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... 

Passion is...

... going to bed beaten and waking up refusing to let 150cm of printed fabric get the better of you.

Yesterday I looked up from the kitchen table (also known as Sewing Central) in frustration, and realised that the time was 6.41pm, and I'd been "ruining" some fabric long past my dog's dinner time, and long into the time I was supposed to be spending relaxing, watching catch up tv and drinking a lovely pink pinot.

I actually burst into tears. Earlier in the day I'd amended a dress pattern to incorporate a zip in a much more sophisticated way than recommended, and I was flying on adrenalin and pride. Pride comes before a fall, so you can almost guess what happened... I messed up! The hissy fit resulting from my upset led to the house being scrubbed, vaccuumed and rinsed to a spotless state, the grass being cut, despite the neighbours attempting to have a calm evening in their garden with friends, no dinner and then a binge on a MacDonalds cheesburger and fries at 11pm.

I've made the dress in question before (Simplicity pattern 2406, a Cynthia Rowley dress). The first time I did it in navy cotton, and made dress B - the one with the interesting short sleeves and pockets. It's really beautiful and I made it backless, just because I loved the way the main picture on the pattern looked (looks like Emma Watson, doesn't she??). I love my backless dress, but it's not so practical to wear (exposed skin, bralessness... all that sort of thing).

This time I decided to make the same thing, but dress C, in red cotton with a white heart print. This time it's not got pockets. Why? Because I cannot get my head around them, despite doing them once before, so this time I ended up ripping them off and simply doing without. However, my tears were all due to the shoulder straps and armholes. The straps wouldn't sit right, and the bias binding didn't sit flat, exposing its innards through a gaping armhole. Adding the shoulder straps and binding managed to make the front neckline look gash, and because of the way the straps sat the back was all puffy and unpleasant.

So this morning, after my night of fury, I refuse to let it drag me down. I have a gingerbread infused coffee, Desert Island Discs, my seam ripper and I'm fixing it. Calmly and slowly. And adding the sleeves I did last time, because I know they work.