Saturday, 26 September 2015

A quick Spanish Cockerel dress DIY

Happy week-end everyone!  Just thought I'd share some more pictures and a 
quick how-to of the spanish cockerel print dress I posted on Instagram a while back, 
using fabric with a repeat print.  

A basic shift dress pattern is an easy one to get started with for this, just make sure 
any darts on your pattern are at the side seam of the bodice and not elsewhere. 
I know this is not not rocket science, but a diagram would have saved me a few head 
scratches very late in the evening when I was sewing this!

1)  Mark the point on your fabric where you want the centre front to be (in the drawing 
below, in the middle of the heart)

2)  Find the mirrored half of the pattern (the right side of the heart) when you have an 
appropriate amount of fabric for the fold.  

3)  Now that you have marked your two "external" mirrored centre fronts, go back and 
find the midpoint between the two.  This will be your actual centre front.  Extend the 
centre front of your paper pattern to this point by growing it from the original 
centre front, and cut your fabric on the fold from here.

Keep in mind that you want a deep enough fold to make a strong feature and  that 
some of the folded fabric is likely to lay under the bodice and lay underneath the 
shoulder as well.  Your cut off point is ideally the bust point if you want to 
keep the fabric as one piece. Any further than that and you are in dart territory 
and it may not lay flat.

If you are working with a very large print and you have to go beyond the bust point,
 at construction stage I would trim the folded fabric in one vertical cut at the bust 
point on each side and sew back together.  Then you'll have a nice, sharp underfold 
that dosen't interfere with the dart.

To sew, stitch down the length of the fold at the centre front, to below the bust 
point, otherwise it will keep flipping open.
Oops...I know mine are not perfectly lined up (...it was very late at night!), but if you 
are working with a repeat print like this I think still better than having half bodied 
cockerels cut in half randomly on the front of a dress!
 No excuse for the back either, in an ideal world that should have been one piece.
I just didn't have the extra fabric needed to match this up either.  Don't forget to
bargain for extra fabric you'll need if you are trying this!

The cockerel wax print cotton fabric is from Fabric Godmother  - there's a heap of
beautiful fabric on sale at the moment.

Happy sewing!  

11 comments:

  1. it looks fabulous! i remember burda had similar summer dress few years ago, i always wanted to make it and never find time to do so.. maybe next summer :) thanks for the inspiration

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  2. I am not sure I am able to do that much matching in the evening! It lloks fab, well done you, and thanks for the tutorial!

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  3. The fabric pattern is fab and I love the pom pom details! Fun dress! :)

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  4. What awesome fabric! I love the pom pom around the armholes. Such a fun little detail.

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  5. Lovely dress! I am absolutely in love with your sandals too! Thanks for the explanation...often I do scratch my head over mirroring designs!

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  6. I really love this dress! great pattern work! it's so perfect for running around in Spain. and the pom poms... Ole! What town is that?

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  7. Oh I love this more than I can express!! It's exactly my kind of dress. I have a fabric in mind and I'm going to whip something like this up ASAP. Such a great pleat!

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  8. I really love this! It's so chic!

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  9. Always love your makes! Terrific choice for that fabric and love the little trim- clever!

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  10. Stunning!!! The fabric is just perfect!! And you used it very cleverly! Hats off to you!

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