I Flipped the Script

As I sifted through my stash for fabric to work up 2 blouses to pair with 2 skirts I made (post to follow) I came across this bold fabric….

which immediately screamed make me a dress…..pleeeease. In that instant a collage of pics began to collect in my mind, Elizabeth’s Beautiful Bold dress, Erica’s Gorgeous Grey dress, Carolyn’s Lovely Inspiration dresses, Susan’s Absolutely Awesome Abstract dress and many others continuously played out in my mind as I thought about which pattern to use.

I immediately looked at the Butterick 5147 pattern pieces which were clipped to a hanger and precariously hooked on my closet door subtly whispering…. I’m here if you need me… I’m already cut… and ready to go. I think I’d been inhaling too many fibers, because I whispered back… yes I know, but this fabric is lycra.

In that instant I thought, Sheila you’ve went against the grain before and in the sewing realm anything is possible and proceeded to arrange the pattern pieces and fabric for cutting & marking. With the fabric being a slinky lycra and the pattern calling for a woven, going with the original cut of the pattern pieces would render the dress too big. So 1” was removed from the front & back pattern pieces. The pattern also called for a lining and decided to use a black stretch fabric for the lining which would eliminate the need for a slip and did the same alterations.

As with the first & second dresses, I added the bust darts and front & back darts for shaping. Once the darts were sewn in, I baste stitched the dress together to check fit which revealed that I needed to remove a tad more from the side seams for a closer fit and removed 3/8” from each side seam. Also the armhole was gapping and pinched out 1/4” or so at the shoulder seams.

Now, I’m hella excited, the dress fits nicely and with that began to insert the lining at the neckline… but immediately after attaching the neckline I realized there’s a problem. I forgot to do the same additional alterations to the lining…. Duh…. Sista girl was moving to darn fast for her own good. So I had to call in Ms. Morbid… my daughter…lol to assist me in tweaking the lining since it was straight stitched and serged to the neckline.

I put the dress on wrong side out since the lining was now permanently sewn to the neckline and she pinched out the excess fabric along the side seams and pinned. I then baste stitched along the side seams of the lining and tried it on again and in that moment my daughter… oops… I mean Ms. Morbid said Ma that dress can be reversible…. All of a sudden I felt I was walking the red carpet, the paparrazi were going wild… lights just a flashing and popping as I turn this way and that way before my mirror. Hot darn it my daughter now known as Ms. Mastermind was on to something!

The dress was tried on several more times first on the printed side and then on the black side to ascertain how to proceed with making this dress a full fledge reversible dress. Actually, it was smooth sailing after that since all I had to do was fold the armhole edges into each other and snake stitch them together. I use the term snake stitch, because for one I don’t know the proper term and the process calls for snaking the needle & thread between the folded fabrics and pricking each fabric as I stitch along the fold of the fabrics…. did that makes sense….

Miraculously the hem line of each dress worked out wherein the hems butted each other at the right length perfectly.

Well without further ado…. Here is my first reversible dress

Until then have a beautiful Holiday