Camber Dress

I've been working my way through my fabric stash as I shelter in place here on the Central Coast. I have my woven fabrics pulled out at the moment. Kind of a mixed collection, to be honest. Some pieces were picked up at fabric swaps or on sale, others I bought with a particular vision in mind.

This dress is made from some vintage cotton lawn gifted to me by my friend Molly. Not the best colors for me, but this is probably the highest quality cotton I've ever sewn with. It's smooth and light and tightly woven. Very easy to work with. And it was perfectly on grain, even after pre-washing. A girl could get spoiled.

But, on the other hand, only 36 inches wide. Remember when all fabrics were 36 inches wide? Good thing I had about 4 yards!

I decided to use it to take a whack at the Merchant & Mills Camber dress. Even with 4 yards, I didn't have enough of this cotton to try anything with long sleeves or button bands or what have you.

The Camber is what I call a shift dress. I just checked Wikipedia and they say a "A shift dress is a dress in which the cloth falls straight from the shoulders and has darts around the bust. It frequently features a high scoop or boat neck." 

Shift dresses can be problematic for me because my figure pretty much falls straight from my shoulders. I'm usually trying to create the illusion of curves. So I made a self-fabric belt to try to define a waist. 

I think it ended up being a pretty good match between pattern and fabric.

This photo shows the bit of pulling I get around the shoulders in certain positions. Maybe a bit more height in the sleeve cap would help? Once I can wear it about for a day or two I'll see if it's annoying enough to try to fix next time around.

The weather has been pretty gray and dreary here lately, but this will be a nice dress to wear once summer arrives. And it will arrive, dammit!

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.