Magnolia Dress Two Ways
My friend was with me, ostensibly to control my mad fabric buying habits, and instead encouraged me to buy it. It didn't help that I already had a pattern in mind - the Magnolia, view A, by Deer and Doe. I'd been meaning to make it for a while, and this gave me the impetus.
The lady at the cutting counter at Stitch was very helpful - the Nani Iro gauze is 43" wide, and doesn't have full even bleed bleed across the bolt, as you can see below.
The lady at the cutting counter at Stitch was very helpful - the Nani Iro gauze is 43" wide, and doesn't have full even bleed bleed across the bolt, as you can see below.
The shop had already cut the pattern out and had it on file, so we took the bolt, and laid out the pattern pieces to estimate how much additional yardage I might need to fit the pattern on a smaller width fabric. I still somehow wound up with an extra couple of yards. I remember buying an extra yard for prudence, but at least my friend who was with me can now use the leftovers for a shirt.
Deer and Doe is drafted for C-cups, which I am most certainly not, so I knew going in that I'd have to do an SBA. Luckily, they're very good about posting guides, and the one for Magnolia was very easy to follow.
I'm in between sizes so on nearly all patterns, so I graded from a 38 to a 40 and also did an SBA on the bodice. To determine how much fabric I needed to remove from the bodice to complete my SBA, I sewed up the graded pattern in a cotton poplin, and then proceeded to follow the tutorial. Once I got the bodice to fit correctly, I decided to make the full floor length dress in a mockup as I'm 5'-4.5" and Deer and Doe drafts for 5'-6".
I debated going long sleeve or flutter sleeve, and actually cut both pieces, but ultimately went with the flutter sleeve from view B.
Even in cotton poplin (which doesn't drape quite as nicely as other fabrics) the dress is lovely.
But slightly see through. So I decided to dye the dress in an ombre style with two colors. I followed this guide by Online Fabric Store, and used Rit dye's Petal Pink and Aquamarine.
Be prepared for a bit of an arm workout as you do this. Dip dying to get the gradiation in the color means you have to hold the fabric in the dye, dipping, for 30 minutes. For each color. After dying and rinsing the fabric, I let it sit in a dye fixative, following the instructions on the bottle.
It was worth it though!
On both the mockup and the final dress, I used the full 22" zipper the pattern calls for - I would recommend using a much shorter zipper. It really doesn't need to be that long. I don't know why I forgot it for the final dress, but I did. Oh well.
On both the mockup and the final dress, I used the full 22" zipper the pattern calls for - I would recommend using a much shorter zipper. It really doesn't need to be that long. I don't know why I forgot it for the final dress, but I did. Oh well.
If anyone has any issues getting the invisible zipper exactly in place (like I used to, and in fact did on the mockup) Bernina has a great little tutorial on how to get perfect, non-bagging invisible zippers.
The gap between me making the mockup and the nani iro version of the dress was longer than I should have let it become. Yes, I traveled for work. I also made other dresses in that time. Why did I wait so long? Because I sometimes get very scared of cutting fabric - especially fabric I like that I know is very hard to source again. I had to work up the courage to cut my fabric.
Once I did that, it took me a week to make around a full time job and other obligations. For the most part, this dress sewed up really well.
I cut and made my own bias tape for this out of a large scrap panel of my fabric, cutting it diagonally and stitching the pieces together, and using my metal bias tape maker.
The only issue I ran into was as I was finishing the seams of the back skirt panels with my serger - in the last three inches of the LAST seam to finish, I somehow cut into the main fabric. I'm always careful - but apparently not careful enough this time. I couldn't see a way to fix it.
Setting in sleeves always takes me a little longer than I'd like - i use almost all my pins and still find things to criticize, but unless you're me or looking closely, I don't think anyone would notice. There aren't any gathers, but I still notice imperfections.
Despite the mild heart attack I gave myself, it really did sew up fairly quickly, and the finished result is honestly stunning. I'm rather in love with it. And the double gauze is very soft.
My only advice for anyone making it - if you wear the A version bodice without a slip or camisole underneath it, make sure when you sit you have excellent posture and pull the dress down. It does have a tendency to gape a little bit (or it does on me).
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