Head to toe in Rifle Paper Co.

Who doesn’t love Rifle Paper Co.? I have been lusting over their gorgeous fabrics for ages. They are extremely hard to come by in the Czech Republic – I have so far only seen one print in Materialistic. So when Lamazi fabrics had their Boxing Day sale, I treated myself to a couple of pieces. This rayon was the most treasured one, and I kept rethinking what I would like to make from it. It’s only 112cm wide, so I bought 3 meters to have enough fabric to play with. I finally bit the bullet last weekend and made it into a swooshy summer dress (and still have about 0.5m left, which I might squeeze a cami out of).

The pattern is a bit of a hack – I seem to enjoy these lately. The bodice is from the 04/2020 issue of Burdastyle magazine, and the skirt is the Simplicity 8606 wrap skirt. I have tried both patterns before and fell in love with the details – the beautiful square neckline at the front and deep V-neckline at the back of the princess-seamed bodice, and the beautiful shape of the skirt enhanced by the flounces. And the tie straps which tie into cute little bows! So why not combine them into one perfect summer dress? I had no trouble doing so, the only changes I made was not cutting the belt for the wrap skirt and adjusting the wrap to fit exactly onto the bodice.

*Excuse the sunburnt patches on my back – this is what happens when you forget sunscreen*

I am quite happy with the fit, as I have already tweaked it on my first version of the bodice (which I will post about later), but it could still use some more tweaking, especially at the front under the bust, where it is too loose. I will try reshaping the princess seams there and see what happens. The back, on the other hand, might need a bit of loosening. In any case, if anyone has any fitting tips, let me know!

To give it a neat finish, I lined the bodice with a thin white cotton and finished it by hand – I find these hand-sewn finishing touches so satisfactory! It really allows you to savour the last few stitches before you can wear your new garment. I’m also particularly happy with the invisible zip in this dress, as it turned out great!

All in all, I’m really pleased with this dress! I hope I will still get some wear out of it before the summer is over. Meanwhile, even though I still have a long list of summer makes I would like to sew up, I will probably have to put them on hold till next year and start thinking about some autumn/winter makes. The list, as always, is endless.