And Now for Something Completely Different: Dolman sleeve dress
The vast relief I felt last weekend after finishing/posting my Mini Wardrobe (voting in the contest goes until the 11th, so if you’re a Pattern Review member – and I highly recommend it, that site is a terrific resource – head on over to the contest gallery and get your vote on!) soon gave way to feeling slightly adrift and without purpose in the sewing department. I had a lot of practical sorts of things planned to make next (more pants! shirt for Halloween costume!), but none of them made me feel particularly motivated. I wanted to make something random and unplanned. I started digging through my stash, to see if there was any fabric I’d forgotten about that would speak to me. And what do you know, there was! I pulled out a cool geometric print jersey that I’d ordered from Girl Charlee last fall because I loved it, but hadn’t been able to match it to a pattern. Something simple seemed best… what if I turned the Cation Designs Dolman Sleeve Top into a dress? So that’s what I did:
Yes, apparently I’m making fall clothes now. (All those leaves on the ground are contributing to the illusion that it wasn’t still like 75 degrees yesterday.) I didn’t mean to make a fall dress, necessarily, but it just turned out that way. It does actually kind of make me excited for fall though (which, here, will arrive in approximately 8 weeks).
I started with the dolman sleeve top pattern and pulled the skirt pattern from Vogue 1224 (love that pattern!). I shortened the top by 4 inches, so it would hit at my waist with still a little blousing (I determined this using the extremely scientific method of putting the top I made from this pattern on and belting it at the waist, then measuring from the hem band to the belt). I cut the Vogue skirt a bit bigger than the size 14 to give more ease in the skirt (for biking, since this jersey has very little stretch), and I added one inch to the length (that skirt pattern is short!). Then I attached the skirt to the top and used the seam allowance to form a casing for elastic. Pretty easy!
I was originally going to just hem the sleeves rather than use the sleeve bands, but it turns out that the unbanded sleeves are an extremely unflattering length for me, so I went with the bands. The skirt also ended up a bit shorter than I’d like, necessitating the tights, so that plus the longer-than-intended sleeves fall-ified the dress completely.
I put the whole thing together in just a few podcasts (apparently I count time in Fresh Air episodes now), with the most time-consuming part actually being threading the elastic through the casing at the waist (which would have taken a lot less time if I’d made the casing just a tiny bit wider…) And now that I’ve gotten my randomness back, I seem to have recovered my planning mojo. Onwards, then, to the fall of pantsmaking!
I lost my sewing mojo thanks to a major sewing disaster. Since your shirt looked great and you said the pattern was easy, I decided to give it a try. It was just what I need to get the mojo back. I get a lot of compliments on the shirt. The dress you made from it looks great. Of course, now I want to check out the latest and greatest from Girl Charlee. Just to look, not to buy. Right…
Great looking dress. Your latest contest results truly inspired me.
Adorable as always! You pick just the right look for you everytime!
Oh gosh, I have completely misplaced my sewing mojo after cranking 5 garments out last month, too! This dress is so cute, and an awesome way to get back into your sewing groove (and kudos on the biking in a dress! I have been meaning to try it but feel that I would end up totally indecent…LOL). I decided last month that I was going to make an entire Halloween costume AND an “advanced” rated dress this month. HA. Right.
No way! This dress is awesome, and I would never have though of adding a skirt to my top to make a dress…hmmm…I have a similar fabric in my stash that’s calling me name now…
This dress is so cute, I can’t even deal. Hi! I don’t visit your blog enough.
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