I’m very happy with this dress that I’m wearing it to work today. I’ve seen so many beautiful versions of it like Meredith’s and Abbey’s and Rae’s that I finally bought the paper pattern last week. This is by the way April Rhodes’ The Staple dress pattern. I love it that she used nice thick white paper instead of tissue paper so it was so much easier to trace. It’s tagged as a beginner pattern and I learned new skills like shirring, pinked seams and hidden pockets! I worked on it for 3 nights (I’m very slow) and I was so nervous about the shirring that I was tempted to leave it out because I already liked the dress with a belt when I tried it on. I practiced a lot that the 10m reel was almost used up by the time I finish the dress and what worked for me (my machine’s a Brother NV30 and I I used Gutermann elastic thread) was giving it a bit of tension when I was winding the elastic thread in my bobbin. I tried at first winding the thread without stretching but it ended flat and didn’t gather at all. Anyway, I followed the pattern’s instructions and blasted the shirring with steam and the shirring gathered even more. I made 4 rows of shirring and I’ll probably try 6 rows on my next Staple to cinch in the waist more. I made a size S but I might try the XS next time like Janey.
I got my fabric in Chinatown for 12 sgd a meter (it was the last 3.x meters) and the Auntie even gave me her sample square of the fabric which was around 20×20 inches and this is what I used for the neck and sleeve bindings. I think I have a leftover enough for another top and bias bindings. Yay! It’s the softest and silkiest fabric I’ve ever worked on, it’s even softer than voile but the selvedge just said 100% cotton made in Japan. Now that I’m wearing it, I can see that it creases on the skirt area but the pattern is quite busy so it’s ok and it sort of reminds of a Nani Iro Painting Muji fabric so yes I love it!
And here it is with a belt (I wish I had a yellow belt or any coloured belt) which is how I wore it to work today:
I love love the drop hem!
And some construction photo details:
shirring! (I might be confident enough soon to try Rae’s Washi dress)
girl with a sewing machine 
It looks awesome! I haven’t tried the staple dress yet, but it’s on my want list!
Thanks Teresa 🙂 Try it, it would look great on you. Just saw your black Date Night dress and I think I want one too
Looks great on you, I really like the dropped hem! I’ve started cutting out an extra small but with the straight hem but wish I chose the dropped hem now after seeing yours. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more I’ll be making though. I definitely recommend trying the washi dress. I’ve made three of those (I really should blog them!) and I’ve got more planned in my head!
Thanks Janey! I want to try the straight hem too! Can’t wait to see your next one. And yes please blog about those washi dresses of yours, I wanna see. 🙂
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