Blue Dress
Sininen nyörimekko
Winter dress
Friend is getting married in February. All the previous weddings I've attended, have been in summer time, so I don't really have anything I could wear in winter. I found a nice looking dress by searching from Google using the words "joka tyypin kaavakirja" (sewing/pattern book I have) and "mekko" (dress in Finnish). What this found for me was Mamselli H's blog and a nice and simple dress with string at the back. I really like the string and the simplicity of the dress. Not because it should be easy to make (though that is certainly a bonus), but because I dislike all the "hörhelöt" and other fancy stuff, they just aren't my style.
Pattern & materials
Mamselli H modified the pattern for the top (yläosa) from Joka tyypin kaavakirja for the dress. I used that same pattern but added the hem from the pattern for A-line skirt (A-linjainen hame).
The fabric is from Eurokangas in Lielahti, Tampere. It is brushed cotton ("harjattu puuvilla", literal translation, not sure if it is the correct term) in a nice muted blue color. For the string I got 5m of light grey bias binding. I wanted to have a clear contrast between the two colors, but not too much. Grey is great also because it fits anything. Can add a scarf of pretty much any color with it.
Bias binding strips, the rest rolled up.
Sewing
I cut the front according the pattern and sew all the folds first.
Front piece with folds pinned with needles.
The back I cut as one piece, then folded it and cut away about 5cm from the middle, so I got a gap of 10cm in the middle.
Back piece before cutting the middle.
Next I sew the shoulder seams and the side seams. Then I cut 14 strips of about 6cm from the bias binding, folded them and sew them to the back pieces, 7 each, from the neck down to about where the small of my back is.
Bias binding strips sewn.
Next I sew the bias binding around the arm holes and the neck hole. I also cut a rectangular strip (~20cm wide) from the blue fabric to go at the middle back and sew bias binding to the top of it too. Then I sew it to the back pieces and sew a seam to hold the bias binding loops nicely in place. To finish the dress, I folded and sew the hem.
Finishing touches
The dress looked somewhat boring without any decorations, so I decided to add some. I got the idea from my Salomon Lark snowboard, which has some stylized birds graphics that I really like.
I used silver fabric paint on a white sheet to paint three birds. I don't think they are of any species, just generic birds. I then cut them out and sew the edges using a very short (0,3) zigzag stitch.
I had originally planned to just zigzag the birds directly to the dress, but I have to say I am very happy I didn't do that. Just doing the edges alone was difficult enough, and I am sure the result would have been horrible had I tried it with the added difficulty of the dress fabric in there. As it is, I sew the finished birds by hand to the dress.
Birds.
Birds on the dress.
Finished dress from the front.
Finished dress from the back.
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