New Look 6723 No3 - The dress that nearly didn't make it to the blog

This is my third version of New Look 6723 (Nos 1 and 2 are here and here).  I nearly didn't finish it because I fell out of love with the fabric. 

This photo was taken at the same time as my photos of my Hawthorn dress.  That bit of the garden slopes down towards the lilac tree behind me, so I'll have to remember to stand up straight there!  This photo was the best of a bad bunch - then Valentine distracted everybody...

Anyway, back to the dress.  The fabric is 3 metres of African Wax cotton that I got on ebay.  I loved the big leaves and the green and purple, and we all know I'm no stranger to a mad print.  The reason I fell out with it was because it was such a nightmare to try and place the print on the bodice.  It took me two evenings of crawling around the floor, pinning pattern pieces, to get it to work.  But I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it turned out; it was worth the effort, and a good exercise in print placement.

This pattern has princess seams on the bodice, and I thought long and hard about how I wanted the print on the bodice front.  I ended up putting a white leave in the centre, with green leaves at the shoulders.  Then I put purple leaves on the front side bodice pieces, I didn't want the leaves to get cut in half on the front bodice seams.

On the back I went with the green leaves at the shoulders, and white leaves in the middle.  I'm really pleased with how they lined up, but now I think the white leaves look a bit like angels wings.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not!  Again I went with the purple leaves at the back side pieces.

 

For the skirt, I used the largest size on the pattern (as I did with the other two versions).  But the gathers on the front aren't as full as I would like them to be.  I'll bear this in mind if I make this again, and widen the skirt front.  You'll notice in the photos below that the leaves on the skirt front don't line up vertically with the leaves on the bodice centre.  This fabric was about 42 inches wide, and there just wasn't enough width to cut it so the leaves lined up, but I like how it looks. 

 

I underlined the bodice with some random lightweight stuff that came from my Granny, and then faced the arms and neck with bias tape.  I also added pockets to the side seams of the skirt.  I wore this on Tuesday to go the cinema to see The World's End, which was hilarious, but not as good as Hot Fuzz. 

 

In conclusion, I'm glad I stuck with it.  When I finished the bodice, I nearly wasn't going to go any further with it, but I thought I'd sew the skirt on and see what it looked like, and that was when I thought "Ooo, this looks great!".  It just goes to show that sometimes it's best to just keep going with it. 

 

Have a great week,

 

Lynne