Foxy Dress
Spring is around the corner (we might get some more snow but still, I think winter is almost over) and I just realized I haven’t blogged about the dress I made during Christmas break!
Fabric
Before the pandemic, husband and I used to go visit Vancouver often (we love it there!). In 2018, I bought super adorable fox printed rayon fabric from Spool of Thread while visiting.
This fox print is so cute! I decided to get this fabric right away when I saw it as I love dresses and tops made with rayon fabric.
I love the blue stripes on navy just as much as the fox print too!
2-3 years has passed quickly ever since, while I was trying to decide what to make with fabric (happens too often to me).
I’m not usually the one who cares too much about the pattern matching, but this print seemed unavoidable; or otherwise it might not look as good.
But instead, I decided to use solid fabric for the small pieces like cuffs, neck and front bands. I wanted to use navy solid, but it was surprisingly hard to find a solid navy in similar tone. Most of them I found were too dark or the colour was too warm.
Luckily, Blackbird Fabrics had orange/brown colour that is really similar to the fox colour! It’s their Lyocell Twill in Rust. It’s sold out now, but they usually carry some kind of lyocell/tencel twill, so check back often!
Patterns
Bodice: Diana by In-House Patterns
Skirt: McCall’s M7431 (Same as the Squash-coloured Floral Dress)
I’ve used Diana pattern once, but I actually never blogged about it. It came out slightly big and got a lot looser after I started doing more exercises, so I ended up donating it.
But I liked the design of it and had been wanting to try out the pattern again!
I thought of making a shirt dress at first; but like I said earlier, I didn’t want to do a complicated pattern matching and didn’t really want the collar either.
Diana has a back yoke with a pleat, sleeves with cuffs and slits, and a front band. Those features give this pattern somewhat a “shirt vibe” with a simpler construction. And that seemed pretty close to what I wanted to make!
Pattern modifications I made
The changes to the bodice pattern pieces are:
Taken 1 cm off from the neck opening all the way around
Did not use the collar pattern pieces. Instead, I finished the neck with bias bindings
Shortened the sleeve lengths
I changed the collar a bit, so that the neck opening is slightly bigger and lower, but otherwise not too many changes. Shortening sleeves are something I almost always have to do when sewing long sleeve patterns.
Next up is the skirt pieces:
When I made the M7431 the last time, I’ve already
Slashed and opened the skirt by 8 cm each, front and back
In addition to that, I added 5 cm to the skirt length.
I think they call it a midi length; it’s the length that the skirt hits well below the knee. The knees are completely hidden even with movements.
I’ve been liking this type of length lately, but with this one I feel that I should have gone either a little longer or shorter. It’s a bit tricky length to wear with short boots for my height.
It looks pretty good with my oxford shoes though!
I might play around with the skirt length more to decide if I want to shorten it or not. But aside from that, I really like this dress.
Elastic waist and lightweight rayon make this dress super comfy! It has fox print all over it but maybe because it’s rayon and navy, it doesn’t look too childish or too over the top. I think I could wear this dress in many occasions.
In this photo (and the very first one on this blog post), I’m trying to show the movements of the skirt. Flared skirt and the lightweight rayon fabric together makes this skirt’s movement so beautiful!
In case you were wondering, I take 98% of my blog photos myself with a camera, tripod, and a remote controller. In order to showcase the skirt movement in these photos I did the below:
Slightly sway/rock my body (not as much as a twirl, just enough to move the skirts) and press the remote (I’m holding mine inside of the pocket)
I use two seconds timer with the remote. Right after I press the remote, stop the rocking just in time for the shutter to be released
Doing the above, you should be able to take a picture with your upper body in focus and not blurry, but the skirt would still in motion (because the skirt part would take more time to completely stop moving).
Make sure to really stand still while the shutter is being released, and try taking as many as you can to get a good shot!
If you don’t have a remote, I’m sure 10 seconds (or so) timer would work fine!
Apr 6, 2022
