Cotton Cheongsam

Cotton Cheongsam #1
Overall difficulty: medium
Techniques used: French seams, pinked edges, blind hem, invisible zipper installation, bias tape

Lessons learned for next time: I should definitely leave more seam allowance as this dress barely fits around my hips.  When I know I plan to use French seams, I would cut it more generously because I'm rather bad about making sure that seam stays at its proper size and it's good for me to have extra. Also, blind hem stitch sure took a lot of finagling from me to get the right stitch width to make it work.
Would I make it again? Totally! With a few alterations I mention below.  And it'd be fun to try this in a fabric with some stretch to it.

A short while ago I was obsessed with border prints.  I ordered this butterfly one off of fabric.com, but when it arrived I discovered the pattern tiles vertically, not along the border.  I was at a loss of what to do with this fabric until I read an article showing borders used as a wonderful accent on necklines and waistlines.  Brilliant!   After that I just had to hunt down a dress pattern made of long, thin panels and I remembered that I had also been interesting in trying my hand at making a cotton cheongsam - such as the ones pictured in vintage Shanghai posters.   

I found this cheongsam pattern off a site FULL OF FREE PATTERNS  You download and print out a pdf file which tiles out the pattern pieces, and you tape them all together.  I wasn't expecting that much from this pattern because 1) I just found it randomly on the internet, 2) it was free, 3) there's no reviews or anything to let you know how well put together the pattern is.  But, it's free so it wasn't like I was risking much!  

With this dress I really tried to apply myself and work on some better construction techniques, particularly on all the seams.  I don't have a serger, but there's ways of finishing seams so they don't all fray away into nothing when you wash it.  So overall for me this dress was a level up even as I see many things to correct for the NEXT one I make.  Yup, I liked this so much I created a more durable pattern for myself even though already I know there's alterations for that next one - I'd really make this a few inches longer, make it less of a racerback cut around the arms, and remember that I DO know how to put in a lining or construct an armhole with facing for a much more attractive opening.

The internet was a wonderful resource for all the techniques I wanted to learn and us e this time.  The following list has the particularly helpful tutorials I used.  There's lots of them out there for each technique, but I found the pictures for these the best.

How to Make French Seams
Blind Hem - what that heck is it and how does it work?
How to Make Your Own Bias Tape
Invisible Zippers - YOU Can Install One Too, Today!

And to finish off the post, another dance inspired photo.  Till next time!