Style Arc Layla Dress

It took me a while but I've finally finished this dress.  I think its been in progress for about a month in total.

This is Style Arc Layla in red cotton stretch twill that came from a Fabric Mart mystery cotton bundle I believe.  I've still got a fair bit left despite having made two bodices for this dress.  :)

This pattern needed a few tweaks to make it fit, but not so many as to make the dress annoying to alter and none of the alterations were complicated.  

Bodice back lengthened one inch tapering to half an inch at the side seams.  Front bodice lengthened only at the side seams, tapering to nothing at center front.  Naturally I found this out after I fitted the first bodice and had to alter the pattern then cut a new bodice.  

Bust darts angled differently.  I kept the start point the same and just draped the darts in on the dress form as the dart point didn't correspond with the right part of my anatomy originally.  Again, discovered during fitting of bodice one and amended on the pattern for bodice attempt two.

Waist darts taken in about half an inch each on both bodice and skirt.  The waist darts on the bodice were also shortened about an inch to better correspond with my figure.  There are four darts in total so this took the dress waist in quite a bit.  I have more of an hourglass shape than StyleArc drafts for, though it has to be said, less of an hourglass shape than I used to have.  Which from a pattern alteration viewpoint can only be a good thing.  

The pattern wasn't as difficult to construct as I had expected.  However, I have to say the instructions left a bit to be desired and I didn't follow them in the end.  I also used a different method to install the facing/lining so I didn't have to pull the lining through the shoulder seams.  I sewed the dress up, less the sleeves, sewed the facing front to the lining front, then the facing backs to the lining backs.  Sewed up the back seam/vent top in the lining leaving the right gap for the zipper.  Then sewed the shoulder seams of the lining together.  Then did the darts in the linings (well, actually, I forgot to mark the altered bust dart location on the lining so I just folded my dart intake up and pinned it at the side seam and left it sort of loose and undarted over the bust).  Then I sewed the facing to the dress at the neckline BEFORE sewing up the lining side seams.  This allowed me to flip the lining back into the dress, after I had done the neckline understitching and NOT have to do that annoying thing where you pull half your dress through a teeny hole in the shoulder seam.  I then flipped the dress out of the way, and pinned and sewed my lining side seams as the last step, pressed the lining seams and flipped the dress part back down over the lining.  Et Voila.  

Well, almost.  I managed to sew the vent of the dress going one way and the vent of the lining the opposite way.  As they are carefully drafted to allow the lining to be caught to the vent (its a very well designed pattern) this was a bad thing.  I couldn't get my head around fixing it, so I cut my lining off above the vent.  Problem solved.

Actually, whilst taking photos in a warm garden today, I realised that my gut feeling had been correct.  Lining a summer dress with poly lining was not a sensible plan.  The next version I will make unlined I think.    

Anyway, once the dress body was made it was time to put in the sleeves.  Which sat on my workroom table for two weeks before I got around to actually doing this.  The sleeves are really cool.  They are double fabric.  The sleeve piece is folded in half and put in double and the pattern piece looks like a flat fish.  :)  So no hemming to do on the sleeves.  I struggled a bit to get them into the armhole without puckers, with limited success, but they don't look too bad now they are pressed.

The lining is hand sewn over the armhole seam allowance so its completely enclosed in the lining and looks rather neat.  

Hem was minimum amount possible to take as the dress turned out to be exactly the right length for me.  If you are tall, you would almost certainly need to add some length to the skirt on this pattern.  I'm only five foot 2 inches and have found that StyleArc patterns are almost always the right length for me without alteration whereas the Big 4 patterns need yards hacking off the hem.  

The next sewing project on the planning schedule is a vintage cropped jacket which I made a muslin for absolutely ages ago.  I got the fabric for the jacket last month but its got no further than the "make me soon" box, though it is at least on the top of the box and not buried.   I've not had very much sewing time lately as there are a lot of other things going on in my life which are taking up all my time and leaving almost no leisure time.  However, I hope that things will settle down and I'll keep squeezing in sewing, spinning and knitting where I can.