Sunday, November 18, 2012

Looking For Some Warmth

I was meant to go to an early Christmas gathering this afternoon, but my cough is still sounding disgusting, and I didn't think anyone would want it for company. So I stayed home alone and finished the Tessuti Lily dress.
Tessuti Lily linen dress
It should be comfortable on hot days, as it is a linen/cotton blend. And maybe some warm weather will help me get over this lurgy!

I think I like the look of the dress on. I had to make a lot of adjustments to the pattern to make it fit me and to make myself happy with how it looked. I've already mentioned the changes I made to the shoulder area. I had to place the pockets a good 5cm lower than marked on the pattern. Interestingly I made no change to the length of the sleeve, but it is much longer than the sleeve in Tessuti's pictures. If I make this again I might shorten the sleeve a little.
Close-up of the unusual pocket treatment:
Tessuti Lily pocket
I'd definitely do the pocket differently in a second iteration. But I thought I should make it according to the pattern this time to see what it looked like.
What happens when the wind blows:
Tessuti Lily linen dress
Looks a bit like a tent...

I also made the dress longer than the pattern, by 4cm. The pattern came to just below my knee, but this dress is meant to be longer than that. Even with the extra length, this is not as long on me as the picture on the pattern. However, even if I hadn't lengthened the dress, I would have needed 30cm more fabric than was specified.

I moved the pleats at the hem in by about 20cm, as the front and back pleats were too close together when I put them where the pattern said.

The last adjustment was needed to make the hem level. I had to trim off about 1.5cm from the centre back and front, tapering off to nothing at about 30cm from the centre. This was necessary because the hem dipped down too much.

So, overall, I'm happy with the dress, but the pattern has a few issues.

3 comments:

thornberry said...

Thanks Vireya - I'm planning on making this dress as my Christmas dress. I'm much shorter than you, so might make the length as suggested. It will be interesting to see how mine goes! But first, to the print shop - I'm not taping together all those pages! I like the fabric you've chosen for yours.

Kate said...

I bet the linen cotton blend feels nice and should be good in hot weather. I hope your lurgi goes away soon. You don't want to miss all the christmas parties.
kate

kaiteM said...

Yes i remember last year, all the Christmas "do's" you went to, it would be a shame if your cough made you miss them this year. As to the dress making, you are very good with alterations and pattern adjusting, i admire you for that.