Making a Fold-Back Dress Detail

Hi all! As promised, here are some details on how I did the back detail on my "Home Sewing Is Easy" dress.

Basically, it's a large facing in a contrast fabric. Here's the back facing:

Notice how wide it is and how it extends all the way to the sleeve.

Here's the front facing:

It looks more like a normal facing, but it also extends all the way to the sleeve.

(Note: another way to do this is to line your whole bodice in your contrast fabric, but that may get too bulky, depending on the fabric you're using. If you wish to both line and have a contrast facing, you could stitch the facing to the lining.)

To make the pattern, start with your bodice back. Here's a simple bodice back in half scale.

If we folded it back at the shoulder, it would look like this:

This is a fairly small turn-back detail, because we're working with a jewel neckline. With a wider neckline (like the one on my comic print dress), you can fold back more.

Crease the pattern and mark your fold line.

Make a mark for the top of the zipper at the bottom of the fold line.

Next, draft the facing. It should start 2" below the top of your zipper and extend all the way to the shoulder.

Draw it in with a curved ruler.

Trace the facing area (the area in pink below).

I'm just pretending we don't have a dart, ok? If you do, fold it out of your facing pattern.

Make a new facing for the bodice front that is 2" wide at center front and extends to the shoulder.

To sew:

1. Cut the facings out in your contrast fabric and apply a lightweight interfacing.

2. Stitch the facings together at the shoulder seams. Press seams open. Finish the outer edge of the facing.

3. Insert the zipper in your dress back so that the stop ends at your zipper mark.

4. Pin the facing unit to the ourside of the dress, right sides together. Stitch around the neckline, ending at the back, where the zipper starts.

5. Trim and grade seam allowances on the neckline, clip corners, then understitch the facing. Turn the facing unit to the inside and make sure the back corners are turned out neatly.

6. Turn the facing unit to the outside along the fold line. You will need to clip the seam allowance at the zipper stop so the facing can flip out. Press lightly along the fold line.

7. Slipstitch the back facing to the zipper tape.

8. On the outside, place two buttons near the corners of the fold back facing. Stitch in place, through all layers. This will hold the fold back detail in place.

9. On the inside of the dress, tack the facing in place at the shoulder seam, to the sleeve seam allowance.

Make sense? I hope so. This is the simplest kind of fold back detail you can do. You could also make a shaped fold back, with a scalloped edge for instance. Lots of possibilities! I'll do another post on that when I get back from our little Thanksgiving trip. Speaking of which, Happy Thanksgiving!

The "Home Sewing Is Easy" Novelty Print Dress

After last week's discussion of novelty-print dresses, I decided to give the whole thing a try. I'd been working up a muslin of Simplicity 2444, and figured this would be the perfect chance to try it out in an inexpensive fabric.

Once I had the bodice sewn up, I was struck with design inspiration for the back.

I had seen this detail on a Bettie Page dress and thought it would help break up the print a bit. It was very easy to do, and I plan to outline the construction in another post.

Can I please pat myself on the back for matching up the print across the invisible zipper? That's the pull dangling over the blonde lady's face.

Print placement is obviously important, and I almost ran out of fabric fussing over the layout, even though I had 5 yards. I knew I wanted to get the "Home Sewing Is Easy" banner on the bodice, but not in a weird place.

The print isn't quite as overwhelming as I anticipated, but it surely clashes with my hair! A belt worked well to balance the print (it's from Modcloth, and I'm obsessed with it). With so much going on, the only thing to do was to pair it with a tasteful nude pump and call it a day.

I have more to say about this dress's construction, which I'll have to get to in another post. Back to writing pattern instructions for the book!

Trending: Novelty Print Cotton Dresses

Remember this delightfully obnoxious quilting cotton I brought back from ASE? I was browsing Modcloth the other day and found a dress made out of it:

"Good Enough to Eat Dress" from Modcloth

It's kind of great, right? I was originally going to make pajamas out of this fabric, but now I'm sorely tempted to make a frock. (The fabric is called "Midnight Snack" by Alexander Henry, if you're interested. A quick search brought up plenty of online vendors.)

If you're into this kind of thing, retro-silhouette dresses in novelty prints seem to be a trend on Modcloth right now. There's the Roadside Attraction dress.

I haven't been able to identify this amazing fabric--any ideas?

"Martha's Air of Adorable Dress" features hot air balloons and a cool neckline.

And perhaps the coolest novelty print of all? Alexander Henry made a fabric based on the vintage comic book "Home Sewing Is Easy."

Modcloth has not one but TWO dresses made from this fabric.

Sew It Like You Mean It Dress

Sew It Would Seamstress Dress

I've seen a couple bloggers make awesome dresses out of this fabric, and I'll confess to having 5 yards of it in my stash.

Of course, novelty print dresses are hardly a new trend; they enjoyed quite the heyday back in the 40s and 50s--but current design and printing technology has made these prints WAY bolder and louder.

I don't think I would have considered dresses like these until recently, when I made my kitten-print dress. I've worn it way more than I thought I would!

What do you all think? Would you wear these prints? Or do you prefer them to be relegated to quilts, jammies, and the like?

Before and After: Thoughts on Makeup and Self-Image

The checkout line at my local grocery store always has a large selection of tabloids. Lately, a popular headline has been "Stars Without Makeup! You Won't Believe How Disgusting They Look!" or something like that. During the photoshoot for book #2 this week, I kept thinking about those tabloids.

I modeled on day two of the shoot, and thought it would be fun to capture the transition from mere mortal to model. I came into the studio with unstyled hair and no makeup (left picture) and an hour later I was all spackled and curled and ready to go!

On the subway to the shoot, I felt embarrassed by my lack of styling. On the way home that night, I felt embarrassed by all the makeup migrating to my under-eye region. You just can't win, right?

My everyday look is somewhere between these two extremes, which I guess is the case for most women. And I think we all have somewhat conflicting emotions about the whole thing. There's certainly no lack of pressure to conform to an ideal of beauty in our world. Think about all the time, money, and effort spent on products to achieve that ideal. It's exhausting! Do we like to read those tabloids about "stars without makeup" to make ourselves feel better? I think once you know how much work goes into a fully made-up look, you can let yourself off the hook a bit.

On the other hand, who doesn't like to play dress up? It's nice to have the option to go all out.

What do you think--do you feel bad about yourself sans makeup? Or do you regularly go au natural?