Another Day, Another Dress

Another ESP Dress That Is

I have been making the Decades of Style ESP Dress for the past 4 years.  I have 5 versions currently in my closet and one when to the goodwill.  

I have altered the pattern to have a lower neck thanks to instructions from the lovely people at Decades of Style.  Here's the instructions, if you want to do the same. 

This summer - I decided at the very last minute to play along with the Sewcialists mini challenge.  The summer challenge was to work from the colors in the Sewcialists logo based on a spin telling you which color to use.  I spun coral - but honestly, my dress has most of the logo colors in it.  I cut and sewed the dress up in about 9 hours.  

 Almost all of my recent blog pictures have been taken by Carolyn and this dress is no exception.  She decided to come to Carriage Corner for a weekend at the end of August.  We took a trip to Winterthur to see the Costuming the Crown exhibit and she photographed several finished garments for me.

One of my biggest complaints about this dress is that the neckline is just too wide.  It literally falls off my shoulders, bra straps showing, the works - but they are comfortable and I love wearing them.  Well, while Carolyn was taking photographs she pointed out that both the bodice back & front were gaping a little bit and that I should alter my pattern to take 1/4" out of the center front at the very top.  Hmmm, interesting - that would also solve my wide neckline problem because it would bring the shoulders in.  Live and learn, girls, live and learn.

My to-sew list is feeling a bit out of control, but getting added to is really soon is another ESP dress with the center fronts altered.  I'm pretty sure I'll have to add the zipper back into the pattern, but that's easy.  I also feel like the bodice {now that I've taken it in just a smidge} is a bit too long, so that's another adjustment to make.

But the back waist seems to be just fine - probably because I've perfected my sway/short back adjustments for this pattern.  

One other trick that I really like to do on dresses with pockets?  Or anything with pockets for that matter - is to stitch the pockets in place on the front of the garment.  

So - look for another ESP dress soon-ish.  Which in my current world means within the year :D

Also, can I just say that I'm so happy I finally got my hair cut from the length in these pictures and got new glasses!  

ESP Sheet Dress

I made another ESP dress.  It would appear that I made a bunch of the Decades of Style ESP Dresses in 2015 and then, even though I love the pattern, didn't revisit it until this past March.  Interesting.

In March, before Spring Sew Camp, I moved all of my fabric from the fabric shelves to an interior closet.  There were a few pieces of fabric that didn't make the cut to stay in the collection and they landed in a give away pile at #CarriageCornerSewCamp.

Main fabric shelves - organized by type of fabric.
As you can see, there's still room for snacks!

Overflow shelf to the top left of the fabric. This is all quilting cottons, nicer cottons for Jay's shirts and fabric bought specifically to make something for Eleanor

In the pile of fabric that I didn't really want to get rid of, but there might not be room for it, was a beautiful blue floral fitted sheet.  Yep - I've finally joined the ranks of people who've made clothes from old sheets.  And you know what?  I know why they do it.  This fabric is so soft.

finished dress just hanging out

3 of the 4 previously made ESP dresses are in heavy rotation in my current life as an innkeeper.  2 of them have the lowered neckline and 1 of them isn't even in the ESP posts I linked back to.  Also, in my post with the black gingham ESP, I share with you how to lower the square neckline going into a raglan sleeve.

Carolyn cracks me up when she takes photos.
You can see the bust is just a little bit too snug.
And - when I lowered the neckline, it also made it really wide.

Anyway - during the Spring Sew Camp after making Vogue 8962, I grabbed my sheet and got busy prepping it.  Then I put my ESP pattern on it AND without tracing the bodice, I cut, narrowing it by 1" at the waist seam.  I also cut the back on the fold because in my other ESP dresses that are too big, I NEVER use the zipper and why match a zipper over a waist seam if you are never going to use it?!

I also fully lined the bodice and used the burrito method to hem the sleeves (fully lined, remember?)  There are no photos of me making this up because I didn't think that far ahead - but someone at sew camp saw me rolling the dress to make the burrito happen.

I may have been just a bit aggressive with my alterations.  This dress is just slightly too tight. 

really too tight in the back and I need a sway back adjustment

Changes for next time:

Move the shoulder seams in just a bit - they are really wide
Add a 1/2" at the waist
Cut the back 1/4" off the fold
Add a sway back adjustment

Will there be a next time?  Yes!  I've already bought the fabric and I want to try playing with some color blocking and putting the facings on the public side.

My Least Favorite ESP (aka - Crazy Dog Lady Dress)

 Through no fault of the pattern, this is my least favorite of my ESP dresses.  And it has to do with an unfortunate photo I took of the finished dress at sew camp - sometimes you just can't un-see something. If you follow me on Instagram, it's likely you know what I'm talking about.  I'm not putting that photo on the internet again.

