I Think I'm In Love...With This Dress

Remember when I wrote about using nearly 20 year old fabric?  Well, I can now beat that because this dress just so happens to be made out 40 year old fabric that my mom bought back when they lived in Indonesia in the early 1970's.  Now I realize that I'm making it sound like I come from an entire family of hoarders, but that's probably not too far off from the truth.

In any case, my mom gifted me a couple of fabrics that she no longer has use for since she really doesn't sew anymore.  This fabric is a beautiful handcrafted batik and given that and the fact that my mom held on to it for so long, I was more than a little nervous about cutting into it.  Especially, since the last time I tried to use a precious fabric from my mom I ended up making an entire dress....and then cutting a hole in it with the serger just as I was finishing it.  Ughh!  This time I was determined to be far more careful.

I used the Alder Dress pattern by Grainline Studio since I already had a good idea of the fit and I thought it would be a great match for this fabric.  This time around though I went back and properly added three inches to the length and I love the length on this version  You know what else I love?  The fact that I think I've finally figured out how to sew the gathered inset in properly.  The inset on my first Alder is a little rough but fortunately dark blue color hides a multitude of sins.  I also only added one breast pocket to this one, but you may have a  hard time seeing it due to my kick-ass pattern matching (excuse me while I pat myself on the back).

Other than that, there's nothing too notable about this dress.  Except that I really, really, really do like it.  It is totally not something that I would ever try on in a store, but somehow that makes me like it even more.

Oh, and no post would be complete without a picture of my favorite little photobomber.  Hello there, little one.