Adventures in Apron Dresses

So as a Valentines day/tax return present, I ordered a new pair of apron brooches from Raymond's Quiet Press. I have been eying them for a long while, and now the precious shall be mine. Of course this translates into my brain as a reason to make a new dress.

I just so happened to have this lovely black wool.

 And so we begin our tale of my new apron dress with this lovely piece of wool that I picked up from St. Vinnie's. I cannot remember the exact price, but I am sure it was about $8. I had estimated that there was 3 1/2 yards on the bolt, but when I finally got around to measuring it I realized that they had doubled it over before wrapping it on the bolt. I got 7 2/3 yards! Woo Hoo!

I always use the thread pull method to straighten the ends of my fabric before starting any cutting.

I wash all my fabric with few exceptions. There was some shrinkage, but nothing I was really worried about.

  Fuzzier texture, but I am cool with that.

All set! Let's start cutting!

Hedby Style Layout

This is actually where the problems began. I have been wanting to try the Hedby style layout for some time now, and so I thought that I would use the less brain bending version found here. I don't know where I went wrong, but somehow it was too short. I did not figure that out until after I had cut. Note to self do your own math.

So now the question is how do I fix this? I didn't want to chop the remaining wool into bits, and I didn't want to use my old Tried & True pattern because I wanted this to be a three panel dress. My intent with the three panel dress was to use a gusset at the center back seam, because I have and hourglass figure with full hips, and a large bust. Without a little definition at the waist I start looking pretty boxy. So I had to do some reconfiguring on my old pattern.

Tried & True Pattern

Reconfigured Three Panel Apron Dress

I cut the body panels to a 1/3 my underbust + ease and seam allowance. I didn't account for the stretch of my wool. . . but we'll get to that in a moment.

Choppy chop time!

Lots of leftovers for future projects, yay!

Center front panel with the two full gores attached to either side

I press each seam open before attatching it to the next body panel.

In true CADD (Costume Attention Deficit Disorder) fashion I decided to . . .

Yeah. I am a messy costumer.

Oh my there is a floor under all that crap.

Where is all this stuff going to go?

Almost there!

Oh my goodness look at all the organized little boxes!

Oh the joy of having space for all the machines to sit out at the same time.

Let me introduce you to my my new friend, this is Lapis LaSteamy. This is my first brand new iron, and my first Rowenta. I loves her. 

Oh yeah, this is a project with a deadline. Did I mention that I need to have this done by this weekend?

One of the things I do to make my gores pretty is to sew the seams in three passes. Pass one, sew gore to panel keeping the tip of the gore free.

Pass two, sew the other side of the gore again keeping the tip of the gore free. 

Pass three, sew the top of the body panel down to the gore. Did I mention that you do not want the top of the gore to get caught up in any of the seams.

Press the seam allowances open

Pin if you need to. With some machines you Do Not want to run over pins, you can pin horizontally to avoid needle breakage and sorrow.

Be sure to keep it far enough away from your presser foot :)

Beware of small demon children they are cute and will demand that you take their picture.


Well that's all for now. More sewing tonight. . . weaving first.

Wait did I say weaving?

Edit 4/29/13

I thought my camera ate these pictures, but I just found them so here is the new Apron dress. Now I just need to hem the under tunic. . .

Rectanular Construction Tunics-Introduction the Birth of a Tacky Tunic

Many years ago when I was still in high school I received a copy of Tournaments Illuminated. In that issue there was this amazing article by Lady Muireann ingen Eoghain ua Maoil Mheaghna, about how to make a tunic with rectangular construction. I had never heard of such a thing before. I was amazed that this woman had taken measurements from a actual surviving garment from the middle ages, and made a pattern from it. A garment that wasted virtually no fabric. Since these were the days before I worked at a fabric store, I had no stash to speak of. Making the most of my fabric was a necessity. I devoured the article, copying down her cutting layout in my sketch pad. My little mind was spinning from this new idea, and I had to try making my own. So I pulled out some atrocious plaid knit that I had found at a second hand shop (taste in fabric was still a few years away), and I set about making my first "real" T-tunic. It was a functional disaster. I didn't have enough fabric to make the center gores out of the plaid, so I fudged it, and I used a lightweight lavender cotton for the center gores. It matched. . . in a way. I read the bit in the article of inserting points by hand, so I left the top inch of the gores un-sewn intending to come back later and close up the gap by hand. Well I never did, I never hemmed it either. You would think that it would have been falling apart after the first wash, but I wore that unfinished tunic for years. Eventually I stopped wearing it, and it lurked in the bottom of my garb box taunting me. I would proudly wear my newer creations all the while knowing it was there just out of site. Finally I gave it away, I couldn't stand taking it apart, and I had friends who could use the garb. Finally I was free if the curse of the Tacky tunic, that is untill I was sitting by the campfire, and across from me was my friend proudly wearing my old tunic.

I've gone on to make many more tunics using Rectangular Construction. Once I had mastered the formula for measuring they went together very quickly. I found that when I tried to take a shortcut, and use the quarter & cut method it never worked right. I would end up spending more time fixing the shortcut than I would have taken to just do it right the first time. Thus I was converted. When I sing the praises of Rectangular Construction I often watch peoples eyes gloss over. The number of pieces, inserting gores, math!?! Quite a few people looked at me like I was crazy, and went back to their preferred way of cutting. I was not discouraged. I wanted more people to use this method because it's the right way! OK so there is no right way to do anything, but I really loved the way that this worked, and just wanted to share. So what was I going to do? I started making them for friends. Then I guided a few friends through making their own. Next thing I knew I was teaching my first A&S Class. I find myself popping into costuming forums and giving advice, I even started a photo tutorial On my Livejournal. Sadly that never got finished because I moved, and the half finished project has yet to resurface. Well I still want to spread the love of Rectangular construction.