Completed: Beating the Winter Blues Cami dress
I'm so excited to share this make with you. I'm hoping you have all seen the Cami dress by Pauline Alice. As soon as I saw this pattern I knew it wouldn't be long before I made it but I just needed to find the right fabric. I debated about using a solid purple that is in my stash but then I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show with Kelly and Vairë Gwîr and found this wonderful fabric. I knew immediately it would be right for the Cami.
I made a quick toile of the bodice to check the fit after grading out a size from the bust to waist. I was worried about the fit as I've never been able to wear a rtw shirt without experiencing gaping. It fit reasonably well but I noticed that the front was higher than the back and decided to try my first full bust adjustment. Like many of my sewing experiences recently, I'm not sure why I hadn't done one before. It made the world of difference. I do wonder if I made it a little too big but as I won't wear the dress buttoned all the way up I didn't bother to tweak it. I'll spend a little more time perfecting the fit for my bodice though. As I had to add quite a lot I added extra darts at the bust.
I was desperately hoping that the construction of this would be easier than my skirt. To my immense relief it was. Partly because the cotton was a dream to work with but mostly because the construction is logical and the steps are easy to follow. I whipped up this dress in two evenings. I thought the collar would be the hardest part but it was quite simple. I did turn to Pauline's sewalong here to make sure I did right. I have to show you my top stitching. It is the best top stitching I've done. Ever. I was starting to believe that accurate, neat top stitching was beyond me but something clicked last night.
The pattern is designed with a reasonably full skirt made from two rectangles. It calls for the rectangles to be 39.4" wide. I decided to make it even fuller and went with the whole width of my fabric, about 44". I love the skirt so much, as demonstrated by my cheesy grin below!
To make the dress a little more winter friendly I chose the long sleeve version. The button holes were made without a hitch and I chose some interesting buttons from my red button pot (yes, I have coloured coded my button collection). The left side closes with a regular zip.
The colours are reasonably accurately in the photos. The blue is rather bright and the flowers are red, pale pink and burgundy. I wore this to work today as I just couldn't resist showing off the colour. I got a couple of really lovely comments and I felt happy in it all day which bodes well for the dark winter days ahead.