Made By A Fabricista: Red Ikat Dress

Hello, everyone! I am back! Today I want to share my latest project that I am super excited about! I have so much that I want to share! Are y'all ready?

This dress was love at first sight, again! The Sofia Dress! I have wanted to own a garment with shirring for a while. When I saw the Sofia Dress, I had to have it. It's not just because of the shirring but also because it has a lovely square neckline and beautiful puff sleeves. Even the sleeves have shirring! I was sold! Because of these lovely details, I thought that this would be a big project for me to jump right in (at least in my head at the time, Lol), so I decided to take baby steps.

First, I wanted to be familiar with shirring, so I made two tops, #M7901 and Mimi woven top from Style Arc. Please refer to my blog or IG for more details and pictures. I think they came out nicely. Because of these tops, I became very comfortable making shirring. And then I made a Sofia top with a wearable muslin.

The Sofia Dress has sleeve options, and I like them all! I like patterns that have options that allow me to wear the item for multiple seasons, wouldn't you? I think it's very well thought out. I found a YouTube tutorial by Kristiann, the designer of the pattern. I was so impressed with her tutorial. From my perspective, there wasn't anything she didn't tell us on how to work with shirring. I really enjoyed watching her complete guide on YouTube.

Now, I want to talk about the fabric. Normally, I know exactly what type of fabric I want to use for a project. But this time, it took a while to find the fabric that I wanted. Now that I think about it, my heart was set for a certain type of fabric and color.

But just wait, Fabric Mart keeps having a variety of fabric selections! This fabric, Rayon Crinkle Challis is gorgeous! It drapes beautifully. I love how it flows when I move. It moves with my body!

By the way, have you ever tried their matching thread?

As I was making shirring, I was saying, "Wow! Look at this color of thread! It's the perfect match!" The button for "Add Matching thread" on your cart appears after putting the fabric in your cart. I hope you will give it a try!

While I was searching for the fabric, I decided to play with my new skill that I learned that I am super excited about! This was inspired by Tipstitched a while ago, but I could not figure it out at the time. But I do now with my own twist! I used some of the fabric from Fabric Mart and created inspiration images with the line drawings of the Sofia Pattern in Adobe Illustrator. What do you think?

The scale of the fabric is not accurate, but for me, this is way better than trying to figure it out in my head. I am a visual person. I can understand things better if I see them.

Oh, by the way, I have a question for those of you who have sewn crinkle fabric. I noticed this fabric grew after I cut it. How do I prevent that next time? I have read that fuse interfacing to the horizontal seams before doing anything else AFTER I made the dress, LOL.Would you please share if anyone has tried this method? The area that I saw it grow was on the sleeves and seams on the skirt. I left the sleeves as is, but they have three shirring rows. For me, it's not noticeable. For the skirt, I let it hang on my dress form overnight and trimmed it after I measured with a chalk hem marker.

This pattern is made for the height 5' 7", so I needed to shorten 6" since I am 5' 1". My usual adjustment I do for most of patterns is to shorten 1" from the bodice, another 1" from the sleeves, and then shorten it to my liking. However, when I made the wearable muslin, it came out too short for me. So, I added 1" back in for this dress. For the skirt, I shorten it 2" in three areas. One is at 1/4 length, another one is 1/2 length, and the last one is 3/4 length from the waist. I let my skirt hang on the dress form overnight and took 1" from the hem and also where the fabric grew.

I love this dress! I bought more patterns that have shirring during the Fourth of July sale. I can't wait to sew them.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Happy Sewing!

MEG | @meggisews

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