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Category: Perry

A Painted Perry

When I made my camouflage Seamwork Perry, I liked it so much that I immediately cut out another one from a cotton Spandex knit from a previous Girl Charlee* knitfix fabric.

I couldn’t do pattern matching when cutting the dress out, so I decided to just cut it out however I could then I used some Jacquard Textile Color* to paint colored stripes onto the fabric to try to mask the pattern mismatch.

I started painting the pieces way back in May.  I did some additional painting some time after that, but then I finally just finished it a couple days ago.  After it was all dried, I heat set it with the iron following the directions.

I cut bodice lining pieces from the same black cameo thermal knit fabric I used to line my Fabricista sweater dress.

I liked the elastic loop and button I used for the camo Perry, so I decided to do that again.  Since I planned this before sewing the dress together, I basted a loop of elastic that I’d colored with a blue Sharpie to the back bodice piece before sewing the shell and lining together at the neckline so that the raw ends are enclosed.  Then sewed on a blue button the finish the closure.

Also I couldn’t find a couple pieces – the front pocket piece and the sleeve cuffs.  I swear I cut them out, but it’s been so long and they aren’t with the other pieces, so either I’m remembering wrong or they got lost.  So, I cut the missing pocket piece from that same black cameo knit and instead of replacing the sleeve cuff with a different fabric, I just hemmed the sleeve 1″ to create a channel then cut pieces of 1/2″ elastic and fed it through the channel.

I also sewed all of the vertical seams with 5/8″ seam allowance instead of 3/8″ to try to size the dress down a bit.

I’m not super happy with the fit of the waist elastic.  I followed the instructions and cut the elastic to my waist measurement minus 2″.  But I must have stretched it out while installing it, because the waist doesn’t have as much definition as my camo one.

There are a few spots where I missed fully applying the color.  When I started with the blue, I was trying to go for a hand painted look, so the missed spots were a feature.  But now that it’s all put together, those spots are a little distracting to me.  Also, some of the coloring between the pieces don’t quite match shades, or the color lines across the seams aren’t exact.  So I may end up doing another pass of the painting.  Although, I am pretty happy with how it looks as is.

*affiliate link – I gotta try to help support my sewing habit somehow.

Perry Camo

My current favorite dress is one that I made out of slightly flawed camo fabric that I got in a bargain bundle from Girl Charlee.  I wanted to try out the Seamwork Perry, but I wanted to use my inexpensive fabric that I didn’t care about, in case it didn’t turn out.  It turns out that this dress is just darling and I love the fabric choice!
I don’t think I ever would have paid full price for camouflage fabric, but I just love the way it looks as a dress.  And I’ve gotten several compliments on it the few times I’ve worn it so far.

The fabric is fairly on the thin side, so I lined the bodice with the same burnout knit I used to line my velour Skater Anna, just to give it some extra coverage so my bra doesn’t show through.

I love the sleeve detail.  At first, I thought I might have made a mistake cutting out the band because the it was way shorter than the end of the sleeve, but I just stretched that band extra hard as I sewed it on and now the sleeve has this lovely little poof at the end that I think is just cute as can be.
The back called for a hook and an eye to close the keyhole opening, but I thought it would be cute to use a button and a loop of elastic.  As it turns out, the neckline is well big enough that I don’t ever have to undo the button, but it is functional just the same.  I found a green button that matched perfectly in my stash and I used a bit of white elastic cord and used a black sharpie to make it match.

 I then took the ends of the cut elastic cord and used my 3 step zigzag stitch and stitched them together side, but side, into a loop.  Then I hand stitched that to the back opening, making sure to make the stitches on top of the (crooked) top stitching so they don’t show too much.

Here’s what it looks like closed up.

And here is how it actually looks on me.

The shoulders are cut a little narrow and the sleeve head comes way up onto my shoulder, so I widened the shoulders on my pattern a bit so that hopefully next time they will look a little better.

And here’s a photo of my Perry on my dress form.

This was a quick make, even though I didn’t quite take the 2 hours the pattern says it’ll take because I lined the bodice and fooled around adding the button and loop detail and also just because I’m a bit of a slow sewist.  But I have already cut out my next one and plan to make a few more.

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