In The Folds Acton Dress in "Butterfly Pea" Organic Cotton Voile

Finally got round to making my first Acton Dress by In The Folds! The pattern is available here. Bought the pattern in mid-June this year, and spent a lot of time deciding which fabric to use.

For this first Acton Dress attempt, I matched the View B top with the View A skirt. Honestly, I doubt I'll ever make the View B wrap skirt. A matter of personal preference, really. I'm not a fan of wrap skirts. But maybe that will change. The last 5+ years of crafting, sewing and stashing fabrics has changed a lot of personal preferences.

In The Folds Acton Dress, first attempt. Wore it for the first time during our recent Raffles Hotel staycation.

I love racer back tops but have very few in my wardrobe, so naturally, my first choice for the Acton Dress was to go with View B. My husband thinks it's sexy. (｡♥‿♥｡) It does flatter the shoulders. Overall, the halterneck, racer back, empire-line, and A-line skirt of the Acton Dress seems to suit the straight and boxy body shape.

In The Folds Acton Dress View B, racer back.

Took in the bust slightly. From the start, adjustments were inevitable, so I just threw caution into the wind, and made the toile in the white batiste. This with the intention of re-using it for the lining. I know the smart thing to do is to make the toile with inexpensive fabric, like muslin or something with similar drape, but...it felt like a lot of time and effort.... Yeah hey, I am still hand-stitching. In any case, it worked out...this time.

Extra wide skirt hem, white batiste lining.

Finished the skirt hem with a 7cm wide hem facing. The first extra wide hem was for my niece's smocked dress (posted here), and I liked the weight it added to the lightweight fabric (at the time, Liberty Tana lawn). So I decided to do the same here, also with invisible stitching.

7 cm wide hem facing, invisible stitches.

If I made the Acton Dress again (which I will), I'll need to shorten the torso a little, so that the bodice will sit better. Right now, the side seams kind of sit slightly far back too, and the A-line skirt doesn't drape so well at the sides, so maybe I need to adjust the position of the side seams, or the front-centre panel measurements.....

So, the fabric is a pretty GOTS-certified organic cotton voile. It was a gift from an acquaintance CHL, who designed it for her children's clothing line. She gave me this, and 2 other prints, sometime in mid-2019 (posted on my IG). This fabric is called "Butterfly Pea", and the print seems to be a stylised design of the butterfly pea flower, though it also brings to my mind butterfly wings. Kind of like a flurry of white butterflies on a clear blue-sky day.

The real thing, and the fabric.

The butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), aka blue pea flower, is native to our region, and has been of some cultural significance and culinary use here for a very long time. My Nonya great-grandmothers, and theirs before them, have been using it. It's very commonly used as a food dye in Peranakan food, like in kuehs (pulut tai tai, kueh salat), nasi lemak and Nonya bak zhang. It is also used in Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese cuisines.

My in-laws' butterfly pea vine, double-flowered variety.

My in-laws have 2 vines growing in the garden. One with the classic purple-blue blossoms is the double-flowered variety, and the other is the more common single-flowered variety, but with light purple blossoms. That 2nd vine has taken over their ornamental pomegranate shrub. The flowers from the first vine are often picked, as our helper dries the flowers to make tea. Our helper mainly makes the tea the traditional way, so we don't add milk or do the trendy tea latte thing. Honestly, I'm not a fan of the tea; I think it just looks better than it tastes. I prefer seeing it blossoming on the vine, as I love that vibrant purple-blue. It stands out nicely against the green foliage too. And did you know? Blue is a rare colour in nature.

I was super reluctant to cut this fabric because it's so beautiful as it is — the colours, the pretty print, the airy and crisp hand feel of the voile... and this little botanical snippet does give the fabric a little backstory. It's more than just pretty. But now that I've used it, I don't regret it.

In The Folds Acton Dress, first attempt. Wore it one sunny afternoon on our recent Raffles Hotel staycation.

Airy. Feather light. Pretty, bright print. Another perfect dress for our tropical climate.

In The Folds Acton Dress with organic cotton voile, and white batiste lining. Great for tropical climes and summer days.