The Dreamstress

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A Chintz Robe for Lynne

Hurrah! Comments are back! Thanks to some awesome work by my brilliant webmaster, who figured out what the error was and did the way-beyond-my-capabilities fix that was needed, you can now see comments, and have conversations, and do all that stuff that makes blogging good.

To celebrate, a blog post about someone who I met because they are an awesome commenter & community member.

Lynne’s been following my blog and commenting and supporting since the very early days of my blogging. She joined back when the blogging world was tiny, and you felt like you knew everyone. It was so long ago going to meet an internet person in person was totally normal and not scary and potentially dangerous!

So when Lynne asked me to come visit her, I went – and she’s been my costuming fairy godmother ever since. I had two lovely long visits amidst her beautiful gardens in Ashburton. I’ve since made lots of things from the gorgeous fabrics she’s gifted me (like this fur muff, and the wool for the fantail skirt I’m wearing in these photos, and the wool for my Waiting for Bluebells dress).

She moved up to Christchurch and I’ve been wanting to go visit. At the end of August a work trip and minimal Covid restrictions in Wellington & Christchurch came together to allow me to spend four fabulous days with her.

In addition to lots of talking about books, enjoying her new garden, and sharing recipes and film recommendations, I made her a robe.

Making Lynne wrappers is what I do when I visit her. I like a good tradition!

She’s been tinkering with a robe pattern for years, getting it just right. I used her pattern as a base, and made some further adjustments she’s been thinking of. The fabric is a lush Indian block printed chintz.

It’s heavily based on traditional Japanese kimono patterning, but with more of an overlap, alterations to the sleeves, and all machine sewn.

I’m an active relaxer, and I prefer hanging out with people and doing things. It was perfect to be sitting in her lounge cutting or stitching along on her lovely Bernina while chatting.

We taught Jack, her cat, how to be a sewing cat.

He had no experience in that area, and wasn’t sure about this new role, but he caught on quickly He mastering the basics of lying on fabric right when your person wants to cut it, rucking up the neatly spread out fabric, trying to eat the sewing scissors, and chasing extra fabric strips.

Clever boy!

I hope Lynne enjoys the robe in Christchurch’s hot summers.

The Te Aro Dress & Top Tester Makes!

Published by The Dreamstress

Pssst, don’t forget that the Te Aro Dress & Top is 25% off for another 2 days only!

A big shout out to the fabulous group of testers who helped with the Te Aro pattern. I had a lot of ideas with this pattern (there were so many view options!), and a fantastic testing group really helped me to refine it down, to polish off the rough bits, and to get it just right as a pattern.

Testers help ensure that a pattern fits just right on a wide range of bodies. They follow the instructions and let me know if they are clear, and will make sense to the average sewist across the world. They point out all the bits I could make better — and the patterns are better for all their input.

And they provide lots of inspiration of fabrics and notions! (so dangerous — I go away wanting a half dozen more versions to use all their ideas!)

Here are the tester makes!

Mie of @mieh1973

Mie mixed it up her Te Aro, combining the View A length, the View B sleeves, and the View C neckline, for a completely custom look.

Her thoughts on the pattern? All in all: I love it. I love the different shapes, the different possibilities to “play around” with the pattern. And it is a very quick and fun project.

Denise of @Dismara

Denise did the absolute cutest thing I have ever had a tester do. She made a Te Aro…and then she made a matching one for her adorable dog, Marshmallow!

She made View A. And Marshmallow’s is, of course, the very special View D for doggie!

Denise’s comments on the pattern were “super comfortable and super customizable. I am so very pleased with the sizing… I love it and will definitely make more.“

Becky of @allhandsatelier

Becky is another one who customised her Te Aro test, combining the View B length, with the View A sleeves – and then making it even more unique by adding the pockets from Views A & C!

Can we talk about how amazing the orange bindings and hem facings are?

I love her versions, and she was happy too, saying: “I really enjoyed this pattern and will probably live in it all winter! I will likely need to make several more too.”

Janet @sew_sister

Janet made her View A version of the Te Aro in record time, in the most deliciously comfy looking sweatershirting. Her fuchsia lining definitely influenced the black & white striped sample I made!

She reports that the Te Aro fits better than her similar RTW dress.

Big Happy Beautiful Sewing

As soon as I sew this testers blog I knew I wanted her as part of the group: such a fun, enthusiastic approach to sewing!

She chose View C with the View B sleeves.

She says: “Loved sewing it. It was a quick sew. An easy sew too. Loved the way the pocket was constructed. The only thing I don’t like about this dress is the fabric I choose. I used very soft and thin cotton jersey. I bought it online specifically for this make and it turned out thinner than I had in mind.” Although the fabric is thinner than she wanted, it’s still a beautiful make!

Adele of @adelebagalini

Adele made View C with View A sleeves in a lovely dark red jersey with a beautiful drape

She also had all sorts of fabulous ideas on what to do with the pattern: I really like it! It’s really versatile! You can wear it alone and it is a perfect dress to lounge around in, or you can fancy it up with some accessories and go to a nice dinner out. You can even put a belt or cincher on top… I also like the quickness! It is really a dress that you can see in one day.

Rachelle of @sewsable

Rachelle made up View C, pairing a beautiful wool jersey with a striking floral for her sleeves.

A huge thank you to all the testers for their incredible work! I so appreciate it 🦋

Day dress, 1897, Historic Deerfield Museum

Rate the Dress: Deep Blue Day Dress

Published by The Dreamstress

This week’s Rate the Dress dress is brought to you by my latest research and sewing deep dive. I’m obsessed with the big sleeves of the mid-1890s. I’ll show you the results of my research and experimentation in due course.

For now, it’s a slightly belated Rate the Dress – and an imperfect one. I’m having trouble with the ‘Comment’ function on the blog. I can see how many comments there are on a post. I can see the actual comments behind-the-scenes. Alas, however, comments aren’t showing up on the post so you can see what other people have written, and have a conversation.

If I can’t fix the problem we’ll just have an interesting experiment in which we find out what people think of a garment without seeing others reactions…

Last Week: a pink and green 1780s gown

Some of you liked last week’s dress, but no one loved it. Unusually for the 1780s it didn’t receive a single 10/10 rating. Everyone felt there was something not quite right: the colours too clashing, the proportions a little off, or the embroidery not worth the effort.

The Total: 7.1 out of 10

It’s a slight improvement on the week before, but hardly a stellar rating.

This week: an 1890s day dress in petrol blue

This week’s dress Rate the Dress is an upmarket, but not quite couture level, 1890s day dress.

It features a bodice with slim fore-sleeves in taffeta and large upper sleeves in silk velvet. The silhouette of the sleeves is made even more visually impressive by a matching velvet berthe collar. The collar travels up from the front of the bodice, falls over the sleeves, and hangs on either side of the back bodice seam. At the front it frames buttons which are both functional and decorative.

The fore-sleeves are decorated with widely spaced bands of velvet trim. The same bands are echoed on the skirt’s hem, forming its only trim. The strong horizontal lines are repeated in the back belt and in the standing collar.

The skirt is the slim, structured A-line of the late 1890s, and could easily be made from the Scroop Fantail Skirt pattern, with gathers instead of pleats and a slight train.

The gathers of the skirt are repeated on the low collar, and an additional note of softness is added to the dress through dual rosette on the back and front of the velvet belt.

It’s an overall play of severe and soft, all held together with a harmonious colour scheme in one plush fabric and one hard fabric.

What do you think? Is this an elegant and tasteful gown for a place and situation when wearing Worth would have been showing off?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

As usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment.