A scrappy shift dress

With all of this stay at home time, I find myself poking around in less traveled corners of the house just looking for a diversion.  On one of my weekend adventures nosing around up in the attic, I stumbled upon a narrow swath of fabric leftover from a shower curtain I made for Adam for his first apartment at University of Wisconsin Madison- more than 10 years ago.  The fabric is from Ikea. I really like the print (nordic cool) and even though the fabric is a sturdy home decorating weight, I started noodling around on a dress idea because – unchecked- that’s where my mind goes when fabric is involved. Shower curtain to dress!

The fabric remnant was 15 inches wide and over 70 inches long. I knew I would have to pattern block- I am not narrow enough anywhere for 15 inches in width- and the pattern must run up and down.  With those constraints, the dress options were narrowed.  I didn’t want to do anything with much piecing because the fabric is stiff.  However, I must note, I am very drawn to patchwork trend right now and am eager to do a serious patchwork project but that’s another day and not with this scrap. 

For this simple pattern blocking project, it was easy to land on a solid black to balance the dramatic print. I just needed to match the weight of the Ikea fabric so I looked for a canvas or twill weight fabric. This black twill was hands down the best option. I used the wrong side of the fabric for a smoother finish.

In order to keep the fabric (and pattern) largely intact, I chose a simple a-line dress. I used my favorite a-line shift pattern -a Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2584 shift pattern - crossed with some features from Vogue 8945.  My tip for a winning shift dress is the old Goldilocks standard- make sure it’s not too big and not too small. This pattern is a “just right” fit for me so I only had to fiddle with pattern piecing dissection for pattern blocking.

I simply cut the front of the dress as wide as the fabric piece allowed and fortunately, that was a well placed asymmetrical line just after the neckline which made measuring and piecing a breeze.  I cut the remaining front from black twill – adding accommodation for ½ inch seams. The back piece was easily cut from the black twill. Two pattern pieces- easy.

The other little modification to this shift-is an easy dropped shoulder that I drafted at the armhole without adding fullness to the shift.  I simply drew an extended sleeve for this hack. There is a good discussion (including diagrams and guidance) about the range of dropped shoulder options here

The cap sleeve was a good design choice because it was easy to finish the armholes with purchased black bias binding. I also used this binding to finish the neckline. Staying home more than usual during this pandemic has it’s small silver linings. It was a bonus to discover this fabric treasure -and to remember it’s origin story. Best of all, it feels like a “free” new dress.