Sleeveless Summer Dress
Finished April 19, 2002
When I saw this border-print Chinese fabric at Hancock's, it just called to me... I saw this dress immediately. I came home and drafted a waist-dart sheath with PatternMaster Boutique. However, I didn't want the dart to go all the way to the hem, so I cut and pasted and made a slanting seam, eliminating the long side dart. This came out so well I'm going to use the pattern piece for more dresses. It's so comfortable!
Here is the full view of the dress. The fabric is a sort of linen/rayon blend.
A closer view of the bodice. I didn't bother with facings; I used some black raw silk and made bias binding for the armscye and neckline. And the zipper doesn't really match (it's pink) but it doesn't matter too much because it's an invisible zipper.
The bindings were sewn onto the front by machine, then folded to the back and slipstitched by hand.
I used a fusible fleece-like material for interfacing the hem. This was the first time I had actually tried interfacing a hem, and I'm a believer now. It makes the dress hang so nicely!
The raw hem edge was serged, then the hem was stitched by hand.
A closer look at the seam detail on the bodice. The dart on the left originally drafted to go all the way to the hem. I closed that up and created the slanting seam where the bodice section joins the skirt section.
This picture shows the locations of the darts and seams in the dress. The dart closer to the center front originally went all the way to the hem. I closed that dart and created the diagonal seam line to rejoin the bodice and skirt sections. The result is quite flattering and comfortable; I will be using this pattern again!