Materials: 2.5 yards cheapo navy-and-white cotton sateen from Fashion Fabrics Club; invisible zipper; New Look 6557.

Time: A couple of weeks, largely making futile and ill-advised changes to muslins.

Cost: $10 fabric; $20 belt.

I had two weddings to attend this summer, both at slightly unusual locations: one in a Nevada desert, and the other on an Ohio farm. Whatever other nuances of dress code there were to obey were subordinated to the need to wear something that was decidedly machine-washable. After a great deal of pondering, I remembered that I had some cheap navy sateen in my stash, and decided to go with the ever-reliable New Look 6557.

This is a very straightforward pattern, and I’ve already made it once before. Armed with this additional knowledge and confidence, I spent over a week trying to fancy things up a bit — namely, making muslins of different versions of the bodice — and failing utterly. Finally, I went back to just using the pattern as drafted, and having Pete help me fit the side seams very carefully. This worked like a charm.

Because I can’t not add extra trimming, I added white piping to the bottom hem, and a vintage belt from Etsy. The other modification that I’m proud of is below: I lined the inner bodice with some lightweight cotton batiste, and rolled it outward very slightly while pressing and topstitching the edges. This gave it a nice thin white edging, which matches the hem and (I figure) looks a lot better than having it accidentally stick out haphazardly.

Despite all of the earlier failed attempts at grander modifications, I’m nevertheless very pleased with how this fairly straightforward version turned out. I also got a ton of compliments on it at the first wedding we went to, from people who had no idea that I sew. That means, my friends, that it passed the test with flying colors.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 4:35 pm and is filed under diy, projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.