Remember this dress, with the twisted pintucks? After some of you asked to turn it into a tutorial, I decided to make another dress so I could take pictures of the process, and wouldn’t have to draw them.
The fabric I used for this version is a beautiful lawn from Monaluna, which I bought from Sew Fine Fabric when I was in Arizona last year.
The pattern I used is the Tinny dress (hey, I spent months drawing it, I might as well use it once in a while). I did a little experiment with the sleeves, with the very kind help and instructions of Griet (Emma & Mona) but I messed up somewhere and so the result is not what it should be.
As you can see, the dress is rather short, and probably won’t make it to Summer. Apparently, Norah has being growing a lot lately! Well either that, or I did some stupid miscalculation (*cough*).
Okay, on to the tutorial. I ended up drawing the steps after all, because a thief broke into our house and deleted the pictures I took from my memory card. Well either that, or I accidentally erased hem myself (*cough*).
Tutorial: Twisted Tucks
Making the twisted pintucks (which I also used in the Saudade Sundress) is very easy, and doesn’t even take that long. The only piece which you have to change is the main front piece. And this is how:
1. From your main fabric, cut a rectangle which is at least 12 cm (5″) wider than your front bodice lining:
2. With your tailor’s chalk, mark the middle of the rectangle with a vertical line. Draw two more lines at each side of the middle, all exactly 3 cm (1.125″) apart.
3. Fold the rectangle with wrong sides together right on top of the first line…
4. … and stitch at exactly 1 cm (3/8″) from the fold.
5. Create the other 4 pleats in the same way.
5. Next, fold the pleated rectangle in half with right sides together. Cut your bodice front from the rectangle.
6. Divide your bodice in three equal parts vertically (excluding the seam allowance). At each marking, press and stitch the pleats to the left or the right in alternating order.
Your main front bodice piece is ready. You can now finish the dress as you would normally do.
