Advance 9441 Take Two - Summer Lemon Dress

7.07.2015

Oh look, Advance 9441 is back and in a lemon print just like past Heather had promised. Wow for once she didn't lie to us about sewing plans. (It's all her fault when posts about sewing plans don't come to fruition. She should know that I get distracted by shiny new things.)
Does this version of the pattern really need it's own blog post? Not really. But sometimes a fabric/pattern combo works out great and you want to post a gazillion pictures of it. So please bear with me and in return you can all have lemon bars at the end of the post.  I sure Froggie won't dust them all off while you're reading.

Let's talk about this beautiful lemon cotton lawn for a minute, because it's only gracing my body thanks to the kindness of another sewer.  I saw this beautiful fabric on Handmade Jane's blog last year when she sewed up  a Mortmain Dress. That dress instantaneously filled me with a bad case of fabric lust. The colors, the painterly quality of the print, the sheer size of those lemons. It Was Perfection!  I quickly clicked on the link to Abakhan fabric with my credit card in hand.  Well my friends it was then that I found out that Abakhan does not deliver to the US.  NOOOOOOOO!!!!
Having been foiled in my attempt to purchase this fabric I went over to Twitter to whine about it. "Booo Hoo Hoo, poor me. Why can I not relieve my fabric lust by rubbing this fabric all over my face?"  (I might have left that last part out of my tweet.) Then Elena tweeted me,  "I can order some and mail it to your house." SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! YES, YES, YES!!!  So Elena awesomely enabled my fruit print fabric addiction and personally shipped 4 yards of lemon lawn to me.  I am forever indebted to her because this fabric is the bomb.
Fitting/style wise this version is the same as the one made in March, other than using the shorter sleeve length. I was actually surprised at how long the "shorter" kimono sleeves are. Guess I'm used to the length of gussetless kimono sleeves that just cover the shoulder.
Finally some sewing notes.  Cotton lawn is a lovely light weight thing, but it's semi-transparentness can cause problems in the underwear department.  I decided to underline/line this dress with some Siri interfacing from EOS.  I haven't been able to find anyone stocking true Siri poly/cotton lining like Gertie used to have in her online shop that one glorious summer. The lightweight rayon/cotton interface is the same weight and the hand is almost the same. It works great for underlining if you don't feel like shelling out $$ for cotton batiste.
The bodice portion is underlined and the skirt portion is a separate lining.  If I had to go back and do it again then the dress would have a proper full lining.  At the time I couldn't stomach the thought of sewing extra gussets and took the "easy" way out.  (The easy, easy way out would be picking a pattern that didn't have sleeve gussets.)  In the end my combo underlining/lining doesn't look any different from the right side of the garment and that's OK by me.

In closing I'll leave you with some theoretical tall glass of lemon aid and a good petticoat twirl picture. Ahhh summer, you're the best.

35 comments:

  1. Amazing!


    Also, I had a moment of schadenfreude I am not proud of, when reading about your being unable to purchase from Abakhan, as a UK resident who has to live without the joys of Mood! (I know they ship here, but the shipping is usually more than the cost of the fabric, so it's not really practical).


    I have a question for you though, if you wouldn't mind (and it's kind of nosy, so no worries if you do). Do you wear all these gorgeous dresses on the regular? Like, grocery shopping and round to see friends? I definitely dress on the more formal side (simply because I find jeans very uncomfortable, and love love love dresses for the ease for the ease of it being a complete 'outfit' and for the comfort level).


    Lots of people, when I first meet them, say, "Going somewhere nice?" or some version of that. People who know me well just know it's how I dress. But I'm only wearing jersey dresses, woven dresses are another notch up. Do you get many comments? Do you simply not care? I don't, personally, I just say, "no, I just like this dress!". I was just curious whether you got those comments. Or maybe you just wear these dresses to dressy events.

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  2. Now that's spooky, I was just reading a blog post which mentioned your sundress sewalong and I remembered the whole lemon fabric saga from last year. 'Hmm, I wonder if she ever made a dress from it?' I mused to myself. Then about two seconds later your blog post popped up with you resplendent in a lemon dress! I must be a witch!!!
    What a wonderful dress! That fabric looks amazing with a big skirt to show off the ginormous lemons, please wear it lots, you look fab! x

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  3. I love that fabric!! Perfect pattern to pair with it!

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  4. Jennifer @ grimmricksenJuly 7, 2015 at 10:38 AM

    Aaaand I love everything about this dress. Print, pattern, fit... all of it.

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  5. Where are you pictures of you lounging on a wall? Those were gold! (Or lemon yellow, not gold... ;)
    Can we take a minute to discuss your shoes? They are amazing! You've got the best matchy-matchy accessories.

