Edith as a Dress

I'm still puttering around making the odd thing to take with me on our upcoming car trip to Idaho. I'm expecting it to be warm. Hot, in fact, especially while we're on the road. We'll be traveling through the high plains desert in July.

Ergo, here is the Edith dress from Maria Denmark. I've made this pattern up a time or two in the blouse length and had always intended to try the dress version. I'm glad I did!

Here's the line drawing from Maria Denmark's website. The pattern has 8 darts, which is enough to give it a nice shape while keeping the fit cool and breezy.

I used some Italian shirting from stash that I'd originally pictured as another Archer. It's kind of a subtle grey on grey stripe that I thought might look kind of Audrey Hepburn in Rome.

Which didn't quite translate, but I like the dress anyway.

Even though the fabric is so tightly woven that it won't drape to show off the shaping from all those darts. Plus, it has absolutely no ease whatsoever.

Edith is finished with bias tape around the arm scythe, and the curve under the arm on that kimono sleeve is pretty darn tight. I ended up just nipping the edge off the underarm to get a curve I could force my bias tape to adopt.

Nipped off the edge of the arm scythe

It worked just fine, and actually turns out to be more comfortable. I'll be keeping that change for next time.

I test drove the dress this week during some unusually hot weather. We're pretty much weather wimps here on the Central Coast. Anything over 75 has us wilting like violets. It got up to 82 the day I wore Edith and I was cool and comfortable.

In fact, it felt great enough that I'm kind of pumped to try another in a much softer cotton I got at Josephine's Dry Goods in Portland last summer. I have maybe two yards and I think it's 45 inches wide. Since Edith has no sleeves and a pretty slim fit, I might just be able to squeeze it out.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.