Wonderful Whirligig Dress

This piece of fabric was given to me as a birthday present, so I wanted to use it for something special. Every time I look at it I see a different angle to the pattern - it's awesome!

I had it wrapped on the dressmakers manikin for weeks, changing it this way and that, then leaving it to think about it. It's beautiful fabric, light linen, amazing pattern; but I decided that it needed something to break it up.

I took my piece to the fabric store and looked at cottons to go with it (cotton is the most practical fabric for my climate). It's an odd combination of olive green and burnt orange. I liked this pale green poplin and brighter orange woven cotton:

I knew that I wanted a long skirt. The fabric is flowing rather than stiff so unless I put an underskirt in it was going to be clingy, but I liked that. Maybe I have too many A-line skirts in my cupboard! 

I had intended to use this dress pattern (below), but after I tried making the top part and literally threw it across the room in anger I gave up. I could not get this to wrap across my chest, no matter what I tried. It gaped in the worst possible way, even with darts in it.

Own pattern it was! This was my concept design:

I tried a few different combinations and liked this one the most:

I have a home-made top pattern that I have posted about here, that I could pair with a skirt pattern. I would need to leave extra seam allowance to put a zip in the back from neckline down to hips.

But then these dresses were an inspiration that made me want to drape some more fabric on my mannikin!

Resident Magazine, NT - Model, Magnolia Maymuru - Designer, Sarina Cowcher "Under the Canopy" 2017 collection

Resident Magazine, NT - Model, Chloe Moo - Designer, Sarina Cowcher "Under the Canopy" 2017 collection


I'm not a huge fan of caftans: I like a bit of shape in my clothing. I have a figure, why not show it off? But a caftan is basically two squares of fabric sewn together, with seams and connection points that give it shape like the ones above. With my fabric it could make a very special, very simple dress! It's been months since my birthday, so I needed to get a move on...

I didn't want to cut the fabric until I was sure that this would work. I decided to make a dummy dress first from an old sheet that I had. 

But I didn't have much success...

Trial 1

 Sacrificial maiden anyone?

Trial 2

Something about... potato sack dress?

None of the shapes worked! So I went back to my original design, with the top and skirt joined, and started cutting the underdress out. I just didn't want to ruin this fabric, because it was so special.

IT DIDN'T WORK OUT AGAIN!! The underdress was a potato sack too! 
Tearing my hair out, I resorted to a skirt!! I had wanted to make a tulip skirt. So I did. 

Trial 3
I started with a trial skirt and took the skirt from the underdress, in orange, and cut three petals out. Put a zip in the back. And ended up with this.

Front

Back

 On the mannikin.

Then decided that I wanted to keep this as an underskirt and added a zip in the back and a waistband with a tie (that I got from an op shop for 50 cents!)

I cut new petals out of the fancy fabric. And hemmed all of the edges.

Played with the layers until I was happy. Ah, sitting on the floor pinning, the glamourous life of a seamstress.

And here it is complete:

I wore it to work a couple of days later... and discovered that the petals gaped rather alarmingly all the way up my thigh! I did a quick safety pin save at work and took it back to the machine to close the gaps. You just don't know how clothes will sit until they're complete!

I now have a cowl-neck shirt cut out and pinned on the mannikin, to match my beautiful new skirt. Go me!