I finally made The Washi Dress

I finally made the super-popular Washi Dress from Made by Rae.  Rae recently released her crazy-popular digital pattern in paper form and I was lucky enough to be asked to make a sample dress for my favorite shop Rock Paper Scissors.  The pattern and the fabric were given to me and the dress currently lives in the shop.  I did manage to snap a few (awful) shots of me (on a cloud day) wearing the dress before I sent it off.  The fabric is from Violet Craft, her Waterfront Park line, and it really is perfect.

People are totally mad about this dress and I get it. It has pockets and a sweet little cutout in the bodice. The empire waist is a really flattering cut on most women as well.  I know it certainly is for me. I made the small size because the pattern suggested making the size that matches your bust measurement.  Ah yes, that would be small. Unfortunately, it is a little tight in the shoulders.  It fits really well everywhere else. The fit on this dress is almost guaranteed to be pretty good, at least in the bodice,  because it has elastic shirring in the back that will keep the front of the dress looking cute and tight.  The shirring also ensures it is comfortable to wear without requiring lots of fussy effort to get a perfect fitting bodice.

I made a second Washi to try to correct for the tight shoulders.  I didn’t want to go entirely up to a size M because I was afraid of making it really bulky in the skirt (you know, my fear of looking pregnant).  Instead, I altered the pattern to be an M on top and size S on the bottom…basically the complete opposite of what I usually need to do.

It mostly worked.  The shoulders fit better for sure.

 For some reason the bust darts are droopy, which has never happened before.  The pattern has a unique way of constructing the darts, the fabric that usually makes up the darts is completely cut away.  It helps to reduce the bulk that sometimes can build up around darts and I had no problem with the first dress…not sure why I have boob droop on this one.  I was a little disappointed with this fabric, it’s from Denyse Schmidt and is really cute up close but kind of drab from far away.  A Washi shouldn’t be drab!  A Washi is a chance to show off a fun print!  So, that’s a bummer.  It looks better when I wear my red sweater.

By the way, my lovely husband took the pictures of me in the second dress and apparently it is very hard for me to avoid smirking when he’s taking the pictures.

Have you made a washi? Did you have boob droop?  Any helpful alterations you would suggest?  I do want to make another in voile, probably this. Has anyone made a washi in voile? Did it need to be lined?  I’m concerned about making a see-through dress. I have many questions today, clearly.  I need much guidance.  I think if I got it just right I would make a closetful of Washi dresses, I just need the perfect tweaks.