I made myself another dress!
We’ve got a family funeral next week and when I looked in my wardrobe I really had nothing suitable, whilst wearing all black isn’t so necessary these days my smarter summer dresses tend to be light and floaty or more suitable for weddings and I certainly didn’t have a simple dark jacket.
I had a look in my stash, wondering if a dark jacket would tone down one of my summer dresses, this is what I found…
…a whole outfit, just waiting to be made! The white rose fabric is scuba, I bought on a whim last year in Fabworks in Dewsbury and then wondered what on earth to make with it. Scuba is a funny fabric, I’m still not sure about it as it is so synthetic but I felt the design was perfect for a smart, simple dress. It’s not quite black, more of a dark charcoal grey with a tiny touch of brown. The plain fabric is some beautiful cashmere I bought in Armley last year, I was planning to make a winter dress out of it, but I decided it would make a wonderful summer jacket for cooler days (of which we get quite a few here in the UK!!) and as it’s dry clean only then I think a jacket is probably more suitable anyway. Colourwise it matches perfectly.
I had a rummage through my patterns and found one I think I picked up on the swop table at the last Sew Down Dewsbury, Simplicity 7667 was just what I wanted, a shift dress and a simple style of jacket. I even found an invisible zip of the right length and colour in my stash! It was all meant to be!! All I had to buy was some lining for the jacket.
I decided to tackle the dress first. It went together very easily but took a bit of fiddling to get the fit a bit better. I cut out a size 12, grading it to a 14 over my hips. Scuba is very stretchy and this pattern was for woven fabrics, but I didn’t cut smaller as I didn’t want a figure hugging dress. I stitched the two darts in for the bust and then just basted the sides and shoulders together to check the fit. That was a good move as there was alot of excess fabric round the armhole. I tried putting an extra dart in the side, that didn’t help, after much fiddling I decided to increase the size of the dart in the side seam, so I undid the basting, increased the dart, basted again and it looked much better. Still not perfect, but better than it was and the best I could do without an assistant!
The invisible zip went in well, I always have to get one of my sewing books out for these as I don’t use them that often. With hindsight I should have started it slightly lower down the seam. I also lowered the neckline by about an inch as I find higher necklines really uncomfortable.
The pattern uses the dress fabric to face the neckline and armholes. I thought the scuba would be too bulky, so I used some lining for that, I understiched it but even with it stitched down at the seams I could see it was going to be a pest, sneaking out at inoportune moments. Having hand-stitched the hem up I decided to just lightly stitch the facings down by hand, it seems to have worked with not much visible from the front.
I’m really pleased with my dress, it’s super comfortable with all the ease from the scuba but I think it looks suitably smart but not too sombre so I should be able to wear it on other occassions.
Just got to make the jacket now!
thecraftycreek 
I reckon you have made a very suitable dress for this sad occasion. So hard to know what to wear for a summer funeral. It is pretty but respectful. I love that you bought the fabric because you fell in love with it!
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Thanks Cathy, I think it just about hits the right mark, as you say, summer funerals are tricky!
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Wow, this looks great on you. Well done.
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Thank you, I’m pleased with it
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Looks great! I have the same issue with patterns having too much fabric in the armscye so it gapes open. You got a really nice fit on your dress.
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Thank you, I’m not sure if a full bust adjustment is actually whats needed- I’ve never done one as I’ve never felt particularly large in that area 🙂
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What a stunning dress! I love both the shape and the print! It looks so lovely on you!
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Thanks Faby, I’m pleased with it
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I’ve used scuba a few times now and I do think it works best as a ‘bodycon’ type of fabric but you’ve done a really good job adapting it to a pattern for wovens.
It’s a measure of how long the waiting time is for funerals in the U.K. that you have time to make both a dress and a jacket before the event. Here in France you’d die on the Monday and be buried by the Thursday. I think the official thing is it must take place within six days, not counting weekends or bank holidays. Both my parents’ funerals in the U.K. took place almost three weeks after their passing.
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Hi Tialys, I think the delay here unfortunately depends on how busy the crem is, this will be about a month, which is a long time for this time of year!! It does leave you with a feeling of everything hanging in the air for far too long. It has had the advantage though that family coming over from Australia have been able to sort flights easily and probably more reasonably cost wise too.
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Very nice, I love this style of dress – a true classic.
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Thanks Steph
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Very very nice!
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Thank you, I’m pleased with it
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It looks great. I really struggle to get clothes to fit, so understand all the fiddling that you had to do. It’s frustrating not to have someone around to help – so much so, that I have just bitten the bullet and ordered an adjustable tailor’s dummy… I’m hoping it will reduce the amount of unpicking I have to do!
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I’ve got a dressmakers dummy, but I really need to pad it out to my measurements!
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I like that simple, classic style of dress, and it fits very well with the adjustments you’ve made. I have a particular hatred of facings, which alway look lumpy and obvious to me; if at all possible I use bias binding instead, but I don’t know if that would have worked.
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Thanks Kate, I did wonder about bias, I was initially trying to avoid having a row of stitches around each area, but then I had to anyway
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Your dress looks lovely Margaret and suits you. However why oh why can’t there be a bit of colour at a funeral ? x x
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Thanks Ann, if you want colour, I can wear colour, but my other smart dress has big red roses on, which seemed a bit too bright, I can bring it down if you like and see which you prefer 🙂
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You got some good fit there Margaret, especially for not having an assistant and the problem being in the bust. That’s a tough one to fix solo. The scuba seems to drape very nicely with that pattern, a great combo.
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I love reading your blog, you sewing is wonderful, your garden is beautiful.
Sorry about hearing you need to go to a funeral.
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I went to a funeral yesterday and struggled with what to wear–wish I’d had your beautiful dress!
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It’s a lovely dress. I’m sure the
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It’s a lovely dress. I’m sure the deceased would have taken great pleasure that you have made something for their last great occasion.
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It was certainly meant to be – awesome work
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Thank you
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