This dress began with a dream, a dream to create a Halloween-themed polka dot confection using using the Liz Dress from Charm Patterns by Gertie. It all started with this adorable polka dot fabric that I found on a post-Halloween clearance sale 2 years ago, and was stalling on how to use. It had been sitting washed and folded in my stash waiting for the *perfect* project. I purchased 3 yards of black with orange polka dots, and a precut contrasting 1 yard of orange with black polka dots. Clearly the two were meant to work together, but I wasn't sure how. Last year I purchased the Liz pattern, but was a little intimidated by it, and procrastinated on actually trying it out. However a few months ago I did start playing around with sizes, and did a really simple mock-up of the basic bodice in about an hour and determined that the size I thought I needed would indeed fit. I decided that October was the perfect time to give this dress a start, and on October 9 I started cutting my fabric.
I spent 4 hours just ironing, cutting, and interlining the bodice and straps. It felt like FOREVER! Once I dug into this project, I knew that this was not going to be an easy sew. my mockup may have come together in an hour, but this dress was not going to be so simple.
After flatlining the orange bits with the black I noticed that it slightly dulled their hue so that it wasn't quite as bright of a shade of orange anymore. However, I needed a strong solid between the layers of polka dots because the black dots were showing through the orange when left to their own devices. I considered switching to white for interlining the cups, but ultimately determined that the black dots would still shine through awkwardly, and since I'd run out of black fabric decided to switch to some grey that I had lying around. By this point I'd also decided to challenge myself to make this project completely from my stash - nothing was going to purchased while working on this dress. So while I *might* have been able to find a bright solid to act as an interlining layer for the orange, it would have gone against my no-buying rule. Also, there's a good chance that it wouldn't have blocked any polka dots from showing through. I also decided against pleating the cups because I thought that it would be too busy with the polka dots.
So much flat-lining on this project!
And then I got to the fun of actually assembling these pieces. Just look at the absurd number of pins required to smooth out these edges before stitching. They worked though!
So by this point I kind of had the top assembled, but like, it's still hard to believe that this project is actually going to come together. I felt like I was at war with the dress, I wasn't sure if I'd attached the strap correctly (warning, it's REALLY weird), the lining was not attached, the cups are only pinned in here, and of course I couldn't even put the zipper in to test the strap theory until the skirt was attached.
Ahh, yes, the skirt. So if you remember from the top of the post, I only had 3 yard of the black polka dot fabric. I used about half a yard on the bodice, which meant that there were about 2 1/2 yards left for the skirt. This was never going to accommodate the long, full, gathered skirt included with the pattern. That's okay though, that wasn't ever part of my vision. I wanted a long skirt, and I wanted something full-ish, but I was thinking that if I made it slimmer at the waist, I could do what ever was possibly with my 2+ yards of fabric. I also thought that it would be really pretty to do a 6 panel skirt that pulled the seam lines from the bodice and extended those into the skirt. Where have I seen those before? How about in last year's Yellow Stripe Shirtwaist Dress? Okay, so the panels aren't the exact same size as what I needed for this skirt, but they've got great starting dimensions in terms of length and angles; I just needed to tweak the waist circumference. I used a tap measure to compare the waist measurement of each segment with its corresponding skirt panel, and added or subtracted accordingly. I wasn't sure if there would be enough fabric left, so I pinned out my cutting marks, and it was really close. Like another inch or two and I would have had to come up with a new skirt idea. Somewhere around this night I went to refill my bobbin with black thread and emptied by spool onto my bobbin, and I didn't have any other black thread, so that was a little nerve-wracking.
In the background you can see the pinned cutting lines, and in the foreground is the tape measure that I was using to calculate the new waist circumference. Since the original dress was a side zip and this one was a back zip I was ignoring the center fold line at this point. I was also on a crosswise fold at this point.
Once I got the pieces cut out skirt assembly came together more quickly and confidently than the bodice because the pieces were more familiar and I had a better sense of what I was doing. I had just enough fabric left over to cut out some pockets, and only had to piece together one of them. I used a French seam across the tip of one side of one of the pockets before cutting it out so that the piece would be big enough, and then continued with making the pocket as usual.
Like I said, not much fabric left over!
Stitch the pockets to the side seams, sew down the side seams around the pockets, so the remainder of the side seams, pink the seams (without clipping through to the fabric!), and press the seams, and then the skirt can be attached to the bodice. All of a sudden it starts looking like a dress. So I did a pretty good job of calculating my skirt panels, but I *slightly* overestimated on the center panel and had to carefully gather it into the middle without making it look like it's gathered. Now that zipper can be added, and the lining tacked down around the waist to encase all of the seams. I ended up using an invisible zipper rather than a lapped zipper and it was about 2 inches shorter than recommended because that was what I had on hand because stash-busting! Finally a hem, and hey! There's a dress!
This dress was HARD! It was frustrating. I tore out a lot of stitches, and can't remember the last time I spent so much time on a project where I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing. Lessons for future self/anyone else attempting the Liz Dress.
+ Use a fabric like cotton that's forgiving of pinholes and ripped out stitches - don't drive yourself crazy with something super slippery or that's going to show every hole.
+When it says to cut to the circle on the straps, cut to the circle! I know that you are hesitant to cut to the seam line when clipping curves because you don't want the fabric to fray, but it's essential for allowing the strap to properly turn.
+This project takes love and patience. Don't rush it or expect it to be done overnight.
+The cups are larger than expected, but they cover a wider area than expected, so that's probably why.
+Don't use contrasting thread on the strap understitching...it's not an inner seam.
Item: Halloween Polka Dot Dress
Challenge: n/a
Material: Cotton (4 yards)
Pattern: Liz Dress - Charm Patterns by Gertie
Year: 2019
Notions: Thread, Invisible Zipper
Hours to Complete: ~28 hours
Total Cost: $3/yd*3yd (black polka)+ $1/yd*1yd(orange polka)+ $3 zipper + $25 pattern =$38