I’ve been on a real corduroy kick lately. When I was younger I mostly bought quilting cottons because those were readily available and affordable. This was back before the boom in indie fabric production. You could by other types of fabric, but JoAnn’s mostly had polyester and it was incredibly hard to judge fabrics for purchase online. The few times I tried ordering I had very mixed results. So today I love that so many of the newer fabric companies (and many older ones too) are coming out with fabrics suited to garment sewing. Bring on the corduroy!!!

Elizabeth Olwen’s collection Floratopia from Cloud 9 is gorgeous. A lot of other lines skew too twee for me, but these are more appropriate for the whimsical adult so I purchased dress quantities in two colors ways, Go Your Own Way and Tiny Dancer.

Then I turned to the Emery Dress pattern from Christine Haynes. I saw a sample of the Emery Dress in the window at Sew LA (which recently closed, sob!) and purchased it immediately. I love it’s classic styling with fun details. Corduroy is not a recommended fabric, but I knew from sewing with Rae Hoekstra’s Small World fabric that it is light weight and has good drape. I forged on.

It is largely a very successful dress! 

But the neckline it too big. In the front it is okay. Wearable for sure, but the back bags really terribly. You can see where the zipper is flipping out and there is just inches and inches of extra fabric.

So this weekend I’m going to try and tackle altering the back so it fits a little more closely. I want room to move, but this is just too much. I should have made a muslin I know, but I made this for Halloween and was on a tight deadline!  Thankfully the way Christine designed the darts in the back means that it shouldn’t be too difficult to take in and hopefully I’ll be able to update you soon! Especially since I have another dress quantity of fabric to work up and the weather is actually fall-like in LA. Yay Fall!