For the third year in a row, I am going into my season of convention sewing. At each convention I attend, I make a dress for each day I will be attending a given con and then wear it around enjoying both nerd-dom and my love of dress up by wearing garments with cute characters printed on the fabric. The sewing I do for these events serves a couple of purposes for my sewing life: to fully make up a fitted pattern and to then test out comfort and functionality by wearing it for a full day in rather demanding circumstances (humidity, heat, walking, and standing for many hours). If a dress holds up to the rigors of a day at a convention and I love wearing it through everything, I know that I can make it up in a higher quality fabric without worry that I will discover fit issues down the road.
Throughout the year, Charm Patterns releases various dress or dress bodice patterns that I print out and keep in a stack until the end of spring rolls around. When that time arrives, I begin the process of putting these patterns together and making toiles (fit test garments) of them. The ones that spark joy from the moment I put them on go on to the next step of being turned into convention dresses. Last year I was behind in all my sewing due to surgery recovery and only had time to fit one dress, but luckily I loved the Scout Dress, a wonderfully flattering shirt dress (also from Charm) so much that I actually made two different ones for San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), one of which will get a second spin this coming weekend at VidCon, a YouTube based convention I'll be attending for the first time. I decided early on that I planned to wear only Hello Kitty dresses to VidCon, so this Scout fits the bill! I find these character print dresses to be incredibly indulgent and wearing them to conventions is something I do just for me that serves no other purpose than to make me feel like a cupcake for a weekend. And I'm completely ok with that.
Just as the Scout Dress became my con dress of the year last year, when I saw a sneak peak of Gretchen Hirsch's (Charmed Patterns's Gertie) new book Gertie's Charmed Sewing Studio, I knew I had discovered this year's big hit. The Camille Sheath, a tropical inspired design, indeed met all my expectations and I knew my instincts had been correct the moment I zipped myself into my toile. The unique aspect of this dress exists in the neckline pleats which are achieved with an internal band of elastic on each side. These bands hangs slack when unworn, but when on the body, they pulls taut, creating a beautiful fit across the center of the bodice.
In the book, Gertie outlines a dress hack to take the original bodice and make it with both shoulder ties (as opposed to the plain straps pictured in the toile above) and a pleated skirt (rather than the pencil skirt featured in the original pattern). I have never attempted a pattern hack before, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to feature a contrast lining in the shoulder ties as well as the adjustability these ties would offer. As I said above, I had planned all Hello Kitty looks for VidCon, and I already had the fabric pictured to the right on hand when I fell in love with the Camille. I was so enamored of this pattern that I started cutting out this dress while I was still zipped into my bodice toile. The dress features a pink bodice and front tie lining (not visible) and aqua polka dot lining on the back straps, which you can see in the photo on the right. I'm really excited to take this new make (and last year's Scout Dress) to Vidcon for dress up fun. I'm not sure I'll have time to make my now signature Charm Scout Cap to pair with the Camille, but I'll see.
Now, character prints are great and definitely serve their purpose, but I never wear these novelty prints outside of Disney or a convention because they do not really suit my fantasy style. What I really love is to create beautiful dresses in luxurious prints with as many couture level techniques as possible, which of course I am still learning. Because I am so confident in the Camille dress, I went against my usual routine and decided, based on how much I loved the Hello Kitty version, to just go ahead and cut a version in a more expensive fabric without wearing it for a full day. But I didn't just cut into something more expensive, I cut into a piece of the most luxurious fabric I have: a Liberty of London linen in their gorgeous Carline rose print. Liberty of London fabric is more like art in the form of fabric and they have been making it for over one hundred and forty years. Liberty makes the most amazing prints, inspired by life and nature, with incredible detail, at their print mill in Italy, near Lake Como. Their Tana Lawn, a lightweight and airy cotton, is probably their most well known fabric, but Liberty also makes other kinds of cotton, silk, and linen as well. The quality of their textiles is absolutely amazing and the prints are so gorgeous. These characteristics come with a high price tag that I believe is absolutely worth every penny, but for the more novice dressmaker that I am, the confidence to cut into one of my precious cuts (I now have three) of this fabric had yet to arrive.
All that changed when I made the Camille dress. I had a couple days between making the bodice
and skirt of my Hello Kitty version and sewing them into a dress because on a whim I called a sewing machine warehouse in Los Angeles to inquire about their pricing structure for an industrial Juki sewing machine. I had tested one of these machines out at the Charm sewing retreat in April and really liked its simplicity and fantastic sewing capabilities and had tracked down a place in LA that sold them. When I called, the owner told me that he had built one for a customer who never came to get it and it was just sitting around waiting to be purchased. He offered to throw in a discount if I would make a deposit and come pick it up over the weekend, so we tossed our overnight bags in the car and took off on a sewing machine acquisition adventure. On the drive to and from LA I pondered my plan for the next dress, noodling over which of my nicer fabric cuts I might use.
When I returned home, I used the new Juki to finish up the Hello Kitty Camille and was struck with a moment of astonishing bravery. I grabbed my linen Carline and tossed it into the washing machine before I could have second thoughts then went upstairs and dug through my stash of precious fabric scraps. This bag is where I keep small pieces of silk and silk blends that I have come across over the last few years and I found some very awkward cuts of a white silk cotton voile (an exceptionally lightweight fabric) leftover from making slips last year. I tested the layout and I had enough to scrape together a Camille lining as long as I made a center front seam. This voile is so delicate that it took me three hours to cut and sew the lining (for perspective it took me five hours to make the entire rest of the dress not including hand stitching the lining). The new Juki made this entire process a lot easier. I fear it would have taken double the time with my tabletop Singer. You can see in the photo above how light the lining fabric is, but it feels fantastic and was worth every painstaking step. For this dress, I also decided to pair the bodice with the Charm Circle Skirt, my favorite of all the skirt patterns offered by Charm. I have to have the teacup silhouette. I just have to.
I took great care in making this Camille with my prized Liberty fabric, but I realized through the process of sewing it that I have become careful and conscientious in all my sewing endeavors and may in fact be ready to use some of these more expensive and precious pieces of fabric. I always embrace learning more couture level techniques such as hand finishing and using more specialized materials. That certainly doesn't mean that I am done with quilting cotton and novelty prints, but I feel good knowing that using a truly special piece of fabric doesn't have to be stressful, especially when it's paired with the perfect pattern. My only complaint about this dress is that the fabric is so light that I can't wear any of my fuller petticoats with it because the colors all show through. So my slimmer cream colored one will have to do for now. I have taken to referring to this dress as couture because of how wonderful it feels to have it on and I really like how it sounds.
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