Datura

  

I finished this dress several weeks ago but it’s taken me a while to blog it.  We just moved to a new apartment and have been without internet for quite a while.  Comcast can’t seem to get their shit together on this one…  On the upside, we’ve all been spending a bit of quality offline-time reading, cooking, exploring our new hood, and- in my case -sewing.

This dress was the main project that I made in the class I took at Laura’s Sewing School in Arlington.  The website is sort of terrifying, but I decided to take the class anyway and I don’t regret it!  Laura is extremely skilled and I learned quite a bit in the class- definitely feel like I got my money’s worth.

The dress is a slightly modified Datura by Deer and Doe patterns.  The pattern is for a blouse, but I lengthened it into a dress and used a zipper as the back closure instead of the button placket. I also lowered the darts- an alteration I’ve never made before but Laura recommended it and I think it fits great.  This was not a particularly complicated pattern, but the class was a real back to the basics review for me- I learned to trace patterns better, cut better, pin better, press better, stitch better, just do everything I’ve already been doing but BETTER.

I was once again tempted to buy a yard of Liberty Lawn for this dress, but I satisfied myself with the Liberty Lifestyles for the front panel of the dress, and used a navy shot cotton for the yoke and back panel.

Laura showed me how to do exposed zippers.  It’s so easy- I get the feeling I’ll be doing this quite a bit from now on. I decided to do it upside down so that it zips from the bottom, and I really like the effect.

My boyfriend Dan took these pictures in my parent’s garden while we were visiting last weekend.  We took advantage of all available props.