I will call it Ogden Dress….

Hi sewing friends!

As promised last week today I will share with you few facts about making of this dress that forever will be called a Ogden Dress, because why not? Hahaha I would like to start with saying that it turned out exactly as I imagined so I’m overjoyed about it. The quality of this fabric is superb so with care and love hopefully I will enjoy it for years to come.

On the subject of fabric I purchased 2 meters of this lovely stripe textured viscose linen from Myfabrics.co.uk. It was £8.45 per meter and a dream to work with. Easy to handle and press made the sewing process very pleasant. I must say that I thought it would be more on a lightweight side considering the composition of fiber is 70% viscose and 30% linen, however it has more structure and just a little bit of drape to it. Saying that it turned out to be ideal for my dress.

Sometimes the fabric dictates how your make will hang and behave and falling on a scale closer to medium weight I decided to only gather my dress partially at the front and at the back and avoided adding too much bulk around my waist.

Also, I was worried that the fabric is too thick to do shirring with elasticated thread, so I made a choice and used a regular elastic that I edge stitched on both sides. I like the effect and the stability it gives. With elastic thread I never know how much it will gather the fabric , but this way I cut exact final length I wanted it to be and stretch the elastic while sewing. I used about 2 meters of 1cm wide elastic from my stash.

From the start I knew I am going to make the bodice lined, but I also wanted to use the same fabric so it kept it’s structure and breathability. Due to fabric shortage I had to improvise here a little and all my lining pieces are cut horizontally, which is fine because I was playing with direction of stripes on this dress anyway. One thing I did do differently however is to skip the lining of the centre back panel. With being elasticated I thought it would be to much, hence the top edge is sewn with white bias tape to give it more of a neat finish, plus it covers the first row of elastic which otherwise might be to itchy on my skin.

I fused the entire button placket to give it more structure and reinforcement, as I did not want the risk of getting it out of shape during wear.

I was considering metal or wooden buttons for this dress, but could not find anything I liked so finally settled for those plastic 2 hole buttons from Minerva Crafts. There were only 15 pence per piece and I used 12 of them on this dress.