The Sewaholic Cambie Dress

The Cambie Dress is completed, and I am happy with the finished product.

This was a large project for me to tackle since I was out of town until Sunday evening.  As soon as I arrived home last night, I cut out the fabric, the lining, and then the interfacing.  That took almost an hour.  Then, I started sewing.  After working on it for a couple of hours, I had to stop because I was getting so tired (and couldn't quit watching the Olympic Trials for gymnastics).  First thing this morning, I jumped right back to working.  Two and a half hours later, I was finished!  The dress isn't difficult to sew, but there are a lot of time consuming parts to this garment.  First of all,  you have to cut out pattern pieces for the fabric and the lining which means alot of cutting out.  Then, you have to sew the main dress (the outer fabric) and then basically make an entirely new dress out of lining so you are sewing two dresses essentially.  The bodice front and back has darts along with the skirt front and back so you spend a decent amount of time putting in all the darts in the outer fabric and then the lining.  When the bodice is sewed to the waistband and the waistband to the skirt, you have to make sure the bodice darts line up with the skirt darts, a detail I didn't really pay attention to until after I put all the pieces together.  All of my darts luckily lined up except for one which I had to take out and redo.  The pattern lists the difficulty of this project as intermediate, but because you have to line the entire dress with an invisible zipper, put in multiple darts that must line up, and create pockets, the difficulty may be more for the advanced intermediate depending on your experience.  If you have made lots of garments before or have sewn lined dresses, this may be no problem for you.  I have sewn many dresses but none that were completely lined because I usually go for projects I can complete fairly quickly for instant gratification!  But, I must say this is one of the nicest dresses I've ever made, and it looks professionally sewn with the lining.  I found the directions very clear and easy to follow, and the illustrations were helpful.  The finished fit is very flattering, and I love having a dress with pockets.  I am very pleased with the 100% cotton poplin I chose to use because it was great to work with, and it was a great price.  At only $8 a yard for fabric, the entire dress was $30 including fabric, lining, and interfacing. It would be difficult to buy a fully lined dress for that price!   If you need a charming dress this summer, this one is definitely worth the time it takes to complete.