Stripes: Part One

A striped dress fit for a wedding. Actually, two weddings!

I fell in love with this material as soon as I saw it. And it's quilting cotton. (Tilly has a great post on sewing with quilting cotton, here). I loved the colours, the stripes and even the price. Until the clerk cut the fabric and gave me the bill... um... definitely more than I was planning to spend per yard. The fabric was not labeled clearly enough... the real price was hidden beneath the fabric in the bolt. I loved it anyways, but the pressure was now on to make a great dress!

So I started with sketches. I couldn't figure out how I wanted the stripes to lie originally, and I also had to figure out how cutting the pattern out would affect the way the stripes matched up later.
 Stripes are not easy to sew with. Surprise! Oh, didn't you know? Matching the stripes on the circle skirt wasn't too bad, it's when it came time to add darts to the bodice that I was the most concerned. Thankfully, with a very helping mother to help with fit, we were able to puzzle out this dress.

The pattern was adapted from one my sister passed down to me from a beautiful dress she made herself for a wedding! It must be that kind of dress. I love the full circle skirt; it's so much fun to dance in and twirl in, but watch out for those breezes!

I added a keyhole to the back of the bodice with a button made by my sister. I really wanted to find a way to display the button, and as long as I wear my hair up, I think I've been successful. It's a wooden button cut from a branch from an old walnut tree from my Grandmother's backyard. Even more special.

 Well, after all the worry about fit and stripes, the only concern I had on the days I wore the dress were... wrinkles. Darn. Cotton wrinkles when you sit on it.

 But if you dance fast enough no one will ever notice.  ;)  Cheers!