A Rose is a Rose is a Rose - Flora(l) Saltspring Dress

I will start my back-log of blogging with my most recent make, as I was so extremely lucky as to get some photos of it outside last weekend. I find it really difficult to find interesting and public-but-sheltered places for taking photos, and very awkward to go out and shoot the photos, but was lucky with both this time around.

Back to the dress. This is my wearable muslin of the Sewaholic Saltspring dress, and it ended up exactly as I had hoped it would, if not better! I will confess to not initially liking this pattern when it was released, but my great success with the Cambie, Hollyburn and Tofino made me curious to Tasia's other designs, and I kept seeing really cute dresses Modcloth similar to the Saltspring, so I figured it was worth a try.

I am still not sure if this silhouette is flattering on me or anyone else with bigger hips, but I like it for being a bit different from my other fancier dresses. It is very comfortable, and I feel graceful and feminine in it, despite the lack of more waist definition. I am wearing a obi-style belt in these pictures to define the waist.

The shell fabric is some cheap poly chiffon I bought on our trip to Stoffenspektakel on my birthday last year and the lining is an optic white crepe georgette with a bit of stretch that I was lucky to find as a remnant at Stof&Stil. The shell fabric has really grown on me since last year, and I am happy to finally having made it into something pretty.

I made my usual size 10 and skipped the muslin, but made some small adjustments to the pattern before cutting. I lengthened the bodice lining with 2 cm to comfortably fit my longer torso and shortened the outer bodice with 1 cm to remove 3 cm of the blousing in all. I also eliminated the zipper, as other bloggers reported it unnecessary and made adjustable straps instead of the tie-straps (I slaughtered an old bra for the sliders). I am happy to report that the dress fits really well, and that I can get it on quite easily over my head without the zipper.

The original skirt was also a little slim for my taste, so I used the By Hand London Flora skirt instead. I just made a pleat on the Flora skirt pattern piece until the waist seam fit the Saltspring bodice lower edge, and the skirt width fit my fabric, and cut the hi-low version with an extra 10 cm length. I used the original short skirt pattern pieces for the skirt lining.

I finished the outer skirt with french seams and a tiny baby hem. Everything else is finished with my overlocker and as described in the pattern.

Eliminating the zipper makes this a fast and easy project, even for a beginner. Swapping the skirt and making adjustable straps was the most difficult parts of this dress, and those were my own add-ons.
This has definitely been an experiment in silhouette for me, and I might not make another one of these for a while. Until then, I'm off to sew ALL THE COTTON DRESSES! Bye!