Pinkish linenish cambie

So I was invited to a wedding and originally I had big plans to decide on my outfit.  All the best laid plans of mice and Louise go awry (paraphrasing Robert Burns!) meant that I since I started working, studying etc I haven’t had the time to go the whole hog.   As the wedding was on the weekend I had a deadline to work to and as usually it made me get my butt into gear. I really fancied making a Cambie using View A after making View B as a pattern tester for Tasia last year.  I loved the neckline but I found the gathered skirt too bulky around my waist, I’m finding clean lines are better at my waistline.  I wanted a linen but struggled to find something I really liked and then stumbled on Minerva Craft which is a great shop with just about everything you could possibly need in one place plus free delivery if you spend £20!  I ordered some Linen look cotton from them a while ago along with some lining material and then slowly set about making it.  I went back to the muslin I had made for the pattern test as well as the final dress and decided I needed to move the bust darts to a better position I also took the bust seams in a little to make the neckline a little tighter.  I knew I needed to shorten the gathered sleeves as well so I brought them in.  Then I went to the skirt, as I’d made View B previously I hadn’t done a muslin on the skirt and I didn’t have any calico or suitable fabric available to so I decided to tissue fit.  As usual I failed miserably at this stage, the same thing happens whenever I do this, the pattern seems too small for me so I spent ages adding onto the skirt to add some extra on the hips (even for Sewaholic hip friendly design I feel I need extra) which was a bit complicated because of the pocket feature.  Once I cut the skirt out and started basting together, what did I find?  Of course I’d added too much and I pretty much went back to the original sizing!  This is a common feature of my tissue fitting, so I’m stating here and now, I WILL NO LONGER RELY ON TISSUE FITTING, I WILL SEW A MUSLIN!!!!!!  Anyway after all that what did it end up like…

… a pretty damn fine dress!

heres how I wore it for the wedding

  

 

 

 

..might need a slight swayback adjustment here…

 

…how this dress makes me smile!

I love this dress, I did a hand picked zip at the back rather than an invisible zip as I felt when I did the pattern test I couldn’t get the zip installed properly and tbh I’ve become a bit of a convert, I feel like there is more control over the zip and I don’t mind an excuse to sit and watch TV while I sew the zip in! I’ve also become a convert to lining, previously I felt lining was a pain in the whatsit but I think previously I’ve used cotton lining rather than an silky lining and it makes all the difference, the dress feels more substantial, more professional, more confortable to wear.  I’m totally lining everything from now on….  I’ve already got plans for a couple more Cambies but before that I’ve got some other plans in the pipeline.  I’ve already got some pink jersey for another Renfrewish dress and I’ve ordered some denim ready to make a skirt.  My problem is finding time to cut the fabric, once its cut I can do it in bits and pieces but I find cutting the slowest, most tedious and probably most painstaking stage of sewing, if you don’t get that right it doesn’t matter how good a sewer you are! So I guess I need to set myself a deadline to get it done, only thing that works!