May27, 2020
I will admit that since I started down the Me Made May rabbit hole I’ve become whatever the sewing equivalent is of my eyes bigger than my stomach. So when I stumbled upon the Envelope Dress by Cris Wood Sews, I was ready for a super simple project with instant gratification.
I love the ease and the flowy caftan feel. It feels perfect for being comfy while doing zoom calls. Or being comfy while looking cute in a coordinating mask for Target runs. Or being comfy as a swimsuit coverup. I am a fan of the comfy. Or as the Gremlin says, “COMPEEEE!”
Another thing that I really like about the pattern is that Cris gives you information for adjusting it and customizing it to your measurements, no French Curve or drafting experience required.
So with my desire for comfort and simplicity, how did I end up with basically a body conscious caftan? I screwed up step One (face palm). Step One is to finish the edges. I wasn’t thinking when I did mine and I did turn-turn-stitch which means I lost size from every seam. What I should have done is just pinked the edges with either pinking shears or a wavy rotary blade. Pinking is the best to keep something from fraying without losing size. That’s why your precuts are pinked! I had this super cool rayon from Emma One Sock and I couldn’t just run to New York to get more. I decided to work with my mistake and see what happened.
What happened is stuff didn’t fit together right. So my super quick and simple dress became a Thing. Firstly, since I lost width my front and my back didn’t line up.
That meant I had to change the neck to more of a pronounced V.
And because the neckline became more open, than meant it sat lower. And since flashing people is frowned upon, I hand stitches some hook and eye closures to bring it back up to where I felt comfortable. I couldn’t sew that seam completely closed because I needed the openness to take the dress on and off.
And then since I used a 54” wide fabric and I’m vertically challenged and I lost probably 5” all the way around because I screwed up Step One, I added a slit to the front. Because you know, walking.
But! I want to stress that this is a fantastic pattern and I fully intend to make it again as it was intended with more ease and in a shorter version for a shirt. All of the screw ups were mine. Because stitch happens.
