3 years ago
Hi everyone
I’m so pleased to be back sharing with you my latest Minerva make – which just might be one of my all-time favourites!!
I felt so lucky to be able to snap up some of this Minerva exclusive ‘Tubula Rose’ viscose fabric. The print is just beautiful, and I love all of the colours in it, perfect for summertime. Although the weather hasn’t been great for us in the UK this year has it…!
I got three metres of this fabric and knew that it needed to become a dress of some form but for a while I couldn’t decide which pattern to go for. In the end I went for a pattern that’s been on my ‘to-sew’ list for a while. The Sew Over It Pippa Dress. I love the more fitted style of midi dresses around on the high street at the moment and this pattern fit the bill well.
As always, I washed and pressed my fabric before starting work and it laundered well. This viscose is quite light so I went for a 30 degree wash and put the fabric in a ‘delicates’ mesh bag I have to try and minimise any twisting and tangling in the machine.
When it came to the pattern, I did need to do a little bit of grading to get the fit right for my measurements. The Pippa Dress ranges from a size 6 – 30. My measurements put me at an 8 bust, 10 waist and 8 hips. For the bodice pattern pieces, I graded from the bust dart (size 8), out to a size 10 at the waist. I then cut the skirt pieces grading from a 10 at the waist, in to an 8 at the hips and then in again from the hips to the hem at a size 6. I decided to grade in to a 6 from the hips to keep the skirt a little narrower and slightly reduce the amount of flare.
I also did a little bit of tweaking to the length of the skirt pieces whilst I was at it. I knew that I wanted my dress to fall just above my ankles meaning that the standard midi length was too short and the maxi length would have been super long. To get the length I wanted, I added 10cm to the midi length skirt piece and this worked well.
Note: I did add a bit of extra length to this measurement as I knew the dress would need to hang for a day or so before hemming and that any ‘dropping’ would need to be levelled. If you have a pattern that requires you to do this it’s always worth leaving a little extra length in case your dress needs a lot cutting off in the levelling process.
Once all of my grading and re-sizing was done I was good to go! I cut my fabric out with my rotary cutter and cutting mat. I always prefer this method when cutting viscose as it minimises the slipping around.
I found the sewing process of this dress so enjoyable, and it actually comes together very quickly. Incase you’re wondering, the buttons on this dress are actually just for show. The dress is fastened with an invisible zip at the side so there are no buttonholes to make if that’s something you don’t enjoy doing.
The fabric sewed together very nicely and pressed really well. The only thing I would say is, if you have any unpicking to do, go super carefully. I managed to go a bit haywire when inserting my zip and accidentally pulled some of the fabric during the unpicking process. It’s not noticeable to anyone other than me (I don’t think) but I still could have cried at the time!
I’m proud of myself for facing my sewing nemesis the invisible zipper with this make. Sewing them in will always terrify me even with my trusty new invisible zip foot I still held my breath the whole time, I don’t know what it is with them!
Once the majority of the sewing process was complete, I left my dress to hang for 24 hours and had a little bit of levelling to do. Since parts of the skirt are cut on the bias, I found that the sides did drop a fair bit. I think I took off approximately 5cm in the end finishing by overlocking the hem and turning up a very narrow 1cm to keep as much length as I could. Oh and I also raised the split slightly to a little more above the knee than the pattern suggests ooh la la!!
I absolutely love how my Pippa Dress turned out. This fabric was perfect for it and it drapes and hangs beautifully and the print is so pretty I can’t stop looking at it while I’m wearing it.
I hope you like how my dress turned out. Have you made this pattern or tried this fabric yet?
Until next time, happy sewing!
Sally
I’m so pleased to be back sharing with you my latest Minerva make – which just might be one of my all-time favourites!!
I felt so lucky to be able to snap up some of this Minerva exclusive ‘Tubula Rose’ viscose fabric. The print is just beautiful, and I love all of the colours in it, perfect for summertime. Although the weather hasn’t been great for us in the UK this year has it…!
I got three metres of this fabric and knew that it needed to become a dress of some form but for a while I couldn’t decide which pattern to go for. In the end I went for a pattern that’s been on my ‘to-sew’ list for a while. The Sew Over It Pippa Dress. I love the more fitted style of midi dresses around on the high street at the moment and this pattern fit the bill well.
As always, I washed and pressed my fabric before starting work and it laundered well. This viscose is quite light so I went for a 30 degree wash and put the fabric in a ‘delicates’ mesh bag I have to try and minimise any twisting and tangling in the machine.
When it came to the pattern, I did need to do a little bit of grading to get the fit right for my measurements. The Pippa Dress ranges from a size 6 – 30. My measurements put me at an 8 bust, 10 waist and 8 hips. For the bodice pattern pieces, I graded from the bust dart (size 8), out to a size 10 at the waist. I then cut the skirt pieces grading from a 10 at the waist, in to an 8 at the hips and then in again from the hips to the hem at a size 6. I decided to grade in to a 6 from the hips to keep the skirt a little narrower and slightly reduce the amount of flare.
I also did a little bit of tweaking to the length of the skirt pieces whilst I was at it. I knew that I wanted my dress to fall just above my ankles meaning that the standard midi length was too short and the maxi length would have been super long. To get the length I wanted, I added 10cm to the midi length skirt piece and this worked well.
Note: I did add a bit of extra length to this measurement as I knew the dress would need to hang for a day or so before hemming and that any ‘dropping’ would need to be levelled. If you have a pattern that requires you to do this it’s always worth leaving a little extra length in case your dress needs a lot cutting off in the levelling process.
Once all of my grading and re-sizing was done I was good to go! I cut my fabric out with my rotary cutter and cutting mat. I always prefer this method when cutting viscose as it minimises the slipping around.
I found the sewing process of this dress so enjoyable, and it actually comes together very quickly. Incase you’re wondering, the buttons on this dress are actually just for show. The dress is fastened with an invisible zip at the side so there are no buttonholes to make if that’s something you don’t enjoy doing.
The fabric sewed together very nicely and pressed really well. The only thing I would say is, if you have any unpicking to do, go super carefully. I managed to go a bit haywire when inserting my zip and accidentally pulled some of the fabric during the unpicking process. It’s not noticeable to anyone other than me (I don’t think) but I still could have cried at the time!
I’m proud of myself for facing my sewing nemesis the invisible zipper with this make. Sewing them in will always terrify me even with my trusty new invisible zip foot I still held my breath the whole time, I don’t know what it is with them!
Once the majority of the sewing process was complete, I left my dress to hang for 24 hours and had a little bit of levelling to do. Since parts of the skirt are cut on the bias, I found that the sides did drop a fair bit. I think I took off approximately 5cm in the end finishing by overlocking the hem and turning up a very narrow 1cm to keep as much length as I could. Oh and I also raised the split slightly to a little more above the knee than the pattern suggests ooh la la!!
I absolutely love how my Pippa Dress turned out. This fabric was perfect for it and it drapes and hangs beautifully and the print is so pretty I can’t stop looking at it while I’m wearing it.
I hope you like how my dress turned out. Have you made this pattern or tried this fabric yet?
Until next time, happy sewing!
Sally