I put off writing this post for a bit, but at the beginning of July I whipped up my third Summer of Basics item!
This is the Fancy Tiger Crafts Fen in dress form, done in some railroad denim also from Fancy Tiger Crafts. Umm...this is perfect. It came out exactly how I imagined it--better, in fact!--and sewing this was an absolute DREAM. I love sewing with woven fabric, I have discovered.
I made my Fen top in a size 4, and thought about sizing down to a 2 for the dress...but then I realized that a size 4 in the top=size 6 in the dress in the bust region, so I did a 4 in the dress. I was mostly worried about having too much positive ease in the waist and having it look more sack-like than 'gloriously casual and comfy summer dress', and am pleased with how the fit turned out. Only issue is that my lats are clearly bigger than I realized and I have to wiggle myself delicately through the waist to get it on!
My plan from the beginning was to do some kind of directional play with the stripes and have them going in different directions for the top and bottom. Again, I can't believe it worked out so well. I hadn't thought about the pocket facings when I first planned my stripe idea, so on the fly I decided to make them stripe horizontally as well and I love the contrast.
My only mod was to make the neck opening smaller, as the Fen top is a little big for my preferences--it tends to slide to one side for that Flashdance neckline look, which I don't hate but wouldn't work for this dress. I winged this one by moving the pattern piece over a few inches and using the same neckline curve from there. I did all French seams, which is my favorite seam technique so far. You know, out of the two or three I know how to do!
Another item crossed off my Making list successfully!