Tweed Dress

This has been sitting on my pile of work, waiting to be hemmed for the last week. Yes, I decided to go ahead and make shift dress 107 from Burda’s September issue using my beautiful piece of Scottish Tweed. I found the fabric in Cloth House, Berwick Street. I’m not sure if you can see the colours in the pictures but it is a green and navy herringbone with fine mustard and pale blue window pane checks, which are almost indistinguishable. It’s a bit huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’, if I wanted to I could use it to make plus fours.

In order to make the dress a little more slinky than my toile I pinched an additional centimetre on either side of the long curvy darts, extending them up so they met my bust point. I also took a centimetre off the sides from the waist and down through the hips. This makes a massive 8cm taken off the waist, it’s still quite loose but now has a bit of shape.

The tweed is very thick and I was worried that if I used the same fabric for facings it would be too bulky and itchy against the skin so I made a full lining out of mustard coloured bemsilk (from MacCulloch and Wallis) and used that as a facing. I also lined the patch pockets, cutting the lining on the cross grain and interfacing it, tips I found in a book to ensure the lining is strong and smooth. The seams have all been serged to death; now I have discovered a cheap source of thread I love my new serger!

Today will be a perfect day for trying out the new dress; it’s a cold, bright day and I’m off to my knitting group later this morning.

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