Inari Dress

 

Hi there! I’m just getting around to posting about one of the dresses that I made for the Project Sew It Challenge for April. It was dress month and I made two new dresses. The first was my black midi-length Lodo dress. For my second dress, I made my first dress length Named Patterns Inari from a woven fabric. I’ve used the pattern twice before but both as shorter, knit tops.

After I ended up loving the slight cocoon shape of the Lodo dress I wanted to give the Inari dress a try. I knew I liked the pattern based on my two t-shirts, but I also knew I wanted to make some changes to the armscye. The armscye is cut pretty low and I didn’t want the whole dress to pull up if I wanted to lift my arms at all. Last year, Gail from Today’s Agenda did two in depth blog posts detailing the changes that she made to get a great fit from this pattern. Her measurements are smaller than mine, but we have very similar body proportions so I wanted to try the same changes she made.

I printed the pattern in the US size 8 and went from there with adding width at the side seams on the front piece and slashing/spreading the back piece. I raised the armscye 1″ and made the same changes to the sleeve piece as Gail did. I also did a forward shoulder adjustment to the bodice pieces and sleeve pieces. My sleeve pattern piece is now pretty different from the original one but the fit worked out perfectly.

Because I took length out from the top of the bodice to raise the armhole, I added length back into the body of the front and back pieces. I am wondering if I should add a little more length at the waist so that the widest cocoony part is lower down and closer to the widest part of my hips? I know for sure that I will lengthen the front piece on my next one. It feels a little bit too short for me. I like where the back piece is hitting though so I will leave it as is.

In this rayon, it’s a little bit hard to tell that this dress has a cocoon shape. I was initially going to make it from chambray but I had a change of heart at the last second. I do want to try this dress from a fabric with more structure so that the cocoon shape is more visible.

I love the fit of this through the top and I’ve got plans to hack the bodice and add a gathered skirt. I think it’s a great starting place to try to make my own version of this dress from Pyne and Smith.

It was fun getting to experiment with a new-to-me dress shape in April! I am still loving following along with the Project Sew It calendar. This month’s theme is tops and I’m planning to make the Tessuti Alice top, which I’ve been trying to make for 2 years now. I’m excited to finally get it sewn! What are you sewing these days?

~Teri

 

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