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  6. looove this dress. why didn't i order some of that fabric?

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  7. Oh so pretty! Again...oh so pretty!!! Love your vintage brooch too!

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  8. International shipping is such a buzzkill. At least if it crosses an ocean I can justify it sometimes. It's paying 25+ for something to cross the Canadian border that really gets my goat.


    I don't mind your dressing question at all! My outfits do tend to be more formal. Most of my weekly outfits are skirt/top separates or shirt dresses. Though there are a few dresses I really enjoy wearing, like my hawaiian print Anna maxi, that get worn regularly even though they are fancy. This lemon one will be more in the "special event" category.


    I do get asked, "Are you going to a party?" "Or where are you going all dressed up?" My answer is pretty much the same as yours, "No I just dress this way." So far I've been lucky that they usually follow up their question with a positive comment. :)

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  9. Haa haa! Our brains were being all telepathic unbeknownst to us. It must be the power of the lemons. Thanks Jane!

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  10. Thank you Lauren. Figured big lemons needed a big skirt. :)

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  11. Thank you! It was nice to sew a repeat and not worry about fitting stuff.

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  12. Don't worry Gillian, those pictures are of the shirt dress coming next. Muhaah haaa!


    Past Heather gets props for buying the perfect shoes before she knew this fabric existed.

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  13. Oh No! Where's a time machine and a money tree when you need one? They would really solve some problems.

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  14. Thank you Sue! It's always nice when I already have a matching brooch for a new make. :)

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  15. I love it!! That lemon fabric is amazing and I can totally see why you NEEDED it! How lucky are we to be a part of such a great sewing community! I must get on that Twitter!
    Also as always you have accessorized perfectly!

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  16. This is right up my street!
    It's the type of frock that you just wanna twirl down the street in.

    I am guilty of dressing like this on a regular day, why not, sometimes I just feel in a big skirted printed frock mood.

    It does make you stand out, but the compliments make it worthwhile.

    You look sensational!

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  17. The fabric leaned out of the internet and kissed me Heather. I had to hold it in my arms for real! Glad I got a matchmaker to make our fabric marriage come true.

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  18. Here here Miss J! The mood to wear a big poofy skirt on a regular day hits me every now and again. It's kind of fun to make people stare. :)

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  19. Such a good dress. You pull off these vintage styles so well! Just cut out my first proper vintage pattern this week, and itching to sew it up

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  20. I love that dress. That fabric is just so great. I love it. You can't get it anymore. Where's my hot tub time machine?

    Next time my husband goes to Texas, I am going to do a big Spoonflower order; they are a massive rip off when it comes to international postage. There's a print on there which is similar; different but similar and I am having it.

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  21. Another dress to induce lemon envy! Jane induced the green eyed monster, and yours has too. Because I'm soo slow at reading blog posts Abakhan had sold out when I looked, so I sulked!
    Because of you and Jane, a lemon print dress is now just going to epitomise summer to me... I will make it happen at some point, there MUST be more lemon prints out there...
    But back to you! And your juicy juicy dress! It's a thing of beauty and perfect for twirling in. Just gorgeous!

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  22. Holy! What a great fabric/pattern marriage! Love it Heather!!!!

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  23. Thank you Kaitlyn. :) What are you sewing if I may be nosey and ask.

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  24. Thank you Julia! Since the hot tub time machine isn't a viable option getting your husband to mule you some Spoonflower sounds perfect. What's sexier than a man holding fabric. :)

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  25. Fill my eyes with that lemon vision! Wait that's not how the song goes. I do seem to remember that vintageinkfairy picked up a lemon print recently. Not sure if it was cotton but you could always tweet her and find out her mysterious lemon source.


    And thank you lovely!

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  26. Thanks Margo. Big lemons need a big dress...or that's what they told me. :)

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  27. A pretty thing always needs attention!

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  28. Don't hide your lemons under a bushel!

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  29. Cannot remember the pattern number! It's a 1950's dress. Full skirted, square neckline with collar part of the front pattern piece. Making it up in Liberty Carline in red

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  30. I can understand why you needed this print. It's awesome and you've made a perfect pair with this pattern! And ths shoes, so cute too!

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  31. Beautiful, beautiful dress. I really want to try and track this pattern down.

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  32. Give this to me. Please. PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!

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  33. Thanks so much. I love it when a pattern and fabric work well together.

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  34. Thanks Shar. I've seen this pattern pop up regularly so hopefully you can get your hands on one.

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  35. Froggie say he will be contacting you with payment details. (He wants lots of cookies.)

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