Sew Serendipity Sabrina Tunic

With my right hand I am typing and drinking a green smoothie.  But my left is busy playing with Pickle, and her ball.  Good grief, the noise of this squeaky ball is intense.  Maybe it's worse for me as I have hearing aids, or maybe it's that bad for everyone.  Pickle doesn't mind; she's having fun.

Here is another black dress that is difficult to photograph with any clarity of detail (and another in the pipeline). Part of the pleasure of making my own clothes is derived from working with fabrics that are visually interesting or beautiful, which usually means colourful.  So, if I make a garment in black it means I want it to be useful, and plain often means more versatile.

This sleeveless dress is made in a soft, fluid, draping black linen (at present I'm wearing a sheer top under it).  It creases like crazy, which is why it looks a bit crumpled in the photos.  I would show you a line drawing of the pattern but can't find one.  The pattern comes in three lengths: tunic, above-knee dress (my version), and below-knee dress.  There are bust darts, and no waistband.  The bodice finishes just under the bust.  The zip is centre-back and there are neck and armhole facings.  The skirt is an A-line shape.  It is unlined.

This dress was very quick and easy to make indeed.  And it took only one metre of fabric.  I don't usually like facings but now I pin them in place first, so I can stitch them to exactly the right length (for some reason if I sew the ends together first, the facing is never the right length!), I get along with them much better. I thought I would get away with no alterations to the fit whatsoever but, once I tried the dress on with the skirt part attached (I had made a muslin of just the bodice, which took about ten minutes), I could see that, on my shape in particular, I needed the bodice to be much closer fitting under the bust, otherwise it looked like a maternity dress.  Obviously, that effect is alleviated if you choose to make the crossover tie belt, as suggested, but I didn't quite have enough fabric for that.  So, I pinched about 3/4 of an inch pleats both sides, under the dart points, and it worked perfectly.

In the summer this dress will be so perfect for a hot summer's day.  I think I will make another, more brightly coloured one.

Thank you very much to Fiona at Chainstitcher for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award.