Chevron

When this Japanese cotton print arrived from Tessuti, I was a little surprised at how stripy it was!  Of course, the on-line photographs show it to be stripy, but somehow my brain had not registered that detail.  Being pear-shaped, I am never quite sure what to do with stripes.  It seems no matter which way they go, they just emphasize that pear shape.  It took a bit of pondering, but I decided to discard my original pattern choice and go with Vogue 8184, with the skirt panels cut on the bias to give a chevron effect.

Here are front, back and side views, to show you the pattern matching.  The bodice panels were cut off-grain, to get a diamond shape of the pattern in both the front and the back.  I only used boning in the front princess seams.  I would have liked to not use boning at use, being a casual dress, but the dress was collapsing below the bust.  I'm not sure if this is because I am small busted, or whether I need to contour the seams below the bust more.

 I should have stabilised the seam allowance before I put in the zipper, especially because the bodice is off-grain.  I did realise part way through sewing the zipper, but I have little sewing time at the moment, and knew that if I didn't finish this dress that night, it may not have got finished for a long time, so I just powered on through.  The zip is a little bubbly, but not too bad.  I am only admitting to this mistake on the chance that somebody else wants to make a chevron dress!

 It pairs nicely with this cardigan and my favourite necklace.

 A close-up of the straps.  I took this idea from one of the designs in the Twinkle Sews book.  In this photo, you can see the lining peeking out, even though it is understitched.  I think this is happening because I cut the bodice off-grain and the lining on-grain.