I now have a Lonsdale dress! Here are
some pictures of the finished dress.
I've called it the French Riviera dress as it reminds me of something Brigitte Bardot might have
worn in the sixties. I googled “Brigitte Bardot gingham” and up
came an image of the pink gingham dress she wore on her wedding day!
I had a choice of black, yellow
or pink gingham. Pink is not usually my first choice of colour,
particularly on a dress. I chose this fabric because it was far
softer than the others. This is one of the few fabrics I have that I think may be a cotton or at least a cotton blend. It pressed
beautifully and was lovely to sew although it frays a lot.
I mentioned in my
muslin post that the only adjustments needed were to the hips and lower part of
the skirt. I transferred these adjustments and tried on the muslin
again. I was worried about the waistband. There was practically zero
ease even before the waistband facing. The waistband didn't
perfectly match the lower bodice and the bodice had to be eased into the waistband. I don't know if it is supposed to be like that or
there's an error in the pattern piece.
Rather than adjusting the pattern
pieces and making another muslin I decided to cut the
waistband a couple of inches bigger at each side so that I could
match it exactly to the lower bodice rather than easing it in,
starting from the centre and working outwards. After I had done this
I cut off the excess waistband to match the centre back of the bodice.
I then decided to sew the dress with a
1 cm seam allowance instead of 1.5 cm. Below the hip I graded the
seam allowance up to 1.5 cm as I sewed. I think I also kept 1.5 cm
on the horizontal seams at the waistband. All this has resulted in
a good fit with some ease around my waist area but a bit too big at
the top of the bodice. I was going to correct this by doing
something with elastic at the top sides of the bodice but I didn't think it was needed. I quite like the top part, and the less than perfect fit
there adds to the casual look of the dress.
Here's a round up of everything else.
Lining, waistband and Zipper
The pink gingham was totally see
through and so lining the skirt was necessary. I used a nice pink
lining fabric that I bought in Autumn 2010.
I didn't make the final decision on the
lining until I had practically finished the dress. You just need to leave an inch or so of the bodice and
waistband facing unit free from the zipper so that you can attach a
lining to the lower waistband if you decide to. You can then
attach that piece to the zipper after the lining is attached, at the
same time you are attaching the lining to the zipper.
I didn't make up a new lining pattern
piece for the skirt front. I just used the front skirt piece, which
has the pocket area cut out, and chalked in the missing part straight
onto the fabric. I used the
fashion fabric to line the bodice and the waistband.
I sewed the waistband and zipper
differently to the pattern instructions. I used an invisible zipper
and the pattern uses a normal zipper. The pattern calls for the
bodice and facing to be joined at the centre back before sewing on
the zipper. This would leave the back of the zipper exposed inside of the dress. I wanted the zipper enclosed like in an
ordinary lined dress. I sewed the waistband to the bodice on the
lining pieces separately. I used the same principles as for lining a
shift dress which I have written about
here. For the zipper area I used Kathleen Fansella's technique for
attaching zippers to facings which I adapt to use for linings. I
have linked her tutorial in my post
here. There's a whole folding back thing that I don't fully understand but
it works. Here is a close up of my invisible zipper.
I'm
particularly pleased with how the top of the zip has come out. I
wrote about some zipper tips in
this post. I find it useful to machine baste in at the top of the zipper
area the seam allowance and then around 3 mm or more below on each
centre back. That way you can place your zip stop at the 3mm point
on each side.
I always struggled to get the tops of
my zips neat. Interfacing the zipper area and taking these steps
before I start has improved the look of my zippers. I'm always
apprehensive about zippers. As I'm doing them I always thing
they're going to look rubbish in that top corner. Once everything is
turned through and pressed I'm always surprised by the
results.
Stay Tape
Tasia recommends stay tape at the top
of the bodice pieces on the Lonsdale which is a great idea. After
they are sewn she sews the tape onto the seam allowance. I don't
have stay tape and I didn't have enough twill tape so I decided to
use interfacing. I placed the interfacing so that I would sew through
it at the seam line rather than having it sewn above the seamline.
This has turned out really well and results in a nice clean edge once
pressed. I then under stitched the bodice facing.
Straps
As much as I love the straps tied into
a bow on the dress I knew this would limit the wearability of the
dress. I always need the option to throw on a cardigan or jacket and
that wasn't going to happen with the bow. I waited until the last
possible moment before marking how much of the strap I would actually
need. When cutting out the bodice pieces I didn't need the whole
strap but I cut off more than I knew I would need so that I could
make the final decision later. I then sewed up the dress, skirt,
including the zipper and bodice facing before joining of
the straps. I did this after the skirt was joined so that I could
see the whole look of the dress and how it would hang before
finishing the straps.
The pattern pieces have markings for
the placement of the fabric loops (which I omitted and placed the
straps there instead). I used those markings and left a gap about 1 inch larger each side at the top of the bodice. When I was sewing the bodice and facing at the top I had to stop at these points instead of joining it all in one
like in the pattern instructions.
Once I was happy with the strap
placement, after testing it with pins, I marked the point where the
strap would be sewn to the bodice and then sewed it in place, joining up the 1 inch gaps either side at the same time. One
thing I did which has worked well, is to fold the strap in half
before sewing it in place. Here's a picture.
Hem
I interfaced my hem and was
relieved to find that I was able to use the blind hem stitch on the
machine. For the first time, I used a basting stitch
3.5 cm from the edge to reflect where the hem fold would be. The
pattern says 2.5 cm but I wanted it slightly shorter. I didn't
change the length of the skirt at all. As I'm tall, I think this
skirt is supposed to be a lot longer. I'm happy with the length
though. The basting stitches made it really easy to press up
the hem. I usually chalk in the hemline. It's worth taking the
extra effort to do the basting stitches. The only downside is that
you have to remove the basting stitches. Something I haven't done
yet!
The interfacing on the hem has changed
the look of the skirt slightly. Maybe it doesn't hang as straight and
gapes out slightly. I don't mind this and I'm sure after a few washes
it will hang straighter.
All in all I love the Lonsdale dress. I
will definitely be making another one. I only wish we had better
weather so that I could wear this sort of dress more often!
I received my Cambie pattern yesterday.
I've enjoyed seeing the different versions on the internet. I'm
mulling over the idea of making some design alterations to the
Cambie. It will definitely be an A-line version though and I love the
skirt and bodice part of the pattern.
Happy sewing!
