Blogged timey-wimey almost a year later.
R and C had a tiki party last weekend, and I thought this would be the perfect excuse to copy Heather's tiki dress and finally make an Oona-worthy maxi Anna. Alas, the only fabric I could find that I really liked that was... colourful... was this pink paisley polyester.
Not exactly tiki.
Whatever. This is a thin drapey cotton-poly (I think? it breathes... a bit) that was a bit of a nightmare to cut because it kept slipping off the kitchen table despite throwing all the weight of the cat food cans on it. I made no effort to match the print at the seams because... well, look at this print. Can you even tell where the seams are?
Check out the completely symmetric placement along the right front. Totally unplanned, obviously, but I'm not entirely thrilled about it because it almost throws off the rest of the dress.
I'm not super-thrilled with the print placement on the back skirt either, but I can't see it so whatever. The big problem here is clearly the fact that the back is pulling down (or the front is pulling up). A lot. The whole bodice fits a bit too tight; I thought maybe I had gained a lot of weight with my teacher summer indolence, but the other Annas still fit fine. I had adjusted where I lengthened the bodice pattern because I thought I had originally done it incorrectly, but now I'm wondering if I made a big mistake by lengthening above the waist instead of at the bust. Except that my first Anna had pretty much no adjustments at all and it fits fine. Really, I'm not sure what's going on here.
The good thing is that I think I have finally figured out proper invisible zip sewing, meaning I don't have to resew the edges because I don't get quite close enough to the zipper teeth the first time. Also, the print is so busy that I could do a straight machine stitch and no one can see it; this is important because oh my lord that's a lot of hem to do and no way did I want to hand sew it.
When all is said and done, it's a nice comfortable summer maxi dress, suitable for everything from tiki parties to dinner with the inlaws to just hanging out at home. The fabric is soft and drapey and super comfortable on a hot day.
Mandatory maxi Anna walking pictures:
One of the reasons I rejected a number of more tiki-esque prints (aside from the fact is that I just didn't love them) was that invariably the wrong side of the fabric was white; not a good look when you can see the wrong side through the slit.
So I finally have my Oona-worthy Anna maxi dress. I kind of want to take it to a beach and walk along the sand.
Now I have 6 iterations of this pattern. That's a lot of Annas. Will it be my last? Probably not... I have plans for a Very Special Anna later this year. Stay tuned!
R and C had a tiki party last weekend, and I thought this would be the perfect excuse to copy Heather's tiki dress and finally make an Oona-worthy maxi Anna. Alas, the only fabric I could find that I really liked that was... colourful... was this pink paisley polyester.
Not exactly tiki.
Whatever. This is a thin drapey cotton-poly (I think? it breathes... a bit) that was a bit of a nightmare to cut because it kept slipping off the kitchen table despite throwing all the weight of the cat food cans on it. I made no effort to match the print at the seams because... well, look at this print. Can you even tell where the seams are?
Check out the completely symmetric placement along the right front. Totally unplanned, obviously, but I'm not entirely thrilled about it because it almost throws off the rest of the dress.
I'm not super-thrilled with the print placement on the back skirt either, but I can't see it so whatever. The big problem here is clearly the fact that the back is pulling down (or the front is pulling up). A lot. The whole bodice fits a bit too tight; I thought maybe I had gained a lot of weight with my teacher summer indolence, but the other Annas still fit fine. I had adjusted where I lengthened the bodice pattern because I thought I had originally done it incorrectly, but now I'm wondering if I made a big mistake by lengthening above the waist instead of at the bust. Except that my first Anna had pretty much no adjustments at all and it fits fine. Really, I'm not sure what's going on here.
The good thing is that I think I have finally figured out proper invisible zip sewing, meaning I don't have to resew the edges because I don't get quite close enough to the zipper teeth the first time. Also, the print is so busy that I could do a straight machine stitch and no one can see it; this is important because oh my lord that's a lot of hem to do and no way did I want to hand sew it.
When all is said and done, it's a nice comfortable summer maxi dress, suitable for everything from tiki parties to dinner with the inlaws to just hanging out at home. The fabric is soft and drapey and super comfortable on a hot day.
Mandatory maxi Anna walking pictures:
One of the reasons I rejected a number of more tiki-esque prints (aside from the fact is that I just didn't love them) was that invariably the wrong side of the fabric was white; not a good look when you can see the wrong side through the slit.
So I finally have my Oona-worthy Anna maxi dress. I kind of want to take it to a beach and walk along the sand.
Now I have 6 iterations of this pattern. That's a lot of Annas. Will it be my last? Probably not... I have plans for a Very Special Anna later this year. Stay tuned!
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