First off, thanks so much to DailyCandy for featuring The Hundred Dresses in their book report yesterday! (I was especially gratified to see that they excerpted some of the lines that I particularly liked myself, that’s a good sign …)
Here’s another W3 dress:
I think I bought this shirting-weight fabric in LA a few years back. The stripes are a grape-jelly purple, which is a color I don’t wear very often, but I really loved the contrast of the wild abstract circles and the shirting cotton.
Here’s a view of the side zip. I’m not sure why I always take a picture of the side zip. If I’ve done it well, there’s literally nothing to see, and if I’ve done it badly, it’s, well, bad. Should I keep showing them? Let me know.
I thought this picture would give a better view of the skirt construction, but with the stripes and circles I’m not sure if you can really see the pleats/gathering arrangement:
One of the things I love about this skirt pattern is that it is straight, not curved, at the bottom, so you can do a very very deep hem to weight down lightweight fabrics like this one. (I know you can do a deep hem with a curved hem, too, theoretically, but in practice it’s always such a PITA — the easing! — that I hardly ever bother. This hem is probably four inches deep, so eight inches of total fabric. It hangs pretty nicely. Here’s the back view:
And another close-up of that shoulder pleat. It is a nice detail, isn’t it?
And today is the official publication date of The Hundred Dresses in the US! Available wherever fine books are sold:
PS to my wonderful beta readers — your copies will be in the mail tomorrow!
A Dress A Day 
showing the side zips – good, bad and ugly – is honest and provides hope and inspiration to other dressmakers. Have you tried sewing one t’other way up yet?
weighted hem. good point.
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I like seeing the side zips! I also like seeing pictures of the pockets- it’s inspiring to see the smooth silhouette of the dress, and then proof that indeed, there are pockets! Plus, I enjoy seeing what contrast fabrics you choose to use for pocket lining.
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I’m so glad The Hundred Dresses is finally out so everybody can enjoy it.
It’s a treat to get a longer “hit” of Erin talking about dresses, because she is a very entertaining dress-talker, as well you know if you follow this blog.
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Love the “grape jelly purple” stripe!
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I like seeing the zippers and other details and if they’re a bit wonky it makes me feel like it’s okay to be less than absolutely perfect and I don’t need to be so hard on myself.
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oh, this is the best reason yet for me to post them. Nobody has to be perfect! Be kind to yourself! You made something, that’s awesome!
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I have a dress length of that fabric in my stash. I *think* I got it from FabricMart (in PA). I got to this post, and said “hey, I’ve got some of that fabric” and my college age daughter came and looked and said “of course you do”. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it, largely because I had no real idea what it would look like once sewn up. So thanks — I’ve moved it up the queue. 🙂
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Congratulations on new book. Buying it, of course!!
I like everything about this dress, and thanks for the deep hem/straight skirt–looking for that in future for lightweight fabric. Keep the zipper views–when they’re bad, it is somehow comforting…
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Zipper views are good! makes me realise that my first attempt at inserting an invisible zipper wasn’t so bad! I’ve shied away from them for years as I fit a very good conventional zip, but I took the plunge on my last project and it’s really not that bad. So I am going to shut off the ghost of my old dragon of a sewing teacher wispering in my ear; ” CAROL! that seam Is a fraction out!”
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