Adding to my Housedress Collection

During the winter I primarily work from home. I hate commuting in the cold and snowy weather so being able to work from home daily is perfect for me. Being home, I tend to wear house dresses. Or in my case comfy maxidresses when I don't have a lot of meetings. I do tend to dress (shirt/blouse & jeans or leggings) when I have a day full of zoom meetings but primarily house dresses are worn. Since mine were getting ratty, I was on a mission to add some new ones in a couple of different styles. 

So the premise of these dresses are well put together, comfy yet casual dresses to be worn to work from home. One thing...this post is photo heavy because I included all three dresses I made using this pattern combo in one post. 

I made this dress exactly five years ago...

...and I wore it to death finally relegating it to a nightgown/housedress. When I saw this ad on Instagram this summer, I knew I wanted another one or two!  

So I saved the ad and am just finally getting around to making more. To make my version of this dress, I started with the top of the Cashmerette Washington Dress and added the long sleeves from Cashmerette's Pembroke top. This is truly taking pieces of patterns I like and making them into the garment I want.

In this post I'm highlighting the first three versions I made ~

The first one is a grey/creme knit purchased from Fabric Mart last spring

The second version is a tie-dyed french terry purchased from Fabric Mart's online store last fall.

The third is a solid black bodice and striped skirt.  The bodice is made from a black poly/rayon/spandex knit from StyleMaker Fabrics.  The skirt is made from a rayon poly knit from Fabric Mart's brick & mortar store.  Purchased during Carriage Corner Sew Camp last August.

One thing to note ~

I was 45 lbs. lighter in the original maxidress than I am presently. Which is really interesting because I still wear the dress to sleep in - probably because the knit top has stretched and pilled. I started with a size 26 bodice for these versions instead of the size 22 I last used, because of my weight gain.

I'm also using the Pembroke sleeve pattern because Jenny updated her sleeves for wider arms in her newer patterns. This sleeve works so well in my Pembrokes that I made it work for these dresses.

The skirt is 88" wide and 42" long.  Basically I cut 3 yards in half, then cut off several inches from each side to take in some of the width.

The Grey/White Striped Version ~

Supplies ~

4 yards of a cotton/rayon knit purchased from Fabric Mart last spring

Knit bias binding gifted to me by Jenny several years ago

Construction ~

The defining factor of this dress is the stripe matching on the bodice. I took a lot of care to insure that it matched all the way across the bodice. 

• Cutting the back pieces with a seam instead of on the center fold of the fabric.
• After cutting basting the pieces together to insure the stripes matched
• Then machine stitching them with a large basting stitch
• This put the construction order out of whack
• When it was time to put the sleeves in, I unpicked 2 of the stripes so I could sew the sleeves in flat.

Using this method insured that the stripes continued to match across the bodice and matched 80% at the bodice and sleeves. I'm fine with this. I used all of these techniques to make an upscale house dress.  Yes, I know...overkill!

A Few Pictures ~

The Yellow Tied Dyed "French Terry" Version ~

I recently bought some French Terrys from Fabric Mart. I loved the tie dyed colors. However, I was a little disappointed in the weight of them when they arrived. They felt more like ltwt. rayon jerseys than the French Terrys I'd touched in the store. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled with this purchase but decided to use the yellow for a house dress because bright color on dreary winter days.  

I'm glad I chose it because even though it's lightweight, it is comfortable, easy to wear, feels like a big warm hug and works for my work from home life. This one was a straight sew. I used no special techniques because the fabric needed none.

A Few Pictures ~

The Black Solid/Striped Version ~

I was putting fabric away when my hands touched the fabric used in this dress.  I was actually in the middle of finishing up a shirt and the urge to make this one was so strong that I set the shirt aside.  I mean there will be another sewing weekend when I can finish it right?

The fabric that I used for this one elevated it. Because I used a knit with more rayon in it, I did something with this one that I didn't do with the first two. I added bias tape to the shoulder seams and to the waistline seam. Specifically I added an iron on bias tape to the waistline thinking I definitely didn't want this one to stretch out of shape.

Well, I almost can't get into the thing because of that. The waistline is so rigid it's bordering on tight.  I'm hoping that with it's first washing maybe some of the tape will wash out...but I'm not counting on it...because I encased the bias tape with a serge finish. That beautiful gathering is basically pressed than serged in...*sigh*

Some photos ~

Conclusion ~

My goal is to get a two week work wardrobe of house dresses. I made one in 2020 out of ponte that's still going strong. Now I can add these three. I also have two more patterns that I want to use to add some variety to my house dresses. One thing I've realized is that I will never spend as much time as I once did in an office. So I need to have a good work from home wardrobe now.

...as always more later!