Marigold Dress

Hello sewing friends! I am so excited to show you my new dress! For quite a while I have been wanting to make the Marigold dress from Blank Slate patterns, which is available here from Indiesew.  I am really happy that I finally did it. When I found out that Cotton + Steel was doing a fabric collaboration with Rifle Paper Co I knew I would have to have some of the fabric. I could not resist this gorgeous floral rayon, also available from Indiesew (although on backorder at the time I’m writing this.) In an uncharacteristic move I decided not to let the fabric languish in my stash for ages while trying to figure out the perfect use for it. I decided to try it out on the Marigold dress and I think it turned out to be the perfect fabric and pattern match.

I love the silhouette of this dress– especially the swingy skirt! The bodice has gathers at the shoulders, a mandarin collar, and a front placket that ends at the elastic waist. I made the waist sash, which I initially wasn’t planning to do, but I love how it makes the dress a little more fancy. I can’t tell you how much I love sewing with and wearing the Cotton + Steel rayon. It is such nice quality and sews like a dream.

I cut a size medium graded to a large at the hips and I lengthened the bodice by an inch. I also reduced the curve of the cap sleeve hem by half an inch so that they are a bit longer through the middle part of the sleeve. The only fitting change I wish I would have made was to do a small bust adjustment. The back bodice fits me like a glove but I feel like there is some excess fabric in the front bodice piece. With the drape of the rayon it’s not hugely noticeable but if I make this dress again I will probably experiment with a 1/2″ SBA.

This pattern is definitely geared more toward the intermediate sewist. I was surprised to find that there is not a single notch on this pattern. This wasn’t a huge problem for me because of my sewing experience but I would have liked to have notches on the sleeves and on the armscyes if only just to make it easier to tell which side was the front and which side was the back. My collar ended up being too long and I am not sure if that was because the fabric stretched out or if I was supposed to really ease it onto the neckline. If there were notches I would have probably had a little easier time with that. In the end I cut some length off of the front of the collar and it ended up just fine.

There weren’t instructions to interface the collar stand but having just made an Alder shirtdress I figured it would be a good idea to interface one side of the collar. I  graded my yoke seams which wasn’t included in the instructions for this pattern. The only place I did any pattern matching was on the back bodice and yoke– I thought it would be cool if it looked like one piece, which it almost does!  The sleeves on this pattern are set in flat but I still found it helpful to sew a line of gathering stitches on the sleeve cap to help with getting them eased in nicely.

Even though we are coming into cooler weather I decided to go with the cap sleeves instead of the long sleeves. I think I will be able to wear this dress year round with the short sleeves. I can layer it with a cardigan in the fall and winter and it will also be perfect with sandals in the spring and summer. I am so glad that I finally made this pattern and I absolutely can’t wait to start wearing this pretty new dress!

~Teri

p.s. The fabric and pattern for the Marigold dress were provided to me by Indiesew as I am part of their blogger team. All opinions are my own.

 

 

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