Sunday 7 April 2013

Not so Drape Drape

Found my camera charger! So you can now finally see these pics of the Drape Drape dress. I had seen the Drape Drap books around the interwebs but hadn't thought much of it, the styles just seemed a bit out there for me. That is until I saw Dixie's version of this dress.
Pic from Dixie's blog, click the pic to go there.

SUPER CUTE. So I decided to give it a go. 

Might as well mow the lawn while I'm at it.

I ordered the book and then decided to order a bunch of knit fabrics from Fabric.com, for some other knit patterns I have around. Not wanting to wait until the book arrived to order fabric, I emailed Dixie to ask about sizing and how much fabric would be needed. Thanks so much Dixie!

I ordered some cheap brown double ponte knit. I'm still coming to terms with all the knit fabric names out there, but knowing this was an unusual pattern I thought I'd start with some cheap fabric, get the fit right then order something nicer if I liked the pattern.

The dress turned out really nicely. I added about 3 inches to the length (tall gal) and it still turned out pretty short! and not really dropped waist. There are just two things that have turned me off this dress:

  1. Armholes. As I've mentioned before I've discovered I have giant shoulders (by pattern standards) and given the wackiness of this pattern I need to figure out how to add some space in there. I ended up cutting the armholes down too as they literally came up to my armholes. Like right up and under. Despite this I still have a bit of difficulty lifting my arms, without the whole dress lifting up like it's about to rocket launch off me. 
  2. Fabric. Polyester stinks. Given the above armhole position it stinks even more. I've since made a top out of this pattern and added a bit more space in the sleeve caps which fixed the rocket launching issue, now I just to adjust the back space and stinky fabric.

All in all I actually really dig this pattern. It's funky, super easy ( like 2 hours max to make) and comfortable. I hope to order some nicer fabric, adjust the back, sleeves and drop waist and have another go at this.