IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!! Well, technically, my birthday is tomorrow (the 22nd), but I’ll be deep in my crab shell, enjoying my solitude, so I’m celebrating today! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to show off what I worked on last weekend – the new Wayland Dress from Cashmerette. Special shout-out to the Cashmerette Team for sending me this pattern to try out. The Wayland Dress is a summery shirred sundress that’s bra-friendly, boob-friendly, and creativity-friendly! The princess-seamed bodice has two strap options and the skirt, complete with pockets, comes in two lengths. That’s not all – the ultimate selling point (for me at least) is that you can mix and match the pattern pieces with the Upton line sewing patterns. That means you can pair the Wayland Dress pattern pieces with pieces from the Upton Dress and Skirt, the Ellington Dress, the Mansfield Dress, and the Gilmore Skirt. Using African waxprint from my stash, I paired the wide strap Wayland dress bodice with the knee length pleated Upton skirt. It’s bright and happy and everything I want to be this summer.
Fun fact – I hate shirring. I don’t know if it’s a sewing machine tension issue or a patience issue or that the gods have decided that I need to be humbled. Either way, whenever I’ve tried, it’s been a waste of time, resources, and sanity. When I saw the Wayland dress had shirring, I immediately began thinking of ways to get around it. Ultimately, I decided to replace the elastic thread with ¼ inch elastic. It’s a fairly easy substitution and it allows you to follow the rest of the pattern’s instructions easily.
First, I marked the middle of the center back bodice piece. Using a zigzag stitch, I sewed a piece of elastic two inches shorter than the bodice piece width. I liked the amount of ruching this gave me, but feel free to experiment with elastic width. I decided that I wanted a total of 10 rows, which uses nine elastic strips. I measured the space above and below the middle strip, divided that number by four and used the result to help me space out the remaining elastic. My placement wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be. The elastic is covered by the jersey lining, so you’ll never see my janky lines (unless you’re reading this blog 😊).
I’ve made pieces from my Upton Mix and Match pattern so many times, that pumping out the pleated skirt was a breeze. After a few tweaks here and there, mostly for design reasons, I quickly sewed the bodice to the skirt. I was really feeling myself until I realized that I had one more large task ahead of me. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know exactly what I struggled with because I posted about it. My last large task was slipstitching the lining to the waistband. Look, I get it. It gives a beautifully neat finish that’s hard to recreate with a sewing machine. Machines can’t do everything (suck on that, AI), but heavens know I hate slipstitching. After procrastinating for about two hours and throwing a mini-tantrum that was only seen by my dog, I spent about 20 minutes slipstitching my dress. I love it so much and I’m already planning on pairing one with the Gilmore Skirt so I can twirl around in all my fun, full circle skirt glory!
