Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Walk Away Dress

I've continued to participate in Me-Made-May, but so much of my stuff is repeats that I haven't bothered to blog about it.

I HAVE worn some things I haven't blogged yet so I'm going to try to catch up.

First - the Walk Away Dress.



I think is THE Dress on the blogoshere everyone knows.  it's rather infamous I believe and my experience with it left me with no question as to why.

First, let me say that part of the issue with this dress was because I really, really, really wanted it to match the main dress shown on the pattern envelope - AND I was working on this dress under a time constraint, trying to get it finished for Viva.  So, when I went to find the material the only stuff I could find in blue check was this horrible polyester.  I bought it anyway.  The fabric, was not forgiving and had/has a propensity to grow that I have never seen the likes of before.  Then there is the 'wrap around' concept of this dress.  The lack of any anchoring - plus the slippy nature of my fabric and this thing moves all over the place!  I tried to fix some of that.  I actually created a 'strap' in the back at about bra level to try to hold the front in place better and added snaps to the sides where the back crosses over the front.  Still not perfect.



And, if you look at my picture of it

You'll probably notice how low the front dips.  I adjusted this three different times in three places while constructing, but when I sewed on the bias tape it just stretched all out again.

That being said - it's a fun dress to wear, and makes an excellent sweat pant alternative.  I can wear it, not worry about anything getting on it and not look like a complete slob.  PLUS I love the buttons I used for the front - they always make me smile.

In conclusion - it's not a dress I would make again and not one I would recommend to others. The modern day version of the pattern is flawed and I hate the U shape wrap around - however changing to the V shape on my dress did not help it either.   Save yourself some time and heartache and just "Walk-Away" from this dress!

3 comments:

  1. I actually really like this on you - I think as sewists we can be really hard on ourselves. This looks great.

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  2. Nice...I like it. Nothy Lane is correct, we can be the hardest on ourselves. I know I am.

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  3. I know I'm really late to this party, but to help with the stretching of the fabric, try sewing a simple stitch line along the edge of the fabric - but do NOT pull the fabric through the machine while sewing it, let the machine do all the work. It will help prevent the stretching. Just use a normal setting and sew about a 1/8 of an inch from the edge.

    Hope this helps with future projects. =)

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