I’ve got a hack of the Fiona Sun Dress by Closet Core Patterns to share with you today.
Do you ever have a garment dream in your mind that you somehow just can’t quite seem to bring to life?
For me, a sun dress in a nice big gingham check is that dream.
A couple of years ago, I sewed the Jessica Dress by Mimi G with a view to trying to create that dream. But the truth is, I really didn’t like the finished product. My hacks didn’t work well. I messed up the piping detail. The fabric (a cotton poly blend) didn’t feel great to wear.
So I have had in my mind, for a while, the idea of trying to recreate the dream gingham sun dress.
I decided, this time, to use the Fiona Dress as my starting point as I liked the way my first forays with this pattern worked out.
Unfortunately, however, I’m afraid that this dream is destined to remain precisely date, as this one hasn’t quite worked out either!
My Fiona Sun Dress Hack
This is the view B bodice of the Fiona Sun Dress because I find that cross-over back effect to be irresistible.
My Fiona Sun Dress uses the size 12 bodice as its starting point but, from the waist downwards, I graded out to size 16 to give me some extra room.
Although Closet Core is in the process of updating patterns and releasing them in a more size inclusive range, the Fiona Sun Dress only caters for a maximum hip size of 122cm so remains non-inclusive.
I have also, obviously, foregone the skirt piece and added a simple gathered skirt.
In the end, the reason I’m not particularly happy within this Fiona Sun Dress is that the fabric (pure cotton) is too light and it’s not holding the structure of the princess line bodice well.
It is also too tight around the bodice, leading to all the drag lines. It seems I should have sized up around the bodice also. And the princess seams combined with the check is rather visually jarring at times!
Aghhh, why can’t I get this dream sun dress right?
By the way, any tips for where to get large-scale gingham fabric in Europe? I see them all over websites in the US and The Fabric Store has a gorgeous large gingham linen at the moment, but I wanted to keep costs down by purchasing within Europe. But every gingham I found was much smaller scale. In the end I bought this one even though it’s a bit too lightweight as it was the only one I found on the scale I wanted.
And don’t even get me started on where we can get out hands on gingham linen, rather than cotton, in Europe.
Ahhh, the dream!
For me, this Fiona Sun Dress is definitely not a total disaster. I think it’s eye-catching enough that non-sewists won’t dwell on its flaws.
But, for me, the perfect gingham sun dress still eludes me. Perhaps next summer will be the one!
Nonetheless, despite my ambivalence on this one, it’s lightweight nature and open back were very welcome on my recent vacation to Greece and it made quite a few appearances in the Aegean sunshine:
If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.
Hello Beck! This is my first comment in your blog ever 🙂 you are lovely and blog is inspirational and helpful.
I’m very new to sewing, and as a procrastinator I’ve been actually focusing rather on fabrics, in addition to hoarding patterns which I have yet to sew (so far have made only one skirt and one top!).
So, I guess for fabrics, Etsy might be your best bet? With regards to linen, look at Lithuanian based shops. I have not ordered any yet but their reviews are amazing. I don’t have a particular shop (I can look later into what I favourited on Etsy) but the range of colours is mind blowing, and some seem to carry more than just plain linen.
Cheers! Tania
Hah I actually realised it’s my second comment! In one month!
It seems you’re now officially a commenter!!!! 🙂
Welcome to the world of comments! Thanks so much for the ideas. And I can totally understand why a sewing journey would commence with fabric and pattern hoarding – I think I did something similar! Etsy is a great idea indeed, I don’t use it much but I know plenty of other sewists do so I need to explore!!
Such a summery dress!
I have seen large scale checked linen at cousette.com and also batikou.fr.
Thank you!!
In Dutch you would be looking for ‘Boerenbont’ or sometimes ‘geblokt’ + ‘stof’ instead of gingham. Many shops include the mm size of the repeat.
Ahh thanks. Great to know!
Have you tried underlining a fabric that is too light? Susan Khalje spoke to our sewing guild about underlining, she said it is the backbone of couture sewing. Everything is underlined to give structure and also it lets you put markings on the underlining and stitches that never show up on the outside. She was asked to make a tailored jacket for someone out of a lightweight silk, which would be impossible, but with underlining, you can change the weight of the silk to make it work. I would underline the bodice of your dress, just use a lightweight cotton batiste and plunk it on the wrong side of the pieces and carry on as if it were one layer.
I second the idea of lining the bodice – it wouldn’t fix the tightness you mentioned but it would give the gingham the structure you’re looking for. The large scale gingham is so cute and I love the back straps.
That’s a great idea and you’ve also reminded me that my original Fiona was lined (although not underlined)
Oh wow, this dress is very cute! Love it, especially those photos in Greece, you look like a vintage film star! 🙂 As far as fabric goes, why not try in France, and search for ‘Vichy’ or ‘Carreaux’ online? Even though the Vichy pattern is usually smaller, some stores still store the big gingham pattern and call it ‘Vichy’. I quickly looked this up just now, they have a nice one in stock on Tissus Papi (I love this shop), one on Mondial Tissus and a couple on Les Coupons de Saint Pierre (ugly website, but a lot of choice).
Perfect, thanks so much! I didn’t actually know the word for this in French until now!
Hi, did you see Closet Core’s hack with the Fiona Sundress and Fiore skirt? I haven’t tried it yet myself. My muslin of the Fiona was too tight on the bodice as well. I am a 12 on top, too.
Ahh no I haven’t seen that one but it looks basically like what I’d been trying to do with my original black and white one. I’ll check it out!
There is Some gingham double gauze available at the moment in these Belgian shops (no linnen though)
https://www.destoffenmadam.be/en/fabric/fabric-type/double-gauze/
https://www.lanalotta.be/search/Ruiten/
Thank-you!!
I see Merchant & Mills has lovely gingham linens in large sizes – I bought some grey & the quality is lovely, although it is quite expensive over here in Vancouver.
You are so prolific a sewer, glad to see you took a well earned vacation!
Thanks!