Checked Homer and Howell’s Cissy Dress
This is another Homer and Howells Cissy dress, a wintery version in a warm fabric this time. This dress started with the fabric which was on the Minerva blogger list. It was listed as flannel and I originally thought pyjamas but I asked my sewing chat for advice and my friend Carol mentioned she's made a Cissy in a checked black and white so I straight up copied it (I asked of course).
Details below as always.
Pattern: Homer and Howells Cissy dress
Size: 16
Fabric: this is a Robert Kauffman cotton fabric that is badged as flannel, although it is not what I would have pictured as flannel. I actually couldn't find a definition of flannel outwith dictionary sites, so I don't know what about this makes it flannel. It's not soft and drapey and fluffy like pyjama type flannel, it's a dense weave, structured and definitely the heavier side of medium weight. It wouldn't make good pyjamas at all! But it is good match for this dress. It would make a good light jacket too.
I had 2.3 metres as the pattern requested, but if you cut the back on the fold (see below) you would need more.
Adjustments: like the first time I made this pattern, I omitted the back zip. Then I just cut the back bodice on the fold, this time I actually took out the seam allowance to do that. I didn't have enough fabric to cut the back skirt on the fold as well, so I still did that in two pieces.
Other than the zip, I hadn't adjusted anything last time, this time I did a full bust adjustment and a forward shoulder adjustment. For the FBA I just added half an inch in width and didn't adjust the bust point or anything. I added the extra width to the side of the front panel.
I'd never done a forward shoulder attachment before. I measured the seam line on my first version, and I would have needed to move it lots (like 2 inches +). I lost my nerve a bit, mainly because everything I read about forward shoulder attachment was talking in the region of 1cm/half an inch. Also if you do a big adjustment you really would have to adjust the sleeve head as well, which just seemed like a scarily big job, and not one that anyone on the internet seems to have described. So I just did half an inch, and to be honest I'm not sure there was terribly much point, the shoulder seam is still sitting way back.
But I guess it doesn't matter since the whole thing is very loose and airy. It might feel quite different a size down and then the shoulder situation would matter more.
Pattern matching: Special topic! I'm not a good pattern matcher and usually actively avoid it. For this I thought as long as the pattern pieces were correctly aligned to the grainline, it would be fine so I did not attempt to match. This turned out to be mostly true except for the back skirt seam, which is about as far out of alignment as it's possible to be be with that fabric. Really wish I'd tried to align that! But at least it's on my back so I don't have to see it - out of sight, out of mind
Re the aligning the pattern pieces with the grainline, I also went slightly awry in he front bodice and/or the front skirt panel, which isn't that surprising given that that pattern piece is huge for the latter at least. You can see the black stripe getting wider on my left side, and it does annoy me quite a bit. I think it may be possible to sort this out by adjusting the seam allowance to take it on more on that side, but it may mean rehemming the whole skirt, and I'm not convinced I wouldn't just end up making it worse. So I've decided to just leave it as is just now and see if I get used to it. It certainly doesn't annoy me nearly as much in real life as in the photos.
And I'm really excited to have this lovely winter dress!
