Pattern: Ebony T-Shirt & Dress by Closet Case Patterns
Fabric: ponte knit in olive (sorry y’all, I never look at the end of the bolt)
I saw a dress in a store window a few months ago, and immediately started planning my own sewn version of it. It was a sweater knit swing dress with a huge cowl neck that looked comfortable and cool. I stopped by my local fabric store and picked up a beautiful olive ponte knit to get the weight and drape I was after and started poring through my pattern collection for a match. The very next day I saw Heather Lou’s Ebony Dress on Instagram, exactly what I was looking for! I just needed to draft my own cowl.
I am pretty new to drafting anything myself, but adding a cowl to this pattern was easy. I chose the scoop neckline so the cowl would be loose, rather than a turtleneck. Once I had sewn together the shoulder seams I measured the circumference of the neck opening. I also measured the height of a favorite cowl on a ready to wear tunic. Then I cut a rectangle – the circumference wide x twice the height (with seam allowances). Then I folded the height in half, sewed it into a tube and attached the tube to my neckline.
I really love how this dress turned out – it swings wonderfully when I move and makes me feel cool. This is the sort of dress I never would have bought in a store before I started making, because it “isn’t flattering” to my figure. But my wardrobe priorities have shifted as I make my own clothes. I bought clothes based on “the rules” of to mask my flaws and highlight the parts of me that were acceptable. Now making something that I enjoy the look of, that feels good on my body, and is enjoyable to make feels more important than dressing to look as thin as possible. It does a better job of making me feel good in my clothes. Every time I wear this dress I think about Erin McKean’s well-known blog post You Don’t Have To Be Pretty, which now 10 years later I am finally starting to believe.
Do you make different clothes than you would buy? Has making changed your wardrobe priorities? Let me know in the comments below!
This looks SO GOOD on you! I’ve made the tunic and am almost done with a tee from that pattern…you may have convinced me to make a dress, too.
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Thank you! Now I want to make a shorter version for summer – I think color blocked with a different colored back than front. I hope you share pictures of yours!
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You’ve put into words exactly what I’ve been thinking. I definitely bought different clothes than I make, always trying to find that thing that made me look the thinnest… but in making clothes I love the looser fitting silhouettes; they feel so luxurious and like a splurge because I feel so great wearing them!
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It’s great that sewing allows us to know ourselves in a new way!
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