I've now finished my Cambie dress. I
actually finished last weekend but I've only just got round to
photographing it. Here are the photos.
Yes it really is a Cambie and
yes I have changed the top. I love the original design and do
want to make one so I should explain why I have changed it. When
Tasia's email about the pattern dropped into my inbox my first
thought was “Fantastic another great pattern”. My second thought
when I saw version A was “Oh my god I can re-create that dress my
mum made for me when I was about eight”. There's no photo of me in
the said dress but as soon as I saw the bodice, waistband and skirt I
immediately thought I could change the neckline, add straps and
“hey presto” - an adult version of the dress I loved as a child!
I made a muslin in a size 10. Although
it fit I wanted a bit more ease so I decided to sew up the final
version with a 1cm seam allowance instead of 1.5 cm. Except at the
hips that is. I reduced the width of the skirt pattern slightly at the hips to the bottom of the skirt. The skirt is still slightly big – see that bit of
excess fabric at the front of the skirt? I want that to be flat. I'm
not sure how the alter the pattern to change this so any ideas would
be gratefully appreciated!
I made the waistband bigger. I
just cut it way bigger than I needed and then cut it down to
size once the bodice and skirt were attached.
Changing the top was fairly easy. The
back bodice piece had to be changed. It looks a bit like the
Lonsdale back bodice so I used that as a starting point. After two tries
with a muslin I got it right. I also straightened out the sweetheart
neckline. Tasia explains how to do this on her blog but I had
already done something like this with my Macaron neckline so I was familiar with it.
The straps were easy to do. What I
recommend if you are adding straps is to add them at the very last,
once the whole dress and lining is sewn and the zip attached. I
attached the lining to the dress at the bodice neckline but I left
generous sized gaps at the bodice back where the straps would be
placed at the back.
I added interfacing at the bodice
neckline, front and back, to give it more structure. I then
understiched the seam to the lining to prevent the lining rolling
over to the front. On this design I added buttonholes to the end of
the straps and sewed the buttons onto the front of the dress. I added
a squares of interfacing to the wrong side of the dress where the
buttons go and topstitched around the square. I figured this would
provide extra re-inforcement to that area where the button may pull
on the fabric. Don't worry about the topstitching showing as the
strap covers it once it's buttoned.
I would also recommend if you do this
to sew the buttons on last. I ended up moving my buttons
slightly to the outer edge so I have two squares of top-stitched
interfacing!
For the straps I just cut the pieces in
the width I wanted, way longer than needed and interfaced
one of the pieces. I did two pieces per strap but you could
also have one piece and fold it in half. I then sewed the straps in at
the back after trying on the dress on and pinning the straps in place
where I wanted them. Ideally I would have contoured the straps to
the shape of my shoulder (I've heard the Hazel straps are like this)
but I was too lazy on this occasion. (Not that lazy of course - I
have made a dress for gods sake!).
The buttonholes were pretty stress
free. I had about 2 practice runs and followed my own tips that I
wrote down here. The last thing to do was to place the button. It's amazing
how different the dress can look depending on where the buttons are
placed. As I said I originally had them too close to the centre and the whole design looked wrong. I wanted a more vertical looking strap so I ended up moving the buttons. When deciding where the button should be
placed I tried the dress on and pinned the straps to the front where I wanted them. I then placed a pin at the lower edge of the vertical
buttonhole and marked that point on the dress. If you think about it when you wear the dress the straps
are going to naturally pull up. The stitching on the button will
sit at the bottom of the vertical buttonhole. That's why it's a
good idea to put your interfacing on in this area
last. My first square of interfacing was placed too high up for my
liking and the buttons are now about 2 inches below the top edge.
The original buttons on this dress were
red. The colour was actually a good match for the red on the fabric.
However I felt the buttons were too dark. I think
because the white is the dominant colour on the fabric, it needed to
have a light coloured button. The button is actually a pink colour,
from my collection. It's amazing how different the dress looks with the different buttons.
Another slight change was the pocket
shape. I thought the pocket openings would be the same rounded shape
as the Lonsdale but they are a straight line. I like the curved
shape so I changed mine.
I ended up following my usual method
for attaching lining which I have described here.
Finally the hem – I blind stitched it
using the blind hem foot after putting white bias tape around the
bottom edge. This is the first time for a while that I haven't
interfaced the hem area. I felt with the bias tape and the natural
structure in the fabric, this was unnecessary.
The fabric is a poly cotton. It's
fairly stiff and creases really easily. It's not the best fabric but
I love horizontal stripes. It's quite rare to find horizontal
stripes so I was keen to buy it despite the not so great quality of
the fabric. It would have been nice to find a similar fabric to the inspiration dress. That was a white fabric with a small
red flower print, but never mind!
I'm looking forward to wearing the
dress and we actually might get the right weather for this at the
weekend! Overall I'm really pleased with the dress. It's fun to
wear. If I was to make it again I would contour the straps and fit
the skirt a bit better.
Happy sewing!
