Lisa's Carolina | Handmade: June 2016

A new linen dress in red poppies. A new favorite.

A shift dress is not a silhouette I've ever chosen before or worn, but with their current popularity and our soaring hot temps, thought it'd be a good choice for summer made from pretty red poppy linen fabric purchased from Joann's last season. Red seems to be a good color for me this year.

I made a size 38 with 3/8" seam allowances as per pattern instructions with a few exceptions.

Took in 1/2" under arm grading to nothing @6" down. My upper area does not 'fan' out as this is an adjustment I seem to almost always make. I must be more straight from under the arm to above the waist....

...as well as taking in the center back. I sewed a 7/8" seam there. I must also have a narrow back too as this is another adjustment I seem to always need. In this case, I was afraid it might make the dress 'cling' to my backside and/or be too tight there, but it fits fine. Hemmed 1 1/4" as I wanted it more on the shorter side than the longer side. All seams are serged.

Finding Ottobre patterns fit me well, I'm making it a point to purchase their women's issue through their Etsy shop when they come available. These are published twice a year with the next issue coming out around August. You can purchase back issues at their Etsy shop too. This shift dress is from the Ottobre Spring/Summer 02/2016. More from this issue can be seen online at Ottobre's website here..

I made the no. 10 Glorious linen dress with an invisible zipper in the back instead of the keyhole with button closure per the pattern. Ottobre shows this pattern made multiple ways..... sleeveless with the keyhole button back closure, short sleeves with a zip, color-blocked short sleeves with a zip, and 3/4 sleeves with keyhole button back closure. All pieces are interchangeable and as I wanted to practice more with putting in an invisible zip..... that's what I chose. Actually one of the reasons I bumped this dress up the queue, was to have more practice putting in an invisible zipper before tackling the sheath dress made up in Carolyn's fabric. I'm so nervous about that dress, it is paralyzing me! I so need to get over it and get moving, right?!

Thanks again ever so much to the Instagram ladies who helped me with the neckline problem! I posted this photo below on IG to show both the looseness under the arm and the high neckline as I reached out for solutions to both problems. I was too ~~chicken~~ unsure of my abilities to scoop out the neckline, so instead took a larger seam allowance of 5/8" instead of the already cut and prepped 3/8"....

...and this is what I got. If I make this dress again I might fool around with the neckline then. When I'm more sure of not messing anything up.

And be still my heart, but I put this invisible zipper in pretty darn perfectly this time!!!! It only took me, oh maybe 7 tries, but who's counting!.... each time stitching closer and closer to the zipper until there is no gaping at all! Yay! I do not have an invisible zipper foot so this was true determination. Now having said all this, and having spent an entire afternoon on this one zipper application..... I broke down and ordered an invisible zipper foot for my 21+ year old Bernina 1230. So happy! The next day the company notified me they were out of stock and it's backordered for at least a month. Totally bummed but at least they are still making this foot. My machine is so old, I was afraid it might be out of production, so was actually okay with the backorder. They assured me the foot is still being made. I can wait a month.

I'm not sure whose technique I ended up using to apply the facing to the center back, photo below.... maybe Nancy Zieman's?.... anyway.... love it. It finished so pretty. You sew a 1/4" seam at the center back, right sides together... first making sure the facing is shorter than the neckline. Then sew the facing at the neckline and like magic, after it's graded, snipped and understitched.... it turns under like this. No hand stitching. Also, you can see because I sewed a 5/8" seam allowance on the facings instead of the prepped 3/8", my facing is a little narrower. That's okay. Even the faint waviness is okay as it sits all nice and neat when worn. I finished the armholes with self-fabric bias. Also Ottobre usually puts a couple of neckline darts in the back and that is another nice feature of the neckline fitting well with no gaping.

I kid you not, as I was taking these photos on my front porch, a little hummingbird came by and hovered right in front of me totally confused!! Guess he thought my pretty red poppies might hold lunch. :) Should also mention this pattern includes pockets. Pockets are a good thing. Pockets are always a good thing.