“Sorry. Good night, moy pomidor”
“Tomato, right”
“Yes.”
“Weird. I love you.”
It’s peak tomato season and I’m loving it! I will often say that I’m not a fan of tomatoes, but that’s not really true. I’m not a fan of the watery, mealy, tasteless tomatoes that you get from the grocery store year-round. I LOVE a real tomato – juicy and sweet and probably a little weird-looking. They’re so beautiful. I’ve sewn several tomato-themed pieces before, but when I saw Chelsea rocking Heirloom Garden fabric from Lyrical Fabrics, I knew that I needed it. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to make with the cotton slub double gauze fabric when I ordered it, but after playing around with it, I thought it would be perfect for another Hughes Dress.
The first time I sewed the Hughes Dress from Friday Pattern Company, I sewed a size larger than normal, just in case the lined bodice ended up being too tight. Well, that was silly. This time, I sewed my actual size, reshaped the sleeve piece to give me a ruffle sleeve, and tweaked the side bodice to better fit my G cups. I’m officially obsessed with this dress! I wore it to opening night of the Sidewalk Film Festival and not only did I get tons of compliments from friends and visiting filmmakers, but I also got respectfully catcalled by a youngish man watching me cross the street.
The sleeves were the first thing I needed to change. The Hughes Dress has elbow-length sleeves, which were a bit too big and bulky for my arms. After measuring my armscye, I decided to use the 1X sleeve pattern piece instead of the 6X. The sleeves are gathered to fit the bodice and my fabric has a little bit of stretch, so attaching the much smaller sleeve was easy. I also rounded out the bottom of the pattern piece to create a ruffle sleeve. It’s so romantic and beautiful; plus I now have an alternate sleeve pattern piece for Hughes.
After fixing the sleeve (and feeling super accomplished) I decided to try on my first Hughes to see if I wanted to change anything else. I knew the bodice (along with the whole dress) was too big, and that much of that would be fixed by sewing the correct size. But I wanted to try for an overall better fit in the bodice. This is fairly easy to do since the dress has princess seams. After pinching out the fabric that needed to be removed, I transferred those measurements onto the side bodice piece, snipped them away and created a better-fitting side bodice pattern piece.
The Heirloom Garden print comes in two colorways – white and pink – and 10 different basecloths. The print is fun and summery, but silly enough for all my sewing peeps! The 100% cotton double gauze fabric was a perfect introduction to this print for me. Because I had no set plans for this fabric when I ordered it, I didn’t have quite enough fabric to use as lining. Luckily, I had some scrap red gingham that I think works perfectly. With all the tomatoey goodness on this dress, I had no choice but to finish it off with some whimsical tomato buttons. What do you think?
