Village Frock

This post is long overdue! Last year i attended an incredible course at the OCAC: Exploring natural dyes. During the time I developed seek, i researched several dying methods then settling on reactive dyes for my yoga apparel. But dying with natural dyestuffs was still a method that I was very eager to try even though it is more for private use as it’s hard to achieve consistent results in production. When i found a natural dye course was offered here in Portland, i didn’t have to think twice. I will write in more detail about all i have learned in a separate post but wanted to share a project i made with some of the fabric i dyed myself.

I discovered the Village Frock through this picture on flickr and fell in love with the design. With a little research, i found the lovely designs from Sugar City including the village frock.

It arrived in it’s sweet instruction booklet and beautifully designed paper pattern. I used some hemp/cotton blend fabric that i had dyed with Logwood. I am laughing at myself – ‘i am going all amish’ from dying to sewing myself.

As you can see from the picture, Leona is still a little too small for the garment. Is anybody surprised?  All my projects turned out being to big even though made sure to measure her beforehand. Then i was enlightened by Shelly from Figgy’s Kids that all US patterns include seam allowances! Dahhhhhhhhh! That’s why ALL my projects are too big! Except for the projects based on japanese patterns as those don’t include the seam allowances. Having learned to sew in Germany where all seam allowances need to be added, i just kept on doing exactly that. Selber schuld.

Hah! Even better as now the whole preparation process is much faster! Hurray! And she’ll be able to wear the stuff that much longer…. Oh, she’s a big girl now and does her own dressing choices. There was no way on earth I could convince her to wear other shoes then those blue crock-alikes. So I just went with it.