Hello there! I am excited to share with you today about making the Metamorphic Dress by Sew Liberated. I’m going to encourage you to grab a cup of tea or coffee and then come back to this post as this will be a longer one (I made three muslins and then a final version in this project).

I found myself thinking a lot about this project before I started sewing. I admittedly have not sewn a lot of woven, gathered skirt/dresses for myself. I wanted to spend time thinking about fit and layering.

What really intrigued me about this pattern is that it is a reversible dress. All of the seams are fully enclosed so you essentially can make two dresses out of one project for a fun, versatile garment. There are two sets of pockets included in the pattern. The intended design includes adding patch pockets to the top layer skirt and inseam pockets to the under layer skirt.

Some fit and functions questions that I thought through beforehand…

 When will I wear the dress, during a specific season or all year round? This question helped me think about the layering aspects of the dress.
 Will I ever wear the dress by itself (sleeveless) or will I always layer it on top of other clothing? What will I wear underneath the dress?
 Do I need to have the sizing of the dress large enough to fit on top of my existing shirts or should I downsize the dress for a more fitted look and make tighter fitting underlayers to wear underneath the dress?
 With the fabrics that I selected, will pockets be a functional piece that I can actually use or only decorative? I tend to lean more toward preferring functional pockets and if the pockets are only decorative my usual choice is to omit them.
 Do I want to make the dress reversible or only make one version (for a non-reversible option)?
Supplies

Point turner
2m AGF printed rayon fabric
2m Blue Linen fabric
0.25m Grey Linen fabric
Blue Thread
Cream thread
Marking pen
75/11 sewing needles
Fabric Spray Stabilizer
Pinking shears

Muslin 1
Size: 6 bodice graded to an 8 before the skirt portion (within the bodice). 8 for the skirts.
Fabric: Vintage bedsheet

I love using vintage sheets to make muslins for woven fabrics. It is so helpful to quickly view the sizing and at times when the sizing works out the result is a wearable garment to enjoy with funky prints from vintage sheets. I decided with this muslin that both the top and skirt are too big and I would like to size down.

Muslin 2
Size: 6 at the bodices and 6 for the skirts
Fabric: Plaid woven rayon fabric, reversible knit interlock fabric

The next muslin that I made was with fabrics that I originally purchased to make the pattern. I’ve had these fabrics sitting in my stash for a little over a year now. I think of this version more for fall/winter wear. The underlayer fabric is a fun reversible knit (Minerva has some fun, reversible knit fabric options on their site as well). One side of of this fabric is a solid red and the other side is a thin black and white stripe. I got very excited when I saw this fabric because it felt like it was meant for the dress, being reversible.

I decided to use the plaid rayon fabric for the inseam pockets, added to the underlayer knit fabric (rather then using the same knit fabric for the pockets, within the skirt). Depending on the stability of your fabric, knit fabric stretches and can be a challenge for pockets. You can always interface a knit fabric to apply to a pocket but I prefer to use woven fabrics for inseam pockets.

For the fit of this dress, I decided that I’m OK with this looser look for fall/winter layering but I wanted to try a smaller fit for a spring/summer dress.
I did want to note in this muslin I used the top layer pattern piece for the front of the plaid skirt and the underlayer pattern piece for the back (so the red, inner fabric only “peeks out” in the front).

To be continued……

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