Sunday, July 06, 2014

Marfy Scuba Dress



I've been doing more sewing than blogging lately, which is probably a very good thing.  I fell in love with Marfy 3507, and decided I had to make it in a neoprene/scuba fabric.  I wanted a print rather than just a plain color and I found an unusual gray floral print at Elliott Berman Textiles.   



I'm not usually a floral person unless it's large and somewhat abstract, and this was small/medium and very traditional.  The style is traditional as well, a coat dress, but the zippers definitely update it.  I did a lot of alteration, and ended up making a trial garment which I didn't hem but is otherwise finished, out of a heavy dark green knit.  I adjusted the front waist size smaller and went on to begin anew with the neoprene.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the fabric was a dream to sew.  It's got body galore, and pretty much did whatever I wanted it to.  No ravelling, no 'squirming' around, it just stayed put.  It did require understitching on the collar and front edges. I used Pam's Pro-Tricot Fusible Interfacing on the collar and the lapel point areas, and that was all the interfacing it needed.  



 

 You can probably see that I used some interesting zippers for this dress.  These are Coats & Clark's Cutwork Zippers and they were very easy to apply.  The only problem I had was that they only came in 2 sizes, 7" and 22".







I ended up using the 7" zippers instead of flaps for the faux pockets.  They worked perfectly. 
However, the 22" zipper was too short to be both as high as I needed it at the neckline and as low as it needed to go on the skirt hem to make the dress really wearable.   So, I took another zipper and installed it from the bottom up, stitching the lower one over the upper when I got to the join.  It's not really noticeable when worn, especially with the somewhat busy fabric.  I like to have it unzipped from the bottom for a few inches for walking ease. 



The dress fits like a glove and is very comfortable, if also really, really warm to wear.  It will be a great winter dress, although as soon as we were done with the photos, I knew I wouldn't be wearing these shoes with it.




  The color is not good on the side view, but I thought the shaping was important to see.  I think this is a great basic pattern and it would be very easy to add a buttonhole extension to it, although the zippers are fun.  Once the alteration work has been done, I like to reuse a pattern if I can.



8 comments:

Summer Flies said...

Wow, this looks fabulous. I love scuba knit but haven't seen it here in floral.

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

I saw that fabric at Elliot Berman and couldn't think of what to make with it. Love how you used it especially with the pretty zippers! Great dress!

Miasews said...

Love the grey fabric but I have never touched scuba knit and am unsure of how heavy it is and how it behaves. I can't get over the "scuba" image, lol!

Carol said...

That dress is so pretty on you!! Love the zippers!

becki-c said...

You made this look so fabulous! I actually like it much better in the print. The zippers are the perfect touch.

Liana said...

Thanks everyone! It was a nice fabric to work with.

Carol Ware, I think this is one of the lighter weights of scuba knit. I'm not sure what the designation would be, but it comes in several, up to a really heavy, boardy one. I was pretty sure this would be okay since it was being sold as garment fabric, and it's floral, not so likely to be a wet-suit!

Vicki said...

The dress turned out very nice. Good thinking with the zips!

Mardel said...

This looks really fabulous!