Behind the Seams: “A letter to St Patrick” Dress

We are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on The Sew Weekly Challenge and everyone is making something in green! Green has been my favorite color like forever, I even chose to go to a primary school which had the word green (in Mandarin) in it when I was six and my mum was crazy enough to agree to it!

I have never sewn a green dress and since I had just a few green fabrics in my stash I thought it would be an easy straight forward decision this week. How wrong can I be? I spent almost half the week deciding and through all that change of heart, I ended up washing all the green fabrics I have. ALL! That’s how fickle I was this week! At the end of it all, I even started on one project and ended up finishing another! Without further ado, here are the combinations of patterns/ green fabrics which got my brains working overtime!

The crazy combos

I wanted to sew the sundress in lime green with the floral fabric for the yoke and the blouse from the other pattern in lime green too. They could be worn together or as separates. However, I realized after studying the dress pattern closely that the seams for the front yoke and at the back didn’t meet and that spoilt the fun for the florals.

A knit dress in an animal/ paisley print was also considered but I was motivated to create more casual dresses as my son has requested that I pick him up from school in dresses. LOL! My lil man!

A dress with tie neckline using a chiffon with splatter of colors. This one troubled me a little intermittently as I felt there wasn’t enough green on the fabric.Okay, I used this Echino print on the project I started on but didn’t finish. I have actually completed the bottom but have not started on the top so I will continue with it later.  Eventually, I started on a sage green/ choco mint dress and that was when the drama really started. Read my letter to St Patrick here to find out when happened!

Pattern Review

I used the bodice from Simplicity 6327 and created my own skirt for the dress without a pattern. The bodice pattern was well designed with gentle cowl neckline with I adore. I decided to sew a different skirt as I wasn’t a fan of drawstring versions. The instructions were easy to comprehend and follow. The cowl neckline was created by sewing what I could describe as a combination of darts and pleats which I found pretty interesting since it is the first of such that I have sewn. The Take Manhattan tunic required an additional piece of fabric to create the neckline. I love the hairstyles and shoes featured on the cover of this pattern:)

Off course, I created a challenge for myself when I accidentally ripped bits of the bodice fabric near the back zipper. I hyperventilated even more when my seam ripper went missing (It is still missing!). I had to cut away the ripped area and zipper to savage the dress. Strips of the skirt fabric were cut to create two interfaced panels for the buttons and buttonholes in place of the zipper. I gave myself a lot more work on an otherwise easy to make dress.

The Gallery

The Photography Session

The location is Emerald Hill, a few blocks of conservation architecture tugged amongst shopping malls along Orchard Road. I have almost forgotten about the place though I have walked past it numerous times. The entrance to the lane is blocked by a pub so it’s not that visible from the main road. There are a few commercial establishments near the entrance but as I walked down the lane, most are private residences of the super rich.

It’s funny but a scout from St Patrick’s School (Yes, St Pat’s can you believe it!) actually asked if he could help me with any task for a small donation and he ended up taking these three photos for me.

Thank God for him as those were the only shots I had with the balloons which I thought added to the atmosphere of a St Patrick’s Day Parade. They flew away while I was busy setting up tripod for some barrel shots at a pub nearby. *Sigh*

The marvelous thing about Emerald Hill is so few people live there so there were hardly anyone who walked by while I was taking pictures and even when they see you doing so they are used to it. Many tourists drop up just to take photos of the place as do couples having their wedding photos taken. The buildings are just gorgeous!

Nice finishing for facings

Thanks to the brilliant Tanit-Isis, I now know a more efficient method of finishing the facings and I took photos of them too! I hope I understood the method correctly:) No more zig zag stitching on the facings for those of us who are serger-less!

Step 1: Pin the wrong side of the interfacing (non iron on) to the right side of the facings

Step 2: Stitch together

Step 3: Trim, clip and notch the seam allowance

Step 4: Turn the fabric right side out and press. When you press, the iron-on side of the interfacing will attach itself to the wrong side of the fabric.

It is now ready to be attached to the neckline:)

I was too stressed to take photos of the button panels but if anyone is interested, I will try to document it next time I do button closures:)

Eva Dress Contest: Do some voting!

Last but not least, I’ve submitted my Abandoned Hangar Dress for the Eva Dress Contest and all the entries are now up!  There are so many amazing works!!!  Go to Facebook and friend ‘Eva Dress’ and you can vote for your favorite entry (one only per category). Winners get vouchers for even more yummy patterns.

Enjoy your loved ones and your family. Have a safe week my sewing comrades!