Merchant & Mills Camber Dress

This project was one of those very slow burning projects that started life a year or more ago when I bought the pattern.  I had in my stash a piece of cotton that I would describe as heavy shirting.  I picked it up in a designer clearance sale.  At the time I had no idea what I wanted to do with it but a shirt may have been in the back of my mind.  When it arrived though, it was just too heavy to make a shirt out of so I immediately changed tack.

Merchant & Mills Camber had been in the back of my mind for a while.  I wanted a shift dress with a somewhat more relaxed weekend type of fit that I could wear with sneakers.  I have made this type of dress before but the pattern I had previously chosen just wasn't the correct cut for my body shape (note to self; stay away from cocoon shapes they don't work for my pear shape). 

I was determined that this project get completed this summer so shortly after New Year, I made this one up.   After cutting the fabric and painstakingly lining up all of those checks, the sewing was pretty quick. 

 

Because the fabric is quite thick, I didn't want to double turn the hems, instead opting to finish them with a bias binding finish using a piece of gingham from my scrap bin.  If I am going to embrace the table cloth, why not go all in!

I am pretty happy with how this dress turned out for a wearable muslin, but for future versions I will need to do a forward shoulder adjustment and I am thinking I might need to add some waist dart shaping.  I am not sure about the later because that would mean I would need to add a zip closure.  This dress is loose enough that I can just pull it on over my head with no need for any closure at all.  All in all I would call this one a win.  It is really nice to wear and as I hoped works very well with sneakers.