June - already?

Well, May whizzed by without me documenting any projects.  Good thing I do this so I have a record of what I've done and not for any audience!

I got to the point where I felt I had enough basics sewn to get me through warmer weather, so then I decided to play a bit. 

When we lived in Houston, many moons ago, everyone had at least one "Mexican" dress. (Local terminology - I believe they are more properly known as Oaxacan dresses) They were (and probably still are) sold from vans along major routes in a virtual rainbow of colors, sizes and designs. Not especially finely crafted, they were a fun casual "just throw it on" look and a great pool coverup. My own were worn out (and truthfully, outgrown) long ago. So I decided to try my hand at one.

I used a pattern diagram from redpajamamama.wordpress.com (May 14, 2008 entry). I intended to make a full length dress, but messed up with the fabric requirement, so it became a top. (sad face) I decided to use a beefier cotton than what I remembered from the van dresses, and ordered some Kona cotton yardage. That was really nice as a background fabric for embroidery, but actually a less heavy fabric would have been better for wearing drape. Live and learn. I bought an embroidery pattern from Folkwear for the bodice and used it (sort of) for what I expected to be the front bodice. Oops, no - I placed it much lower than I wanted it so...that became the back bodice. I hadn't cut out the head hole, so that wasn't a problem. Then I decided I really didn't want that on the front even properly placed. I ended up taking some elements of the Folkwear embroidery pattern and adding some other random flowers and a couple of butterflies from a stencil I had. Somehow it came together and I ended up with -- 

Definitely not a work of art, but cheerful enough for a breezy summer top. I used regular 6-strand floss divided in half for the embroidered elements, and pearl cotton (size 5) for around the neckline, sleeves and lower bodice.

I wasn't really happy with the way the sleeves stuck out at a 90 degree angle, so took a small dart at the sleeve edge going to nothing at the top of the sleeve. It seemed to pull the angle of the sleeves down just enough to be tolerable and simply looks like a seam.  I'm thinking in a lighter weight cotton this might not have been an issue.

As for the back, with it's too low design --

My embroidery skills are embarrassingly primitive, but I'm OK with that for this type of garment. Basically it's satin stitch, outline stitch and chain stitch. I tried a feather stitch, but ummm, no. My appreciation for the artisans who do this on the regular is immense. 

As much as I'd like to have a full length dress for the summer I think this particular itch has been scratched. The amount of time that it would take for an inexperienced stitcher (i.e. me) to do this by hand for a full dress would be enormous. So, while I'm glad I tried it will be back to my regular sewing for my next projects. It would be fun to try small hand embroidered touches though -- a shirt pocket perhaps?