Made By A Fabricista: A Dress For Late Arriving Spring

While much of the northern hemisphere is already in flip flops and tank tops, here in Western Canada we are just beginning to have a taste of springtime weather. While I am anxiously waiting for warmer days, I decided it was time to make something outside of my wheelhouse - a spring/girly dress.

I searched through Fabric Mart Fabric’s website for a piece of fabric that would be the right weight for a warm-weather dress, and also for a print that was different from what is in my closet - which is pretty much a long rack of various shades of blue. I selected a floral rayon crinkle challis in pale yellow with flowers in various shades of pink and seafoam green foliage. As always, I washed the fabric before cutting and was happy to see that there was only minuscule shrinkage and even better, it barely needed pressing after being hung to dry. Those crinkles must attract all the wrinkles! LOL

The pattern I used is Butterick 6873 from the Spring 2022 catalogue. This is a wrap-dress with options for ruffles and sleeves. I made the version with gathered elbow length sleeves and a ruffle on the lower segment of the skirt.

Maybe I’ve made ruffles like this in the past (in junior high?) but if I did, I had forgotten that it takes a lot of time to gather all of that fabric and make sure the gathers are even. In the end, it was so worthwhile because I love the interest that comes from the ruffle on the lower part of the skirt. And crinkle challis turned out to be the perfect choice for this particular pattern! The fabric has lovely drape so the sleeves and skirt ruffle have definition from the gathers but they don’t add a lot of volume. Nor will the dress be too warm to wear on hot summer days.

This fabric was also a great choice because it isn’t slippery so the wrap pieces over the bodice don’t move much, nor does the skirt. That said, after wearing the dress out on windy days for my pictures, I’m going to add a couple of small snaps to keep things in place.

This was the first time I had worked with this type of fabric and it won’t be the last. It was much easier to work with than regular rayon - easier to press and it won’t show creases which is just what you want for warm summer days.

If you would like to hear more about this project, please visit my YouTube channel - Janine Sews.

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Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: CHALLIS.