Spiralising

I’m told spiralised vegetables are all the rage.  I’ve gone one further and spiralised my dress.

The pattern started off as the ultimate shift dress, turning it into a spiral dress was very simple and didn’t take long. The biggest challenge was finding a big enough piece of paper and the space to cut it out. Sewing it up was very simple, no darts and no fastenings needed, just one very long seam which spirals around your body.  The clever bit is that the seam is actually cut on the straight and it’s only when you sew it together that you get the bias effect. I will give instructions in a future post, I warn you though spiral dresses are very addictive, once you’ve made one you won’t be able to stop!

This dress was made out of triple crepe. I’ve made a few dresses out of this recently, feeling very brave as I overcome my fear of man-made fabrics.  I think it’s something to do with my age, polyester in the ’80s was definitely something to avoid.  These days I find it useful to have dresses that pack down into my cycling bag and come out looking smart when I get to work.  I’m also pleased not to spend all my pocket money on dry cleaning.  I have lined the dress as the bias tends to cling, but a slip would have done the trick too. After making up the dress I let it hang in my wardrobe for a couple of weeks before I hemmed it and I found it interesting that the crepe stretched about 10cm whereas the lining didn’t stretch at all.  I’d read that this happens to bias cut fabric but hadn’t expected the effect to be so dramatic.

I feel slightly strange wearing this dress as I made it mid calf length, most of my dresses and skirts are knee length. The longer length takes some getting used to, and it definitely needs heels to set it off.