Daisy Chain Sureau

This is my second version of Deer & Doe’s Sureau dress and I’m completely smitten.  In fact I’ve got version three planned out already!  The only dilemma is if I’ll let it jump ahead on my sewing list…

Since its spring I thought short sleeves and a fuller skirt would be more seasonally appropriate. To increase the skirt fullness all I did lay the skirt pattern piece on my massive roll of butcher paper, trace off the side edge and use the width of the paper.

My biggest adjustments were to the bodice.  I finally wised up and raised the armsyce ¼ inch.  On both my Bleuets they’ve felt a bit low and despite not noticing it as much on Sureau #1 I think that was more a matter of flannel having some give.  I went with ¼ inch to avoid over correcting and after wearing it feels pretty good.  I also adjusted the sleeves the same amount in addition to shortening them.  Oh, and I took a ½ inch out of the bodice center back.  Sometimes tiny adjustments like these make all the difference.

Originally I intended to line the dress due to the sheerness of the cotton lawn and actually cut the pieces out before deciding not to.  I used a white cotton but the more I handled it the more I became it was too thick compared to the lightness of the lawn.  It was in the evening and all the fabric stores where closed and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find the correct weight so I decided to skip it.  I really, really didn’t want to wait until the next morning and after standing in front of the mirror holding up the fabric I felt it was just opaque enough.

 

 Funnily enough Oona posted about her unlined voile pants around the same time I was making this dress.  So there must be something in the water that’s causing sewers to throw caution to the wind from coast to coast.  #nolinings



I did add a few extra steps which I felt added up to a better dress.  I stay stitched the neckline and fused very, lightweight interfacing to the facing. The neckline on my flannel version didn’t sit completely flat until I went back and sandwiched some fusible tape between the dress and facing.  I also under stitched the neckline out of habit.  I felt the placket needed the extra stabilization so I interfaced it in addition to topstitching it.  The only downside to this is that the fabric is sheer enough that you can tell what was interfaced while the dress is on my dress form.  But I think it’s less noticeable when I’m wearing the dress.

 

Like usual I set my sleeves in flat and tried it on before sewing up the side seams to determine what I wanted my final sleeve length to be.  With a few quick slices of my rotary cutter (after carefully lining up my clear plastic ruler) and I was good.  Oh yeah, I also added two thin strips of interfacing along the side where the zipper would be inserted.  This helped the invisible zipper go in almost perfectly.  I wasn’t convinced it was worth going back and trying to fix something off less than 1/16”.

 Since the placket and neckline were topstitched I simply machine hemmed the skirt.  This was quick and easy and let me finish up quicker so I could get down to the business of wearing it the next morning!  I actually found the perfect lime green flower buttons but ended up not including them.  The dress already had a lot going on and I didn’t want the buttons to be overkill.

I started off this post saying how much I love this dress and I really do.  Like it’s the type of garment I want to mentally think of who I’m going to see in a day so I can keep wearing it without it being too obvious.  Sadly this scheme is ruined by Me Made May and daily outfit photos.  But once June rolls along all bets are off!  Actually, by the end of writing this post I’ve decided that as soon as I find appropriate lining (#3 will be lined) I will let it skip ahead to the top of my “to sew” list.