This was also my (very) late entry for the crazy dog lady sewing challenge.  I love that this dress is subtly dog themed and you have to really be paying attention to get it.

I've worn this dress twice to work now, and it's comfortable and easy to wear.  I love the fullness of the skirt and each time, I've paired it with my red cowboy boots, red belt and cardi and my Dudley tribute necklace.

Close up of the fabric - those are paw prints surrounded by bones and my Dudley tribute necklace.  This necklace was a gift from a friend when we lost Dudley, I had another friend, put it on a different chain, and you can't see them, but there are 3 rough cut rubies on the side of the chain to symbolize the 3 remaining dogs.  While we only have 2 dogs left, I feel all 4 of them when I wear this necklace.

Do you have a piece of jewelry that reminds you of a person, beloved pet or moment in time?

ESP Picnic Dress (B&W Collection Dress 1)

This is a picture heavy post and I'll keep the comments to a minimum.   This is the first dress is what I'm calling the B&W Collection - a collection of 4 dresses all from black and white prints there were started to making packing and dressing on vacation easier - but I didn't get them finished.   

This is my newest ESP Dress - the picnic dress - now with lowered neckline

This dress is comfortable and easy to wear

I think - slowly - my photos are getting better

I really like my first ESP dresses and they have been in heavy rotation since finishing them.  But I found the neckline a bit too high.  So - I reached out to Decades of Style and asked how to lower the neckline.  I lowered the neckline on this dress 2" and it's just about perfect for me.  Other alterations:  placed center front bodice slightly off center and narrowed the sleeve width by 1.5"

The back fits better than this - but I was moving.

Also - in all honestly -  I could make the bodice a size smaller.

You can kind of see it in the photos above, but this dress has a 2" hem and then I added wide hem lace. 

Decades of Style, graciously, gave me permission to share the information.

That's amazing customer service - at least in my book.

Without further ado - here are the screen shots and instructions from Decades of Style.  (I was not compensated - just a very happy customer!)

First, here are your Front Bodice and Sleeve pieces as is in the pattern

Step 1. Line up the pieces at the front neck corner lining up the seam lines as best you can

Step 2. Extend the line from the top of the sleeve down into the Front Bodice as shown in pink

Step 3. Decide how much you want to lower the neck line and draw it from the center front over to meet the line extended from the Sleeve

Step 4. Draw from the new neck corner down to the Sleeve notch

Step 5. Cut along the newly drawn lines separating into 2 pieces as shown in pink

Step 6. Move the piece from the Bodice sleeve seam over to the Sleeve piece and attach

I hope you find this helpful!  I have to admit - it was a bit scary doing this alteration, but it worked!  And it was fairly easy given the instructions and screen shots.  Now - my neckline really looks square - where in the first version, not so much.  

What's the scariest alteration you've ever attempted?  And did it work?

French Floral ESP Dress

I made this dress way back in March at Sewing Retreat.  On day one of retreat - I tag teamed 2 blue ESP dresses.  So far there are only photos of one. 

As is my habit, I traced all the pattern pieces.  Also habit is to take 1.5" out of the back length - I'm very short from my neck to waist in the back.  Finally - the last thing I do routinely is to add length to the skirt.   I made one muslin of the bodice only before cutting out 'real' fabric.  

The muslin showed that I needed to move the side darts down slightly, move the shoulder darts forward and - I felt - the sleeves were too full.  You can see from the photos that my sleeves are very wrinkled from being stuffed in a cardigan.  ( I forgot to modify the facings to match the fact that I moved the shoulder darts forward, but nobody knows!)

This dress is very easy to wear.  Even though the skirt is quite full, it doesn't feel horribly full and I think that could be based on the thinness of the cotton fabric.  And yet, it feels full, feminine and flirty.  Those are important qualities in a dress for me.  

I swear the hem hangs even, regardless of the fact that it doesn't look like it does in the side view.  Remember how I mentioned that I added length to the skirt?  Well - I added as much as my fabric would allow, which on this version was 4", then I took a 2" hem all around.  I don't recall  how large of a hem the pattern calls for - but I think adding length was a good idea.

On me, I feel like the neckline is quite high.  I reached out to the Decades of Style team and honestly - they were prompt and incredibly helpful.  I'm so very pleased with the customer service.  I have another version cut and mostly sewn up - but vacation got in the way.  Speaking of vacation - I wore this dress to Gibraltar and the Statue of Liberty and she did very well.

Verdict - I will make more versions of this dress.  What's your favorite style of dress to make over and over?