Ok so its May already and you might have noticed that I didn’t show you a dress for April. Well I was actually doing a top-secret, can’t-tell-anyone pattern test for Tasia at Sewaholic. That's right when Tasia put out the call that she needed pattern testers I jumped at the chance and pinged back an email straight away. Then I panicked, what if I wasn’t able to do it, what if I ran out of time, what if the dress wasn’t something I would like or normally buy? Well I needn’t have worried on that score, this is Tasia we’re talking about. When I got the pictures of the dress I literally swooned, I was so happy because it was perfect, I am of course talking about the Cambie Dress.
After consultation with the family I decided to make version B, the full skirted dress. I made a muslin of the bodice which was pretty much perfect straight away, the only change I’ve made is to shorten the sleeve caps, which is easy enough to do on the fly. Let me warn you, this is a very full skirted dress with a full lining so there was a LOT of fabric to wrangle. I went to Ditto fabrics and found a lovely red cotton/silk mixture.
I lined it with cotton, in hindsight it might have been better to line the skirt with a silkier fabric as I think there’s too much friction between the layers.
So ta da!
what a dreadful picture!
Its such a lovely dress and I love the shoulder detail, as Tasia said not quite a sleeve but not quite sleeveless. The pockets have been loved forwards slightly which I was a little bemused by but they actually end up being perfectly placed for your hands! With Sewaholic patterns there are lots of little details that you don’t find in ‘Big 4’ patterns and they just make the whole thing perfect!
Now I need your advice, after the last request for advice I went out and bought navy gingham fabric and now I’m pondering making an a-line skirt version of Cambie. What do you think? I’m also in the middle of another Simplicity 2209 but for some reason having problems which are slowing me down, the original plan was to make a gingham version as well but now having these issues and thinking about Cambie again I’m considering my options. So please blogosphere tell me what to do…..
Ohhhh I really like this dress. I am a newbie dressmaker myself and only on my second dress (Lisette pattern free with Sew Mag!). Would you recomend this dress pattern to me or am I a bit too new at the dressmaking lark for this particular pattern?
ReplyDeleteTasia lists the Cambie as an intermediate but its not too taxing, the trickest part was attaching the lining to the invisible zip but Tasia has put a great tutorial on her blog to show this part in more detail. As I said the fuller skirt is a lot of fabric and that was a bit challenging, just handling all that! I've picked up some of the free patterns with Sew Mag as well. TBH its the only reason I buy the magazine as I find more information on blogs than in mags! I should just buy the patterns! Check out my other makes and you might see your pattern!
DeleteLouise, this is so pretty! I have made the a-line Cambie dress in gingham, I think the fabric suits the shape of the dress really well.
ReplyDeleteThis looks beautiful! If shipping wasn't so expensive I would purchase this pattern too. The results are clearly worth it!
ReplyDeleteLouise, I went ahead and made the Cambie dress. I finished it yesterday, it's on my blog if you want a peep :0)
ReplyDelete