Xerea dress ft. Moomin

Have you noticed how much the quality of the photos on my blog has improved recently? This is the result of an encounter with two talented co-workers, one of whom happens to be an amazing photographer and the other, a make-up artist. Even though  all three of us work in tech, we each aspire to more creative expression of our inner selves. We have decided to meet together from time to time and work on different photo projects, thus helping each other to improve and evolve artistically. I don’t know how long we’ll carry on working together, but so far it has been a very inspiring union.

For this project, I was determined to sew the Xerea dress, because just a few weeks before Pauline, from Pauline Alice patterns, gave me  me both of her latest patterns as a present: Xerea dress and Sorell trousers. The style of the Xerea dress reminded me of my, literally worn to pieces, Louis Vuitton dress: the 60’s silhouette, comfort and playfulness.

I got in touch with my ‘creative team’, showed them my dress and they came up with many great ideas for a shooting session ‘60’s reinvented’. And here it is!

Now, a little bit more about the dress. When I just saw the preview of the Xerea dress, I immediately thought about using my Moomin fabric, which has been waiting for a perfect dress pattern for the last two years. I bought it at Cocca, a concept shop in Tokyo, selling fabric, clothes, haberdashery, umbrellas and small house decor objects. It turned out, they also produce textile, including some Moomin fabric collection! Since I purchased only 1.3metres of the fabric, I went for the sleeveless view A.

Prior to cutting the precious fabric, I made a muslin, because I remember from my previous experience with the Ninot jacket, that Pauline’s patterns incorporate seam allowances. Personally, I prefer when patterns I work with do not include seam allowances, because I find it easier to focus on stitching lines, and  0.5cm seam allowances give me enough room to sew. Since the Xerea dress includes 1.5 cm seam allowances, I removed 0.5cm from the size 38.

So, first, I sewed the muslin together, then I applied a couple of modifications and, lastly, I removed 0.5 cm from the altered toile’s seam allowances. My first modification was to raised the bust darts by 2cm up. Second, I took off some fabric from the under shoulder blade area, creating a dead dart along the seam attaching the yoke to the back.

The entire process from sewing the dress to coming up with a theme for the photos to the actual shooting was hard work, but also lots of fun. It is not the same when a photographer tells you what to do, how to turn, how to look versus you taking your own picture. This is by far the toughest part of working with professionals. In the future, you may expect a few more ‘serious’ photo sessions and few frocks. Meanwhile, I am off to Iceland. And you? Any holiday plans?