A-Line Dress 1.0 - 'Best In Show' Banner Day (White)

Yui Jamie and Elizabeth Rose modelling the test pieces.

Recently experimented with an A-line dress pattern by Melissa Cabral. The original Melissa Cabral pattern is available for free on Puchi Collection. Puchi Collective seems to be inactive at the moment, but a Google image search will pull up an image.

I used the original pattern before and the dresses turned out nicely. Guess I'll search for them and post them another time. This time, I played around with the measurements, and added a Peter Pan collar. Tried making one straight-sided. For the fabric, I used Maude Asbury by Blend 'Best in Show' Banner Day in white.

Made one dress first. And it was only after I completed the first one that I realised, very belatedly, that I had cut the fabric for both dresses with the print upside down. Dang.

AND the print on the first dress was a little lopsided. Double dang.

For the second one, the print was upside down too (argh!) but not lopsided. And I did the sides slightly curved, like in the original pattern.

The end result was okay overall - for both - but the white collars didn't pop. They just sunk - no, just disappeared - into the background.

What's the point of including them if they're going to disappear right? Completely unsatisfactory. Clearly, white collars didn't work. Gotta make some more. With coloured collars.

Which colour for the collar: red, dark pink, blue or grass green?

Narrowed down the solid coloured cottons I had to red, dark pink (dark fuchsia?), blue and grass green. The dark pink and grass green have a mottled pattern. A vivid yellow (like sunflowers!) would've been nice too, but I don't have any fabric in that shade.

Lining

I included a lining, using lightweight cotton lawn. Actually, lining for this pattern isn't necessary, but I wanted to see how it would turn out. It seems I'm going to have to work on that.

Oh - I was a good girl and followed some sewing fundamentals: pre-washing and pressing.

It has been advised that one should pre-wash to avoid shrinkage when the finished outfit is washed and ironed. (See Make It & Love It and Craftsy and Sew4Home and Professor Pincushion.)

Pre-washed the fabric in cold water and mild detergent, drip dry and steamed ironed. Post-completion, I dealt with the pieces in the same manner.

And, as opposed to my usual habit, I pressed while sewing - something I should make a habit of. It was only when I was done stitching the collar to the bodice for the Hanon Satomi frill dress that it fully hit me just how important pressing is. Heck, pressing is essential in sewing. (Note difference in pressing and ironing.)

The online world is great for self-help sewing lessons - there are great tips on pressing on Tilly and the Buttons and Craftsy.