I don't think it comes as a surprise to anyone that I love my new Farrow Dress (Grainline fan girl over here)! I put off making one for a long time, thinking that I didn't really need another swingy, a-line dress right now. I really don't.
But my knitting group had a sewing day a while back and my friend Mackenzie was sewing up a Farrow of her own and I fell in love with the pocket construction! So of course, all my justification went out the window and I decided to sew one up for our recent weekend trip down to California.
Nate and I went down to the Paso Robles area to see his family and met my parents there. We did some serious wine tasting and it was a gorgeous day! Perfect for summer dresses.
The fabric is the solid smooth denim from Art Gallery Fabrics "The Denim Studio" line in Frosted Sage. I was curious about this fabric when it was first released, but hadn't had a chance to try it yet. I had picked up a few yards of this fabric a couple months ago, planning to make the Inari Tee Dress, but decided that it would work much better as a Farrow. Plus, I'm all for instant gratification and I had it in my stash when I decided I needed a new dress. Working with what I've got!
The fabric is technically the same weight as a quilting cotton, but definitely has a very different feel - it's much smoother and comes across heavier due to the slight drape. It still has a good bit of structure and breathes well. I would use this again for some woven Hudson Pants, an Alder or an Archer.
With my more curvy body type, it has a little too much structure to be all that flattering in the Farrow, but it's comfy, so I'll let it slide. And considering it doesn't wrinkle too bad when it comes out of the wash, I'm considering it a winner.
The pocket construction in this pattern is BRILLIANT. I love it so much! I kind of felt like I was doing origami while sewing and these amazing pockets just appeared. I tried to tell Nate how cool they are...I think he zoned out while I was talking. Maybe this is my inner sewing nerd coming out, but they're really great. Who am I kidding, this is definitely my inner sewing nerd...
I couldn't decide if I wanted a long sleeve or sleeveless version of this dress. I went back and forth for awhile and ended up landing in the middle. I settled on cuffed sleeves to make it a little more casual for summer. Plus, the wrong side of this fabric was just begging to be turned up a little...
I shortened the sleeve to about 5 inches below the armpit and added an inch of width to the cuff. My illustration is definitely not to scale, but it should give you an idea of the alterations (in red) that I made to the original sleeve pattern (in black).
The only other alteration I made was to use bias tape to finish the neckline instead of a facing. I want to tell myself that it's because I prefer bias tape, but really I just ran out of fabric thanks to sleeve re-do. Oops.
I should have done a full bust adjustment, but with the pocket construction, it was more than my head could handle on short notice. I'll probably try to figure out how that will work for my next version. I think I'll see if there's a way to add the extra space to the bust without adding more width to the dress farther down, as it's already pretty spacious.
I also might add some length to the front of the dress. I've come to realized that I tend to be more conservative than I thought I was when it comes to the length of dresses. This one isn't all that short at all in the grand scheme of things, and yet I still find myself worrying that things are showing that shouldn't be showing when the wind blows. I think another inch or two would do the trick.
I would love to play around with some color blocking with this dress! I think it would be fun to add a stripe in the middle or simply change colors at the pockets. There have been a couple great colorblocked versions popping up on Instagram for inspiration. It could also be a great way to add in some specialty prints! I'd also like to try a more flowy fabric, like a rayon challis or silk...something that will move with me a little more.
It'll be so fun to see all the different variations start showing up for summer sewing! This pattern will definitely be a popular one for Me Made May...which is starting in a week!! We've got some fun things planned for the month, so keep an eye out!!
