn't need but actually do, which obviously would involve further unpicking in the lining seam before putting it in. A third option would be maybe slightly alter the angle where the front joins the side panel.
The only other thing I could think to do (which would be cheating but would work and would be much simpler), would be to just stitch through the front and lining to add my tiny underarm dart.... I'll update when I've decided!!
I did a tiny narrow hem to finish. Love the dress! I love the fabric and the colours and the style, and 99% of the fit! I'll get it perfect next time. I can't believe more people haven't made the Serena dress. If they have I want to see!! Hit me up if you have a Serena in your wardrobe ladies.
NB: Alteration made! I was psyched up for unpicking and adding my darts into the inside of my bodice, but I pinned them straight onto the bodice and the fit was so perfect I couldn't face risking unpicking. It's not cheating, because it looks so lovely it would be a waste to unpick. NEXT TIME I promise I will put these underarm darts into the construction instead of throwing them on at the end!
x
Location: Brown street, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Gravel Pit, Wu Tang Clan
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