Salwar tunic into summer dress (part 1)

About a year ago my Mum introduced me to a really great way to buy fabric. She took me to some shops in the Normanton area of Derby and introduced me to Salwar fabric sets. In a Salwar set you get 3 large rectangles of fabric - one for a tunic, one for trousers and one as a scarf (often the scarf is already finished for you). They're a really great way of getting hold of fabric at a low cost, and because they're designed to be a set they co-ordinate beautifully - so you could make a skirt and a top and know they'll go well together without being the same head to toe. Some of the tunic pieces come with a printed neckline design (some are very fancy, some more plain), so it becomes an incredibly simple way of making something pretty unique.

Last time I went shopping with Mum I bought this set; it set me back a mere £14! I'm turning the tunic piece into a dress; the New Look 6095, version B. I'm using the neckline printed on the Salwar fabric and adapting the pattern a little to enable me to do that (eek!).

The print on this fabric is really wonky! I'm trying to make the best of it, but have never pattern-matched before, or adapted a pattern's shape... so it's a great challenge!

I started by washing and pressing the fabric to eliminate any additional warping or shrinking. Then I folded the fabric along the central line of the printed neckline, and lay my pattern pieces over the top. Though the pattern neckline and the printed neckline are quite different to each other, I cut out the fabric as per the pattern and planned to deal with adaptations later. I did the same for the back of the dress, although it was much easier; all I had to worry about here was lining up the print at the bottom of the dress to the front, so that I have the same amount of print showing at the hem. This is where the wonky comes in - there's no way it's going to match up because of how it's been printed! The middles match up but the sides sure as heck don't!

Facings came out of the same piece of fabric. With the front facing I cut it straight across at the bottom so that it comes down further than the V-point I'll be sewing in/cutting out.



I followed the New Look pattern entirely for the first part; darts, shoulders, attaching facings to each other and then to the main dress fabric around the arms. When it came to attaching the facings to the neckline, I hand-stitched along the fabric's neckline in a contrasting thread to hold it in place and make it really visible. It gave me opportunity to mark out how I was going to blend the two necklines to create my finished garment.

When I got to machine-sewing I started from the back right (as it will be when I'm wearing the dress) and stitched along as normal until I got to the shoulders, and then I followed my hand stitched line and the print. Once I'd done the stitching I cut down the front of the V to take out some of the bulk and make sure my corners would pop out nice and crisp. Then came the big reveal as I turned the fabric through (bringing the sides through the facings) to see what the outcome was.

And that's the topic of next week's post!

And my dog photo-bombed this last picture...