Hello Internet Friends!

Today I’m super excited to share my most recent make a striped linen Acton Dress by In The Folds :D This dress has been floating around in my mind for a while now. I’ve had the Acton pattern for at least 2 years and even made a muslin of the bodice but never got around to actually making the dress. I had tons of plans of different fabrics to use but somehow the plans never made it off the page into reality. Things changed while we were in Japan and I spied this lovely navy and white striped linen and I just knew that it was destined to be an Acton dress.

Now that I had my ideal fabric I just needed to carve out the time to actually make the dress lol. In a fortuitous set of events friends of mine throw an annual boat birthday party with a theme and this year’s theme happened to be ‘nautical’…what’s more nautical than a navy striped number? Out came the fabric and fabric shears and away I went! In possibly a personal new record, I cut and sewed the entire dress (minus the hem) in one weekend! I cut everything out and then went to the monthly Vancouver Garment Sewists meetup and got sewing! I was so pumped up by all the good sewing mojo at the meetup that I went home and just kept on sewing until it was done!

I really like how the stripe matching turned out even though it’s not ‘exactly’ the way I had envisioned it (in my mind the v shaped stripes would be across the whole front instead of just the center front….but I actually kinda like the way the side panels meet the wide stripes of the skirt and also line up with the dress side seam). I actually cut the front bodice twice because my first plan was to have the stripes running vertical throughout but when I put it together it hid all of the construction details. I was so glad that Becca of the past thought ahead and bought more fabric than I needed! (although not quite enough to get a top out of the remaining fabric I’m afraid!). I was so proud of my stripe matching skills on this one! Because of the thin then thick stripe it took a lot more planning to really make sure things would work out!

Let’s talk about fit! For me dress fits like a dream! I’m so glad that I had previously made a muslin to test out the fit prior to cutting into my fabric and would highly recommend you do the same if you are considering this pattern because bust fit is super important here. (Also I was super pleased that Becca of the past had completely pre-made the muslin so all I had to do was re-confirm fit and then I could just get straight to the fun part of cutting and sewing!) I cut a straight size D and made no alterations to the bodice, the only thing I did do to the pattern was to shorten the skirt by 3.5” #ShortGirlSewinglife I was initially worried about bra issues with this dress but ultimately decided to wear it bra less, I could have added some internal support which I may do in a subsequent iteration but for this version the bra-less option was super comfy and the minimal support that the design features add seem to be enough :D

In the close up shot above you can see the tiny, tiny straps on this dress lol I opted for the high back option and because I suspect that I have some slight rounding of the shoulders the straps only ended up being less than an inch long when they were all set in. I other than this slight suggestion have no idea why the straps ended up being so short to get a good fit for me but there ya go. Also fitting the straps in was pretty hilarious, it’s recommended in the pattern to try the dress on prior to sewing in the straps and the bodice lining so I had the #fluffyblondemonster help with the pinning……..yeah I got stabbed a few times and I learned I really need to give him a lesson on how to pin fabrics because just sticking a pin straight through things does not work……….but I managed not to bleed on my pretty fabric so it was all good in the end! :D

I only managed to get one picture of the back of the dress which is unfortunate since I think it looks just as amazing as the front and super flattering! I’m super pleased with how the stripe matching lined up along the back with the zipper and everything. I’m also super impressed with this installation of a invisible zipper, I feel like each time I do one I get a bit better and this one is my best so far! Probably because I actually took the time to hand baste in before sewing it so nothing slipped about :D hopefully Becca of the future remembers to do this with her next invisible zip (which may actually be in another acton dress since I love this one so much!!)