Simplicity 2917 Dress – Flowery Linen

I bought this fabric from Minerva Crafts online about a year ago with this style of dress in mind. Having cut my teeth on making the tunic a couple of times, I was ready to make a dress.

From making the tunics, I had decided that the neckline was a little loose so decided to take a little off the shoulders, this caused a problem in that that bust point on the princess seams was in the wrong place so the bodice didn’t look right. I had to take in the seam at the bust to make it look better but all of this made for a slightly too shallow arm scythe, so it is a little tight under the arms and I feel the cap sleeves don’t lie quite as they should. Everyone else says they look fine and it’s wearable so I’m happy with it. I will go back to the original pattern for my next dress though.

I only had 2.5 metres of this fabric so the skirt is a little shorter than I really wanted but I suppose that’s where the benefit of being a shortie comes into its own as it is still below my knee and looks fine.

This fabric also frayed like hell, I had overlooked everywhere apart from the seam where the sleeves join the bodice, one machine wash later and they were so ragged with loose threads all hanging below the sleeve. Fortunately the seam was wide enough for me to go over with the overlocker and seal it in.