[Emily]

Hi there!

I just finished two Garden Party dresses and I love them! Just wondering if anyone has washed theirs yet? I’m a little concerned that weird things will happen to the pretty gathered bodice with washing. Would love to hear your experience/how your are caring for the dress. Thanks!

-Emily

Also! Just a little note about two changes I made that were quite successful, if you’re interested….

(1) Instead of using a back facing (I typically dislike “loose” hanging facings), I ignored that pattern piece and just cut two back bodices, one from my main fabric, and one from a lining fabric. It worked like a charm and the back is essentially lined. (I fully underlined both my dresses, so this method worked well with the overall construction of the dresses.) The back looks nice and clean on the inside!

(2) On the second Garden Party dress I made, I reversed the order of the construction of the front yoke. I didn’t love, the first time around, having to edgestitch to attach/finish the yoke on the front side of the garment, so I attached the yoke front directly to the dress front, right-sides together. In other words, instead of the yoke front folding down and finishing on the FRONT, I flipped the process, so it was the yoke FACING that folded down and was finished on the INSIDE. I still did my edge-stitching from the front side (catching the yoke facing in the process), but it just looked much neater and I had no problems! The dress turns out great either way, but I liked the perfection of the stitches by doing it this way the second time around. Just thought I’d share that! Thanks for any feedback about washing!

[juliamom2009]

I have made this pattern twice – no problem after washing. Unfortunately, both of my neck closures shredded at the bottom after washing. Most likely I clipped too close in my effort to get it to turn nicely. But, the gathers look just fine.

[Emily]

@ Juliamom2009 – Thanks for your response! That shredding has happened to me before on other projects, particularly if the fabric was a looser weave, like a linen blend. (I dislike having to clip so close to seams sometimes!)

I might just hand wash my Garden Party dresses, because I’d hate for that shredding to happen on these. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Sarvi]

I think the only think worse than linen is silk. Good to know! Emily, maybe you could add your notes to your garment photo on flickr. People often browse there for inspiration, where a tip in a thread here is hard to find and quickly gets buried.

[Lightning McStitch]

Just typed a long post then lost it, anyway mine did the same thing @juliamom2009 and it was good old quilting cotton. Now in the mending pile.
Perhaps we need to interface both main and yoke. The same issue was found with Badminton dresses. What do you think @liesl an errata or warning required?

[Liesl Gibson]

I think probably it couldn’t hurt to interface a bit at the bottom of the keyhole opening. I wouldn’t interface the entire opening, but maybe at the bottom where there might be some stress you could fuse a little square. It could also work to edgestitch the opening if you’re concerned that it might fray. It will really depend on the fabric, I think.

[Nicole]

When I made mine, http://fiveandcounting-motherof5.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-garden-party-tutorial-part-one.html, I added a wee spot of interfacing to the bottom of the ‘V’ and also sewed the’V’ with a narrower stitch

Both dresses have washed like rags.

One washing tip from me, reduce spin and goffer the gathers a little and then let the dress dry on a hanger.

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[Sarvi]

Is ‘washed like rags’ good or bad? And what’s ‘goffer’? AUS to USA translation, please?

[daisygirl78]

Sarvi, a little bird tells me that “washed like a rag” means it washed well; it’s sturdy. And “goffer” means to fluff out. 🙂