The fabric is one that RuthieSews gave to me a few years ago. Its a firm woven cotton and I really love it but its definitely a fabric that dictates what can be made from it. I was able to fit the side bodice pieces onto the plain parts between the large print, which helped make this dress and fabric a match. Also, those "eyes" do NOT want to be sited anywhere near the apex of the princess seam. I liked the way the eyes could be centred down the bodice and the stripes down the back, whilst not perhaps the most ideal placement, seemed better than centering a stripe down the zipper. Placing the stripe there reminded my very unpleasantly of vertabrae and I didn't want to look like I had a skeleton back bone running down my back. I think the two lines of print on the bodice are equidistant from the zipper in reality. I think (I hope) the uneven appearance is the result of a poor camera angle. 
The skirt is just a 78" long strip of fabric, and box pleated. Again this was chosen for avoidance of pattern matching. An A line would have been absolutely awful to match up. I realise the print doesn't run properly off the bodice and down the skirt at the front but pleating the fabric onto the skirt without fabric left over unpleated was surprisingly difficult to achieve. The pleat at the center back had to be placed in such a way that the zipper could be inserted without catching the pleat, and once I had the thing pleated up (which took me two hours to do, plus countless hours the preceding week practicing with a bit of sheeting and the muslin bodice sloper), there was no way I was going unpleat it all and re-pleat it so it was half an inch or so further across.
The dress is unlined and I haven't finished the waist seam with a stay, though for the final version, which will have a circle skirt, I will do a waist stay, underline the bodice and put a lining in the skirt. Since I'm not totally sure the armholes are quite right, and I want to test the circle skirt pattern to make sure it works (not that I've drafted it yet), I may make another version of the dress before I cut the fabric for which this dress pattern was designed.
2 comments:
Ahhhhhhh! Tricky fabric, but you seem to have made it work :-)
I love the fabric, and the design seems so simple. I understand that things that seem simple trun out to be tricky if you don't think as you go.
You have a wonderful maxi-like dress. I agree about the underarms, your shoulder looks nice though.
Wow, 78" long, how much length did you end up with? How wide were you trying to pleat onto the waist?
It looks beautiful and so comfortable to wear, I love that print!
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