Cris Wood’s Glow Dress
On the weekend I finished sewing the Glow Dress from Cris Wood’s new book It Starts with a Square. I reviewed this book last week and made some things from it, but didn’t get to finish this dress.
The Glow Dress has a V neck back and front, shoulders gathered with elastic (but could use ties instead) and an elastic waist. The skirt is tiered, with a flat upper skirt and gathered lower skirt.
The back and the front are the same.
As with the other patterns in this book, the dress is constructed entirely of rectangles.
For fabric, I had some Liberty lawn – I bought lots of this red and white print on sale some years ago and have been gradually using it up (recently for the bias top from Sewing Without Scraps). There was a big L-shaped piece from cutting other things, and with a bit of juggling pattern pieces I used it all up except for a little scrap of selvedge. Very satisfying!
I made a little change to the pattern. The dress has an elastic waist but I substituted a drawcord to accommodate a fluctuating tummy. I sewed two tiny buttonholes at the centre front for the drawcord ends to emerge, with a double strip of the above selvedge to stabilize. I made a narrow matching drawcord (with joins).
This dress is for my (long covid, mostly bedbound) teen to wear as a nightie/dress, but my other teen tried it on too and we all liked it very much.
We thought it looked OK with the drawcord left loose, too.
It Starts with a Square is a lovely book and it’s been a thoroughly enjoyable sewing experience making things from it.
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This is such a pretty dress. I keep thinking about it. I would prefer sleeves, but that’s not hard to do.
Agree, it’s very pretty, with high “twirl factor” when teens tried it on 🙂
Very cute model, I nevertheless like it much better with the belt. For sleeping, the belt could definitely become uncomfortable but what about putting a loose elastic band in the casing to cinch the dress a little without constraining the belly?
Good things to consider. Teen hasn’t “road tested” it yet in bed, because the armhole it a touch too high for her and I haven’t lowered it yet. Funny, both teens and I are almost the same size, but vary a lot in underarm depth. I’m sure Teen will give feedback when she wears it properly! 🙂