Hello there and how are you? Hope you’re doing well this fine Friday night! I’m popping in with a short and sweet post on my latest summer dress, which is this adaption of the Paper Theory Zadie jumpsuit. It’s my third iteration of this pattern and so I’m not going to particularly talk about construction as I’ve covered it pretty thoroughly in my original jumpsuit post and also my more recent playsuit hack post. Suffice it to say that this dress version is as fast – nay, faster even – than the jumpsuit versions. You can get this sewn up in a few hours, no sweat.

The adaption was one of the videos from The Foldline’s lovely Sewing Weekender event, which took place last weekend. I’ve never attended before – for obvious reasons. The Foldline ladies are based in the UK and I live in Seattle. This year was online, however, and although I couldn’t see everything live in real time, most of the content was videos to watch at your own pace. They were all no more than half an hour and I was immediately drawn to this dress hack of the wonderful Zadie pattern from Tara at Paper Theory.

I’m not sure if Tara will be releasing this video elsewhere, but I don’t think it’s giving the game away to tell you that it’s quite a simple change. You make the top up the same as normal and then add gathered rectangles as the skirt portion. Et voila! I really enjoyed watching Tara work through it though. There were lots of useful little titbits to pick up and the process order was interesting, even for a simple hack like this. I am no hacking expert and something like this is very confidence-boosting for those of us who like to *follow a recipe when making clothes.

I made the same size as before – the 16, which represents a size down from my measurements. For the skirt, I used Tara’s suggestion of 75% extra fabric compared to the width as flat. One thing I did change slightly was that I made the ties much longer – perhaps double the original length. I really wanted to be able to form a big bow at the front and I like the effect.

My favourite part of this project is the fabric and pattern match. Some sewists in this world are pattern-first people, where they decide what to make and then find fabric to match. Others gravitate towards the fabric first. I’m one of the latter. I do sometimes buy fabric specifically for a pattern, but mostly I let my brain wander through my stash and usually I know right away when the “right” fabric comes to mind. In this case, I was really excited when I remembered about this piece of Nani Iro double gauze.

It’s a double-bordered piece, called “Peaceful Cooing in Green”. No, I have no idea what that means either. I got the first piece from NekoNeko over in Singapore in one of their sales. I think they’re a very good store with fast delivery and a great selection of fabrics. I realised when I made up the skirt that I didn’t have enough to gather it at my intended ratio.

At first I thought I would just make do, but when I mocked it up, I could tell it wasn’t going to look the way I wanted to. So… I decided to bide my time, which was VERY difficult for me. I managed to find some extra yardage from BobbieLouFabric on Etsy (thank you Bobbie Lou!) and waited a few days until it arrived Totally worth it though! I love this grass green colour and there’s no doubt that my choice of fabric gives the whole dress a definite retro feel. I love that!

I’ve been wanting to use a bordered fabric for aggeessss. The truth is, I couldn’t quite picture what to do with the borders and I was a little unsure about the whole thing. This, however, was a perfect pattern to use for my first bordered look as I was familiar and comfortable with it, and I also knew right away how and where I wanted the borders to fall. I used it crosswise and featured the thicker areas of cloud/popcorn/cooing?? in the upper bodice and skirt hem.

I can’t tell you how happy I am with the result. This turned out exactly as I pictured it – and that doesn’t always happen! If you haven’t had the pleasure of making up the Zadie pattern yet, I really can’t sing its praises high enough. I now have a jumpsuit, a playsuit and this dress – and I know that won’t be my final version either! It’s fast and it looks great on everyone. Really a well-deserved cult favourite.