This is my pandemic dress. The dress that never got its due. Maybe next summer, dress.

It started as a “break from the dreariness” dress, a project that was just meant to be dressy but fun for summer, back in 2020. It got propelled along by a company “show your talents” competition, so I recorded the project in video form. At final fit and video submission time, I found the dress lovely, but also was annoyed by how the right side collapsed. I lost motivation to finish the hand bits at that point, the facings needed tacking and the hem got left unfinished.

I finished it finally in summer 2021, for a friend’s wedding I was so excited to attend. Motivation to get done! Alas, a covid case in my kid’s school, and no time to get a negative test for myself, I couldn’t go. And the dress didn’t get worn, though it got finished.

Next summer, maybe I’ll take it out for a spin. Thus far, I wore it to take these photos and for a couple more hours, but it bummed me out, and I’m not generally too in my feelings about pandemic life.

2020 notes

I decided to take my time on this project and really try to do the details right. That’s always sort of really fun and sort of really tedious. I got lots of little projects done in between, certainly, especially due to the handsewing at the end. I also made a video of this project!

The video happened because work was hosting a virtual talent show to stave of the quarantine isolation feels. I figured, I was already working on this dress, why not film some of the process. Of course I finished the video before I actually finished the hem…. which took so. much longer. So in this clip it’s actually just pinned in place and hand basted along the bottom.

Despite taking my time on every stage, the one thing I didn’t think about at all was the somewhat recent discovery that my shoulders are completely different heights. I had ensured the fit was beautiful on my left side, which means, unfortunately, that it just collapsed on the right side. Of course I didn’t figure this out until twirling around in said video.

Anyways before getting to all that, let’s talk construction steps.

The 70’s pattern was already cut, so I didn’t have to worry much about saving it. My last effort with this era of Style patterns, my halloween costume, fit great, so I was fairly confident. Cut the bodice pattern out of silk organza and the fashion fabric, separately, using scissors. I was pretty loosey goosey about the seam allowances since, couture style, I was gonna do some match the seamlines stuff.

I should note I went with silk organza because of the neckline of this dress. Obviously it needs more structure than rayon challis has, but I also loved this print for this idea, and thought that the challis would be ideal for the skirt.

I cut away the paper pattern to trace the seamline with pencil onto the silk organza, then I basted the two pieces together along the seamline. Did this all flat, on my cutting mat, at my work desk and while watching TV, sitting on the floor to get it up to height.

I basted the left hand side and tested it and it all looked smooth and beautiful and ready to go. As you already know I shoulda checked the right. That’s obviously the big takeaway here for my sewing practice - I need to become a fit the sides seperately person, at the very least on things that take this much effort, probably on all sleeveless items (i think the actual shoulders balance it out a bit on sleeved garments), and certainly anywhere where fit is gonna bug me.

Because I used fine silk thread for the basting, and did it by hand, it was easy to pull out without markings. So that’s a handsewing plus.

I tried out an invisible zip at center front for closure, and let me tell you it was the best invisible zip insertion I’ve ever done but it totally ruined the line. I suspect this whole insertion and removal may have caused some of the distortion on the right side I eventually experienced.

2021 notes

Hems are nice and deep, hand sewn down with an invisible stitch.

Facings are completely connected to the silk organza underlining only, by hand. Reasonably invisible, which is great because i stopped matching thread for awhile in this process

I tested the dress out and it spun beautifully but collapsed on the right hand side. It took some time, but I got neck pads from Wawak, which are essentially triangular shoulder pads meant to build up the neck in suits (from my understanding, but Wawak didn’t have much extra to tell me) and inserted two, tucked into the facing on the right side. This hasn’t totally eliminated the crumpling but has helped enough that I think it’s wearable.

I inserted two of the neck pads to combat crumpling, adding maybe a 1/2 inch to that shoulder. A bigger issue, a year later, is that my bust is smaller than it was. So there’s new crumpling/volume that wasn’t there last summer.

Silk organza underlining, neck pads for bodice support.

That said, and despite the frustrations of time on this, I do think it’s a nice dress. I look forward to wearing it.

Pattern: Style 3035
My measurements: Made when bust 36/7, worn at bust 34.
Size made: bust 36
Next time: make a muslin! no zips in challis! shoulder pads are kind of miraculous, too. let the bodice hang AND the skirt hang before finishing, this was less even than i’d like.