A favorite reborn

(N.B.: Something is broken in Flickr at the moment so I'm going to just load these directly from disk. They may look different but I think it should work.)

A little while back, I wrote about re-creating a much-loved but totally-worn-out Deva Lifewear dress by cutting it apart and using it as a pattern. I did finish it over break

It is just kind of a loose-fitting dress - it has a multiply-gored skirt (dang, I should have thought to get a "twirl" picture).

I used a batik-print fabric for it. Originally, I wanted a sort-of-gauzy fabric (thicker but more loosely woven) like the "breezecloth" that Deva originally used, but I couldn't find one, so I went with a quilting fabric. (I am wondering if quilting fabric sells better/is more profitable than dress fabric - probably more people quilt these days than sew clothing; I know I do more quilting than I do clothes-making). I'm pretty happy with how it came out, even though it drapes differently (it's crisper and less drapey) than the original fabric

 

On the original dress, it was too long and too loose, so my mom cut a strip off the hem, re-hemmed it, and turned the strip into ties to cinch in the waist. I copied that detail on the new dress so it's not quite so huge on me - it's a "pop over the head" dress (so no zipper) and that makes it necessarily have to be more loosely cut.

But that's good in hot weather. And one thing I've found with my hives, when they're bad, tight clothing makes them worse, or "rub points" where a seam is right against the skin makes them worse, so having a few loose-fitting dresses is good for very hot conditions or bad hive days.

Here's a photograph with no flash, perhaps showing the color of the fabric more true. It's predominantly blue, but there are hints of purple and blue-green in the pattern.

I do think the batiks look more "dressy" than some other prints do, perhaps because of giving a bit of an illusion of something like watered silk.

And here's a "twirling" shot of the skirt. Because having a dress that flares out when you spin or turn is one of the little pleasures of life, and is the whole reason for putting a lot of gores into a skirt.

(And the "auto timer" on my camera is VERY long when you have to spin waiting for the photo to go. I actually made myself feel slightly sick to my stomach from the spinning.)