FINISHED! Striped Saiph

Today I have my finished Papercut Patterns Saiph tunic to show you!  I know, another 'drop waist' style. I promise I have some non drop waist styles in my future.  Really!

Toni Maticevski

At Addicted to Fabric late last year I found a lovely navy striped linen. Very sheer but with a lovely stiff drape - a bit like a silk organza? They don't often have navy based fabrics - usually stocking a majority of black and grey fabrics, so quite a few times, I picked up the roll, walked around the shop and put it back, not so sure what I would do with a sheer linen. Of course by the time I decided that I had to have it, there was only 1.5 m left.  I took it home still completely at a loss as to what to make with it - knowing that I'd probably have to line it and it wasn't enough to make a dress. Eek. I rarely buy fabric that doesn't have a plan attached to it, but this was one of them.

Inspired partly by this dress by Toni Maticevski (an Australian designer) that I saw on one of the screens at the Modern Love exhibition in Bendigo (Fortunately a bit of detective work by MaciNic yesterday identified it as his. I had taken a blurry photo of it on my camera but couldn't remember the details of the dress) and also by Marc Jacobs (of course) I decided to trial the Saiph tunic with stripes.

I bought the Saiph pattern and the Rigel Bomber when the new Constellations season was launched last year, and on Friday I purchased the Sigma dress.  I see a few papercut pattern makes in my future! Papercut Patterns really are beautifully packaged, but I'm going to go against the grain. I prefer a PDF pattern now.  I hate tracing and I enjoy sticking those sheets together! Anyway, the Saiph has two variations. For a really cool version of Variation 1, check out the inimitable Sallieoh. Obviously I didn't have enough fabric to make it with sleeves so made a sleeveless version of Variation 2 and this variation provided an opportunity to use the stripe.

I lined the whole thing in a cotton voile, which works pretty well with the linen. The lining is just a mimic of the actual dress attached at the arms and neck. I wasn't sure whether to attach the lining to the dress or just let it hang, but opted to join them about an inch or so on each side.  It works, but not sure if this is 'constructionally correct'.  I'd love to hear your thoughts as to what you would have done.

Overall, I'm very happy with my workmanship on this dress. The construction is simple (only 3 pieces and a simple button closure - which could easily be omitted), so I tried hard on the little details like pressing and understitching and matching. I did a simple rolled hem from my overlocker on the lining, but for the dress did a teensy tiny hem using the same method I learnt with Gertie's Sailor Blouse. It worked well. As you can see the dress is pretty short so I was trying to limit the hem.  By the way, I'm short. Just shorter than 160cm (5'2") so if you are taller you might need to think about how long you might like the dress.  With a bag over the shoulder it does tend to ride up a little!

The only issue is really the size. I was approaching this dress as an experimental dress and part of that experiment was to check the size.  I made an XS but in hindsight could/should have made a XXS. It is big although the plus with that and due to the fabric drape it has a great trapeze look.  

The only major problem is the armscye. It is huge.  Noted for next time! I think even with a sleeve in it would be too big. If I keep my arms down though it's not noticeable.. so the arms will stay down when I wear it.  

This dress makes me feel very 60's mod.  It is fun!  Many years ago I used to have a little pink shift dress made by Morrissey Edmiston (in the late 1990's? that's how old I'm talking) that I used to love to wear out and about when I lived in Sydney. This dress makes me feel how I did in that dress all those years ago!