Dress Challenge: Sewaholic Cambie

I was quite thrilled when I saw Indie Pattern Month’s first challenge: Dresses! This in my wheelhouse.  I love making and wearing dresses. Love it. This gave me the incentive to make up my third Sewaholic Cambie, though only the second in this view.

I bought this tropical print cotton just a couple of months ago at a thrift store, and knew immediately that it would make a fabulous Cambie. It’s a medium weight with a crisp finish, and it just called out for a sundress.

Since I was already planning to use this fabric for a Cambie, the Monthly Stitch theme gave me incentive to get moving on it. I cut it out on a Wednesday night, and was finishing up the hem on Sunday morning. Sometimes a group deadline is really helpful!

The busyness of the fabric was both blessing and curse. I had to lay out the pattern pieces carefully, and moved them around quite a bit before cutting, since I wanted to avoid a red flower or yellow stamen landing in the wrong spots. I think I managed in the end. You can see the print clearly in these closeups.

 

It’s a very well-designed dress, fully lined, with the nice suggested detail of making the inner waistband piece in the fashion fabric. I love that detail even if only you know it’s there. It gives the inside such a nice feel. And there is a fabulous technique for sewing the lining to the invisible zip so that you don’t have to hand stitch it, which I love as it is both quicker and tidier looking in the end.

I also love the cut-on pockets — they hide visually in a print, but are so convenient. They lie smoothly and don’t rumple up like side seam pockets can. And they are also fairly easy to sew up.

 

I made my regular size alterations: a horizontal wedge out of the mid-back and a vertical one at the shoulder, for my shorter upper back. I also shortened the shoulder pieces by 1/2″ as I need to raise the bodice a bit, again, short upper torso. I’m also not a big fan of a princess neckline on myself so I changed this neckline to a straight one; I quite like the strong square effect it gives with these shoulder straps. The only other alteration I made was to add an inch to the length, as I wanted it a little longer than my previous make to give it the right vintage feel. I also used my blind hem foot to give a smooth finish to the hem.

 

Another win for the Cambie. It’s a great pattern that turns out a lovely dress — but it’s not not too hard, and has nice finishing touches. I found that I had to make a bodice muslin the first time around and did have to make a number of minor adjustments, as I’ve noted. So I do recommend muslining this one. But because of the drafting with the pear-shaped figure in mind, I didn’t have to make major adjustments like usual with a fitted style. I love this design and think it is a really sassy dress. Here’s me feeling a little like Anna Wintour in it!