Gertie’s wiggle dress, or how I almost ruined my parents dining room table..

This is actually the second wiggle dress I made, the first one quickly became one of my favorite dresses for going out, so I decided to make another one in wool.

The smug face after an averted disaster

Apart from the changes I made to the pattern for the first one (take it in at the hips) I also had to lenghten the darts in the back, because my first wiggle dress was showing some fabric bulges. At first I thought it needed a swayback adjustment, but after I lenghtened the darts the problem was solved! Easy peasy. I also changed the neckline a bit, I really like the shape of this neckline..

So for this dress I choose a classic houndstooth wool at my favourite Italian fabric store. I’ve worked with wool once before, when I made my Watson Jacket from Papercut Patterns (which I will blog about later on).

Then I had treated the wool by wrapping it in wet (clean!) bed sheats and then steaming it on our (Ikea) kitchen table. Everything went fine and it worked perfectly.

This was only the second time I made underarm gussets, but I like how they turned out! 

When I decided to steam my wool on their table in Italy, my mom started protesting a bit. She asked if I was sure it wouldn’t ruin the table and so on. Being a stubborn person, I simply replied: yes it will be fine, and went on with my business.

Half an hour of steaming later I removed the fabric from the dining room table only to find that the steaming had left the lacquer of the table on my wool and not on the table anymore! (Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures,  but believe me it wasn’t pretty!) Luckily my parents weren’t too upset and after I treated the table with some sort of spray four times it was looking quite allright. The fabric got quite clean after putting it in the washing machine on the wool program (which is how I will pre-treat all my wool from now on!).

Lesson learned: cheap Ikea tables react completely different to steam than very old beautiful Italian ones...

Detail of the hem

Details:

Pattern: The wiggle dress from Gertie’s new book for better sewing. 

Fabric: 2 m of blue and white houndstooth wool from my favorite Italian fabric store.
Time to finish garment: 3 hours, as I already had the pattern traced which saved a lot of time. I pinked the seams, as I just got my new pinking scissors :)

Notions: Invisible zipper.

Boyfriend's verdict: 9/10, he likes the neckline, the curviness and the classic look of this dress very much..

Make again: Definetely, I already have some silk picked out for a summer-sleeveless version!