I had a couple of weddings to attend this summer. While there are a few dresses in my closet that would have worked just fine for a wedding, these were pretty special events. One was for my nephew and the other was for the son of one of my oldest friends. And I have to admit that when I tried on some of my possible choices, they felt a wee bit tight (curse you Covid pounds, will you never leave me?). So I set out to sew a comfortable dress suitable for an aging wedding attendee.
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| Nina Lee Carnaby Dress |
I settled on the Carnaby Dress, from Nina Lee. Which is actually a shift-style mini-dress. Hem it to hit mid-thigh and pop it on a leggy young gal and it looks right out of the swinging 60s. Lengthen in to below the knee and dress me in it and it looks much more sober. Like it could work with pumps and a pill-box hat.
Except I don't have pumps or a pill-box hat, and I used a piece of batik that a friend's mother had brought back from Indonesia several decades ago. So maybe it's a bit in between swinging and sober.
I had just 2 yards of 45 inch wide fabric with a wide border at the bottom and narrow borders up both selvedges. The pattern layout was a bear, but I think I got there in the end. I used the bottom border for the skirt pieces, which I modified into one long rectangle so I could use the entire width of the fabric.
That stripe up the center back is because I had to use about half of each selvedge border to get those pattern pieces to fit. I'm trying to think of it as a feature, not a bug.
The batik wedding took place yesterday. The bride and groom rode us out into the redwoods on an old steam train out of Roaring Camp. It was a bit overcast and chilly. We've been having a pretty cold spring and summer here on the Central Coast. We went from May Gray to June Gloom and we expect to head right on into Fogust. With my linen Moss Jacket and a large shawl, my wedding dress worked just fine though.
The ceremony took place in the center of a grove of redwoods. Closest thing to a natural cathedral ever.
The other wedding was at a park in San Francisco and it deserved its own dress. This version of the Carnaby Dress is in medium weight linen from the FabricsStore in a color called Wild Cherry. Nice to sew and nice to wear but it wrinkled like there was no tomorrow. It's the nature of the beast.
My pattern review is at PatternReview.com here.