Thumbs down for scuba stripes

This dress was never meant to be. I know exactly what I like garment-wise, and a dress made from striped scuba fabric with a pleated skirt has never been on my sewing wish list. Yet here it is. All because I saw a dress on Instagram, became a tiny bit obsessed with it and couldn't rest until I'd made one for myself. The making of it was relatively easy and straight forward. Whether or not I actually like the finished dress is another matter...

The original inspiration dress in question was this lovely Emery dress by Caz.

Hers was made from a striped ponte from Minerva that was no longer in stock. What was in stock (but not at the moment) was a similar looking striped scuba knit on sale at £7.99 a metre, so I bagged two metres to experiment with.

One of the things I liked about Caz's dress was the way the bodice and skirt stripes ran in different directions. The stripes on my scuba aren't as uniform as the stripes on Caz's ponte - there are several different sections of broad, medium and narrow stripes - so I knew there'd be a bit of head scratching to get them in the exact position I wanted. I ended up with the medium stripes across the main section of the bodice and narrower stripes at the top section. Much to my delight, I then jammily managed to continue the narrow striped section down the side of the sleeves (more or less). The skirt is a mixture of everything, but it can get away with it because of the vertical stripes.

Matching arm stripes (sort of!)

Pattern-wise I used the bodice from the Lady Skater dress as it's drafted for knits and fits me well, and the pleated skirt from the Mortmain dress. The only change I made was to shorten the bodice slightly - the original length ended up too far down from my natural waist and was causing a bit of rippling. It would probably have gone unnoticed in a solid coloured fabric, but the giant stripes really emphasised it. The whole dress was sewn on my overlocker, apart from the sleeve hems which I finished with a straight stretch stitch. The neckline is finished with a plain white neckband. The skirt hem has been left unfinished as I just preferred the look of it.

One giant gamble I took when making this dress was to cut it out without allowing for a zip. The Lady Skater pattern doesn't have a zip anyway as it's designed for knits and I simply removed the zip seam allowance from the skirt pieces  Because the scuba has a good amount of stretch to it, I can get the dress on without one, so the gamble paid off, yay!

There are lots and lots of positives about this dress, along with one big, giant negative - I don't think it's very 'me'. Maybe it's a stripe too far (can there be such a thing?!) and I don't really wear this shape of dress any more. Also, despite being easy to sew with and magically stretchy, I've come to the conclusion (a bit late in the day, admittedly) that I don't particularly like scuba as a fabric. The texture always feels a bit cheap and nylon-y to me and I couldn't wait to get the dress off after taking these photos!

I debated whether to even post this dress on my blog, but I think it's always good to see dressmaking fails as well as wins. I don't regret making it and it was a lovely, stress-free dress to sew. Sometimes it's good to sew something just to get it out of your system! x

   

The Sangria dress (and my first outing with scuba!)

Scuba is a fabric that's never really appealed to me before now - it always seemed too rubbery for my liking. I changed my mind about this shortly after discovering this wonderful bonded lace scuba from TMOS (The Man Outside Sainsbury's) in Walthamstow last year. I didn't even realise it was scuba until one of the other sewists I was with put me right, but by that point it was too late - I'd fallen for it! 

As I'd never worked with this fabric before I decided to start with a pattern specifically designed for scuba knits - the Sangria dress by Capital Chic. The pattern is beautifully simple - no darts or pleats, just a smooth sheath dress with short sleeves and a neckband. Hopefully easy to sew and a good blank canvas to show off the lace detailing of the fabric.

Sally kindly sent me a copy of the pattern when it was released, along with a link to this post by Thumblenina. Nina had also used bonded lace scuba to make her stunning Sangria dress and noted that it didn't have as much stretch as normal scuba. Based on the finished measurements and taking Nina's comments into consideration I cut a size 14, grading out to a size 16 at the hips to give me room to sit down in comfort! I also shortened the dress by 9cms to make it knee length on me. The fit is just right - clingy enough to show off your curves but not so restrictive that you can barely move. Don't forget that seam allowances are 1cm on Capital Chic patterns, so don't use 1.5cms by mistake or you'll get an even tighter fit!

