Giselle Dress, Winter Version

We all know I am a huge fan of all things peasant style. I even have a Pinterest board called "Oh Peasants....How do I love Thee!" Where I keep all my inspirational ideas. It is a simple, timeless and flattering style on almost anyone.

You may remember early in the summer (when it mattered that my AC was out) I made a very summery Giselle dress.  It is a dress I wore a lot over the summer.  But the v neck is too low and I did some serious thinking about the changes I wanted to make. The overall concept is great and the pattern was very easy to change. I am a great sewer but a little lazy. No way I am drafting a pattern for something for myself when there are great patterns out there to buy. BTW you can by the Giselle and all her other lovelies here.

Last week I had a fancy dinner party to go to, so about a week before that I realized I did not have anything to wear. Our weather has been unusually cold. So I needed an actual winter dress. I looked through my sewing stash which is huge, and I found some black stretch velvet that I wanted to use. Then I had to decide on a pattern. Giselle came to mind. But I wanted some embellishment, because as much as I love black, this dress deserved a little something.

I picked some stretch lace out of my stash, I like brown and black it is a little unusual as a combination. But not weird and for sure wintery.

For a more comfortable fit, I had to make a few adjustments to the bust. First I made the v neck less deep, then I created a seam down the center from the v to the top of the bodice to accommodate my shallower neckline. Additionally I added about an inch of length to the bust cup to give myself a little more room. Some would call this the "full bust adjustment".

Another change I made, because I have to make it to everything I make for myself, is that I narrowed the shoulder and raised the armhole. I have tiny shoulders in comparison to the rest of me. I know it sounds like a lot of adjustments but I always have to make them so I have gotten good at it. I did all this without measuring just eyeballed it. Plus I was using stretch velvet which is very forgiving.

However one adjustment I forgot to make was making an adjustment to the bodice and the back that accounted for all these bust adjustments. So once again the back was too long. Which the first time I made it I blamed Kati & her pattern (SO sorry!!) but it was me! And my flakiness. This picture is not super easy to see but I had to cut about an inch and a half off the bodice bottom to make it match up with the back. Which actually made the bodice the right length for me so like magic it worked out.

To attach the lace, I first sprayed it with spray-on fabric adhesive. I let that dry and then sewed it on. I tried pinning but the fabric was stretch and the lace was stretch and life is too short to battle with stretch fabrics! I also made a small change in the sleeve band, instead of elastic I used a wide band of the stretch velvet to make a sleeve band.

Here I am all dressed and ready to go. 

These shoes where a mistake! My feet hurt the whole time!

These will be the ones I wear with it in the future. 

Slightly blurry b/c taken by the kiddo. 

I hear that Kati is making a wool Giselle. Hmmm....... I may have to borrow her inspiration and make myself a couple more winter versions. Now I just need to figure out how to carve a little time out to work on something for myself!

Happy Sewing,

Chrissy

Giselle Dress Pattern Review

When we were on sabbatical in NYC I got to meet Kati of Kate & Rose and I knew we were meant to be friends. We have only met in person once and just sporadically email and chat on-line but we are kindred spirits. Our connection is the love of the peasant style. She has designed many peasant style patterns and I have made them. Her latest line, "The Midtown Collection" has just come out and the first one I have made is the Giselle Maxi Dress.

Since I live in GA and it is already hot I made the sleeveless maxi version. Just look how pretty even the line drawings are.

I decided to take a chance and go full out crazy hippie lady with my fabric selections.

 The top fabric is Tula Pink, Field Fox Trot in Dusk. The bodice fabric is Tula Pink, Field Pony Play in Dusk. I have a serious navy and lavender thing going lately so I had about 4 yards of each of these laying around. They were clearly waiting to become this dress.  And two pairs of pajama pants for the Divine Miss M.

I will say I love the style of this pattern, and I am happy how the dress turned out. I am going to make some modifications on my next one. But the fact that I am already planning my next one is a good thing. It is over all great. With a few minor changes.







So the basics are:

•  I used quilting cotton
• Cut out view B 
• size XL

I will admit downloaded patterns are not my favorite. It is a lot of printing and taping. But this one was worth the extra work. Especially when you add in the instant gratification component of downloading.

The only flaw in the pattern is that the back bodice was way longer then the front (see picture). I decided to just cut the back piece shorter to match up with the front so it was easily solved.

I will also admit I only sort of glanced over the directions. I am sure they are great. But I am stubborn and like to put things together my way. Which mostly usually works.

The other issue I had was that the XL was WAY too big in the armpit. I had to take in the sides two inches each. But I do need the boob room up front on the XL so now I know how to handle that differently next time as well. I will make the top pieces of the front bodice a wee bit longer to allow for a little more space for the "girls", while taking in the sides.

I am too lazy to make a muslin so if you are not as lazy as me or are more thrifty with your fabric you should make a muslin of the bodice. It would be worth your time to get it just right.

 A mistake I made was that the fabric was not evenly gathered, it is fuller in some spots than others. I decided once again I am too lazy to care.

I gathered it and sewed it together at the same time on my serger.

IF you do this I would suggest you attach the skirt to the bodice BEFORE you sew the side seams together. Gathering and stitching on the serger when it is round does not work.

Again this is something I would do differently when I make my next one. This was a judgement error on my part.





Let's ignore the fact that I look a little forlorn in this picture. I was melting! Sweat was pouring down my back as I was running back and forth to my camera on a tripod.

I think this dress is fun. It will get worn a lot this summer. But I think the skirt would look better out of just one fabric or with more tiers? Or something? Thoughts?

Here are some outdoor close ups

Yes the ties are another fabric. I had these ties already made from a previous project. I did not end up adding them to that project so I thought it was thrifty (and somewhat lazy) to add them to this dress.

That face I'm making is my: "it is still May! why is it so damn hot already? and of course my AC is out!!!" face. The AC gets replaced on Tuesday thank goodness!

All in all I would give this pattern an "I love it!" rating. It was quick and easy and had no major flaws. I typically think of patterns as a starting point. It will be easy for my lazy self to adjust and make it just perfect. And that is what I like, easy with great results!

Well I am off to see if there is any way to escape this hot house. Today is the last day of school, can we say POOL tomorrow?!?!

Peace Out!