Making a Patchwork Dress & A Winter Walk in the Woods
It’s another windy day outside. Lately we have had such strong winds, I almost can’t believe it. Healthy trees have snapped in half and the scaffolding for repair work on the steeple of our town hall has tilted precariously, warranting the need of a crane to come and reinforce it.
Between the wildfires in California and our unusual winters that now bring no snow and more ice, I ache for the world, for us, for its creatures. “Remain resilient” is what I remind myself. “Do what you can” I repeat over and over again.
Thinking about these extreme weather events both here in New England and out west has me thinking so much about climate change and consumption. How can we reduce our impact? How can I reduce my impact? I feel as though, every time I’m ready to start a new project, I go online to look for new fabric and material, forgetting about all of the scraps and excess I already have in my one plastic storage bin of fabric. I am so ready and willing to buy more…conditioned to buy more. This immediately affects the environment in so many different ways and I just wonder, “Can I reduce how much I consume? Can I relearn to be content with less?”
In general, I try to make most of my garments with low-waste cutting in mind. That means everything is basically cut from rectangles and squares. There are some exceptions, as you’ll see below, and there are solutions for how I manage that, but overall by cutting out only squares and rectangles it means I have more useable fabric in the future and it’s much easier to do flat felled seams on straight edges with a treadle sewing machine than it is curved seams. Plus it’s less fussy, which I like.
Looking at my bin of fabric last week, and wanting 3 yards of new fabric to make a sleeveless dress for the summer and as a layer for the winter, I thought to myself, “I bet all those extra rectangles and squares, cut-offs from other projects, can be made into a new piece of fabric to use.” I also had been seeing lately on a pinterest board patchwork dresses targeted at me to buy (thanks algorithm) costing about $500…that’s quite a bit of money for a dress! I figured I could probably make something similar and use up a bunch of fabric in my bin.
It took me a few evenings to sew all the fabric pieces together. I used flat felled seams on all of them and didn’t really care what color thread. I just wanted to use up what I had - little bits of thread left on bobbins from other projects that would never get used otherwise. In the end I was able to make 3 yards of fabric. I couldn’t believe it. I had enough fabric cutoffs to make 3 yards of fabric for a new project. And there is still more cutoffs in the bin. Smaller pieces, but still, those can be made into little fabric coasters or patchwork napkins. I just couldn’t believe how much “waste” I had lying around in that bin that actually could produce a complete and whole garment. It was pretty humbling.
I knew I wanted to use Sew Liberated’s Hinterland Pattern, but just for the bodice. I have a hard time drafting a low-waste sleeveless bodice so I just use this one. There are some curves, so it does mean I have some scraps, but I just turned those into a creative little art project later (basically all the scraps were knitted together to make a decorative wall hanging).
I cut out the bodice from my new 3 yards of fabric as well as the waist ties. The rest I cut out two large rectangles for the skirt.
I had some scraps of bias tape lying around from other projects, so I used that to create some contrast at the neckline, but kept it on the inside for the sleeves. The shoulder seams and side seams are all flat-felled since I made this on my 1911 treadle machine and no longer have an electric machine (this means no zig zag stitches!). This ensures the garment seam allowances won’t fray in the wash. It also just looks so nice and neat with all the seam allowances encased!
I really dislike gathering stitches because it feels like a waste of thread to me and a bit fussy, so I usually go for pleats. I did box pleats and honestly I don’t do any measuring or anything. I just sort of eyeball it and pleat away until it’s the right width of the bodice. Those get basted together and then I sew the top onto the skirt!
Now, to ensure the waist seam allowances don’t fray in the wash, I usually encase them in some sort of bias binding. I had an old package of quilt binding I bought secondhand at the thrift store, so I just used that. I really don’t care how that looks, since it’s mostly functional and I just want to make sure the seam allowance is secured.
I hemmed the dress and voila! An entire new dress made from all of my old fabric scraps lying around and pretty fashionable considering it looks a lot like the patchwork dresses for $500 I saw online.
Now, I did have some little bits leftover like I mentioned, so to make this as low waste as possible, I turned all the leftovers into a ball of fabric yarn, knitted them up, and then made a decorative wall hanging. Some other ideas I thought the leftovers could be are lavender-filled sachets for my clothing drawers, needle cases to store sewing needles, a creative fabric necklace, and future patches for worn out garments.
Overall, I had a wonderful time putting this dress together and I still can’t believe that I was able to create 3 yards of fabric with all of my leftover fabric scraps! Scraps that otherwise would have just been sitting in my fabric bin for months and months with no project plans in sight. Perhaps this might inspire you to use up your fabric scraps for a future project!
And now, as promised above, a few pictures of my winter walk with Birdy. Birdy is my neighbor’s dog. I’ve known him since he arrived three years ago when I started working as the studio assistant for my neighbor. I recently left that position as my other work has become more demanding, but I still ask if I can go out in the woods with Birdy for some magical woodland exploration! It’s snowing outside and I can’t wait to get the skis out!
