Emery Dress

The Emery Dress pictures are here! If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I finished this dress in January, but coordinating a time when I would have my hair and makeup done and have time to take pictures took another two months. Not easily done, guys. Well, the stars aligned when Yen had a grand re-opening party (meaning I actually did my hair and makeup) on the same day that I had some spare time and the sun was shining. Praise the photo gods. Now to just set up the tripod and timer and run back and forth a million times. Ay ay ay. Props to all the fashion bloggers out there that do this multiple times a week. I don't know how you do it.

Ok. Rant over. Back to the dress. The dress. 

I love it! The pattern is by Christine Hayes and I have only good things to say about it. The instructions were easy to follow and it fit me like a glove with very few adjustments. I was worried about comfort because of the fitted bodice, but it's really comfortable. It's probably the most comfortable dress I own! No tugging and pulling, y'know? And, hey, it has pockets. Love pockets. 

I can see myself making many versions of this dress!

All that being said, this dress had a rocky start. It is actually my second version.

Initially I was stuck on the idea of this being plaid, mostly because of Amber's dress in Pendleton wool. So gorgeous. Plus, I had recently picked up this great plaid that you see below. I was well aware that it would be challenging to match up the pattern, but after reading Lladybird's "Matching Plaids Like a Boss" post, I was confident enough to give it a shot.

I failed.

First of all, the fabric itself was pretty badly skewed. I should've given up right then and there. But I soldiered on, so determined to make it work. The Tim Gunn curse. I spent hours painstakingly adjusting the skirt gathers so that the white stripes appeared to line up with the bodice. Then I turned it over. My heart sank. The mismatching on the back was horribly obvious. Another woman might just covered it with a cardigan. Not this woman.

I'm not going to lie, I shed a couple of quiet tears mourning my plaid dream. Funny how attached you can get to an idea. Then I spotted this navy snakeskin print on my shelf and knew it would look just as great as an Emery. 

And here's the best part: without stripes to deal with, I whipped it up in only one day! Well, a day and a half if you include hemming. That was extremely satisfying after all my previous struggles.

A quick word about the fabric. It's funny. It sewed like cotton, but melted like polyester (oops), and the underside had a sort of knit texture. Any guesses?

Here's a peak at the inside. Because I know sewists appreciate it. As you can see, I chose to serge instead of line and used bias binding at the neck. In retrospect, I would've hand-stitched the binding or used a thinner fabric to eliminate bulk and seam lines. 

It's a size 4 and the only adjustments I made were to take in the shoulder seams by 5/8", the shoulder darts by 1/4" and the hem by 2-1/2", all of which are pretty typical with everything I sew (or buy, for that matter). I couldn't make up my mind on the sleeve length, so I changed that a bunch of times too, so I lost track of the exact adjustments there.

All in all, I'm super happy with how it turned out and can't wait for the chance to show it off. I haven't been brave enough for tights just yet, but if this Spring-like weather keeps up, her time in the sun will be soon!