The scuba was interesting to work with, not exactly troublesome, just a bit difficult to manoeuvre in places. The clingy nature of the material means it doesn't shift around whilst sewing, which was a good thing, and the main body of the dress came together quickly and easily on my overlocker. Hemming was a little challenging as the scuba didn't respond well to being pressed flat. It took lots of steam and a tailor's clapper to get those hems flattened into submission. But my main problem was the arm binding - it's attached with a very small seam allowance, then folded round and stitched in the ditch, so all raw edges are enclosed. This should give a lovely neat finish, but unfortunately mine didn't turn out that way. The bulkiness of the fabric and narrowness of the binding both conspired against me and it ended up looking like a tight, uncomfortable ridge around my arms. I eventually removed the binding and sewed a simple turned hem with a twin needle instead. It's not as neat looking on the inside, but infinitely better on the outside, and it doesn't stop the circulation in my arms!

The other area where I ended up deviating from the instructions was the back opening, otherwise known as the zip! Because of the previously mentioned bulk, I was hoping I could get away with a much shorter zip than the recommended 60cms, or even better, no zip at all! Sadly the scuba didn't have enough stretch for me to get it over my head without one, but I only needed to unpick a few inches at the top, which was good news. My compromise was to fashion a keyhole opening, fastening with a thread loop and button at the neck.

If you've never worked with scuba before then this pattern is a really good place to start. There's minimal fitting involved and the well written instructions make it an easy, stress-free sew - I highly recommend it. And I'm delighted with the finished dress - despite being a tight fit, it's still comfortable to wear and is a really smart looking 'going out dress' to add to my wardrobe.

The finished dress is very clingy, but the fact that it's knee length, with a relatively high neck keeps it classy in my opinion. I'll be proudly wearing it out for cocktails with friends this weekend anyway. And I'll be very smug about the fact that it only cost me £8.00! x

Sneaky peak of my new coat!

The Sangria dress pattern was given to me free of charge. All views my own.

Scuba Doo

Recently I paid an impromptu visit to Walthamstow Market to meet a small posse of lovely sewing pals. I've only been to Walthamstow once before (it takes a lot to lure me east) and although I bought some weird and wonderful notions that time - red interfacing, polka dot elastic and lace trim - I didn't pick up any memorable fabric. On this recent trip, most of the fabric shopping had been done by the time I got there, but everyone was happy enough to make a return trip to TMOS (The Man Outside Sainsbury's) to humour me. 

Ah The Man Outside Sainsbury's - what a charmer! I swear he was flirting with me, and if I wasn't already married, I'd probably have asked him out... Before I knew it I'd bought two metres of peculiar looking fabric from my new boyfriend.

It's a flesh coloured scuba (or neoprene?) with a layer of black lace attached. The flesh coloured fabric is a bit sinister looking on its own (think industrial strength support knickers) but is transformed by the lovely, delicate lace layer. In the photo below you can see the two layers attached in more detail - there's quite a sizeable selvedge area at each side.

It wasn't just the charms of TMOS that lured me down this path, there is actually some method to my madness! Ever since I saw Karen's beautiful red lace dress I've been wanting to make a version of my own. I have the pattern picked out - Simplicity 1249 - and I've even purchased a Craftsy course to learn all I can about working with lace. But then this scuba upstart made an appearance and all my careful plans went out of the window. Making a lace dress would typically involve underlining the lace pieces, sewing a separate lining or both. Using my new fabric to make a lace dress would involve sewing the pieces together - and that's it. 

I still fully intend to make a properly constructed lace dress and learn the appropriate skills, but I'm also lazy! What I'm going to do is make a dress from the rogue scuba fabric as an experiment - if it all goes horribly wrong then I'll hardly have wasted any money (£4 a metre to be precise). It could look form fitting and classy and a lot more expensive than it actually is. Then again, it could end up looking like something a lady of the night might wear... I just need to dive in!

My next step is to research tips for sewing with scuba knit. So if you've sewn with this fabric before and have any wisdom to share I'd be very grateful. Thank you friends!

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