I’m still here! Don’t worry I haven’t fallen off the planet!! I have been traveling, sewing, and mostly working since we spoke last. I have a cute sundress to show you today. We are definitely getting into sundress-wearing weather here in the Deep South and the Sewaholic Lonsdale is the perfect pairing. I stalked this pattern for a while before I actually convinced myself to buy it, but once I got it, I sewed it up almost immediately. I love the cute knot at the front and the way the straps loop through the back and then tie. I also like the breezy half (?) circle skirt. Although I don’t think this halter style is the most flattering on my body, that’s not going to stop me from wearing my new cute dress or making this pattern up again 🙂
For this version, I used a new rayon challis I picked up at Hart’s Fabric when I was in California last month. I know I still have to show you all my fabrics and I promise I haven’t forgotten. The fabric was easy to work with and it is wonderful to wear. It does wrinkle a bit as you can see in the photos but it is not that bad.
If you are not familiar with this pattern, the bodice is self-lined but the skirt is unlined. I strayed from the pattern and decided to line the skirt as well. I used a yellow batiste. Because I sewed the batiste to the rayon all the way down the center back seam when inserting the zipper, I could not separate the two layers for hemming without doing some unpicking. Since that is one of my least favorite tasks, I left it as it was and just hemmed the two layers together and the skirt lining became more of an underlining. The downside is that my flowy rayon is now a bit more structured but the plus side is that I had a hidden layer to anchor my handstitched blind hem to. This minor blooper is not going to prevent me from wearing this dress at all and I have already enjoyed wearing it on vacation, to church, and all day to our local arts and crafts fair (where the photos were taken).
I love the consistent sizing of Sewaholic patterns. I sewed my usual size 8 and did my usual 1″ full bust adjustment. This FBA was a bit different since I didn’t want a waist or bust dart in the final dress. I rotated the bust dart up to the knot gathers and the waist dart fullness was rotated to the center front seam. You can see details of how this is done on the Sewaholic website’s tutorial.
The only other alteration I made was to hem the skirt just above knee-length as I feel this is more flattering on me.
If you are looking for an easy-to-sew and very wearable summer dress pattern, you should definitely consider the Lonsdale. I am thinking about making the maxi version for the next go-around. What do you think?
Susie Homemaker, MD 