Hello, everyone! I'm Sherizad and I love to sew. I especially love sewing dresses and Abayas with big or puffy sleeves. I share my sewing projects in my Instagram account @sewsweetprints I lost my sew-jo lately but when Maria from ThreadWerk contacted me to write a blog and sew an outfit from her lovely fabrics, I was so ecstatic. A great boost for me plus I have been eyeing gorgeous fabrics from her website. I chose Rayon Crepe, Nairobi Night from Maria's fabrics collection because I was attracted to the lovely prints. The fabric has a wonderful flowy drape, it is soft with subtle crepe textures, it has a bit of weight unlike normal rayon and it is slightly stretchy.
For the pattern, I chose an Indigo dress by Tilly and The Buttons. This is my 3rd indigo dress and I'm looking forward to making more. I love this pattern because it's so comfy, suitable for the UAE's hot & colder season (easily layered with an outer). I am into loose & flowy or swishy dresses plus I adore the gathered seams. To me, rayon crepe is one of the best fabric to make an indigo dress.
I made a size 8 from the pattern, with no major adjustments. I only shortened the bodice by 1.5 inches, removed 4 inches from the skirt, since I'm vertically challenged! 😂 For the sleeves, I hacked it into Bishop sleeves with elastic band cuffs. This is my fast way of doing my Bishop sleeve pattern from the Indigo pattern; I traced the original sleeve pattern onto my drawing paper ( I used Ikea drawing paper roll) and from the copied pattern, drew vertical lines and cut them but I did not cut it off fully, I stopped at the sleeve head. Spread the cut pieces about 2 inches gap in between and 1.5 inches at the end of it. Finally, I traced the sleeve pattern on another drawing paper and from this, I have my new Bishop sleeve pattern.
I prefer this type of sleeves and cuffs because I love the silhouette of puffy sleeves and for the cuffs, it is easier for me to take wudhu or ablution before performing my prayers. I can just pull my sleeves up and down with ease. I added side pockets to my dress, oh yes! Pockets are a must-have for preventing awkward hand poses when posing for photos! I added a cute handmade label from KATM (Kylie and The Machine) to my dress.
For this project, I used a Microtex needle number 80. My sewing machine is Singer Promise, it has basic functions and I set the tension thread to 9. I used a straight stitch and finished the raw edges using my serger. Working on this fabric was such a breeze, easy to cut as it was not slippery, the raw edges did not fray much although it creases a bit but it does not bother me. Overall, I am very happy with my new outfit!
I will be making more Indigo dress in future as it is one of my favourite pattern. It is a versatile pattern where it can be hacked in many ways.
Thank you, Maria, for giving me this opportunity to write and share my sewing project and thank you, everyone, for reading my very first blog post.
ThreadWerk: Thank you so much Sherizad for sharing this gorgeous dress and the details your sleeve adjustments with us. Shop the fabric & pattern on the website. Or check out some of the other Rayon Crepes available online:
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