April Rhodes Staple Dress

April Rhodes Staple Dress

Very excited about this dress.  It was super super quick to make.  It only has 5 pieces (front, back, pocket, arm binding and neck binding) which is especially good for those who dislike the cutting out part of sewing.  Even though its super easy to make, thanks to some extremely informative instructions with photos it still has some interesting techniques that were new to me and allowed to practice some new skills.

So chic

The first was french seams which, for some odd reason, I thought would be really difficult - I think i'm always wary of new techniques.  I had not realised that there were french seams in this dress so when it said to "Place Dress Front and Dress Back WRONG sides together at shoulders"  I panicked.  I think read, reread and read it again for about 45 minutes before deciding to go ahead.   Well once I got over it and just followed the instructions I found I had some very beautiful and hard wearing seams that would allow my finished dress to last much longer.  Why did I ever doubt the instructions at all?

Elastic fantastic

The second technique was the shirring.  I had remembered seeing this on the Great British Sewing Bee when they made a girls dress and had thought at the time "ooh that looks difficult."  Well lets just say not only is it brilliantly straightforward, but with my new found faith in April's instructions, a complete joy to make.  After the first row of shirring I was addicted and in the end completed four rows only stopping because I didn't want to make the completed dress too tight.

Spot the pocket

The neck, arms, hem and pockets are all expertly described with step by step photographs and I would say that if you are yet to make a dress this is a wonderful introduction dress.  It is also a very practical every day staple dress which could easily be worn for so many occasions.  Can you tell that I like this dress?  I made the dress with 2m of cotton poplin bought on a whim whilst at Rolls and Rems.

Anyway I do plan on making this again but as you remember from Thursdays post I am really far behind on the Challenge. So another Staple Dress will have to wait.