Between winter illnesses and long vacations, I’ve been unable to get near my sewing machine. But as luck would have it, I recently realized I never got a chance to write about my vacation dress from last fall. This past November I got married in French Polynesia. This seemed to be the perfect excuse to finally make use of some fabric I had bought in Hawaii a few years back. I could picture it perfectly: a summer dress using Polynesian-style fabric for another Polynesian vacation. While I had some triumphs figuring out the semi-confusing instructions on this dress, the end result was not as perfect as I hoped.

When I saw the pattern cover of New Look 6557, I figured I found the perfect pattern, since my fabric looked very similar to the photo on the front (view B). The print does fit this dress style rather well, but that is not the whole story. The first issue I ran into was when I washed the fabric for the first time. The red color bled into the white, which gave the whole thing a pinkish hue. This happened despite putting a color catcher in the washing machine. I couldn’t believe the fabric bled so much. I guess the quality on this fabric was not as great as I thought. It makes me very nervous washing this dress in the future, but I guess it’s just something I need to be aware of.

I’ve been noticing that New Look doesn’t seem to have the best instructions and illustrations to go along with them. This was apparent when I made my wedding dress and there was a similar issue here. The construction of the bodice was a bit confusing, especially around the back facing piece. I had actually cut out a bodice with some test fabric because I was unsure of the size and I’m glad I did, because not only was the sizing off, but it took several tries to figure this whole thing out. It was a bit unclear as to where the back facing piece was supposed to connect after the sides were attached to the front. I finally figured out that you had to attach it to the seam and then to the top edge, keeping the front sandwiched in between and free so it’s not sewn inside. After this is sewn, it’s flipped to the inside.

You also had to make sure the back facing has a space at the top. This is where the straps are placed and sewn in. This was one thing I really liked about this pattern – sewing the straps after the bodice has been constructed, made fitting a lot easier. I’ve made other dresses in the past where I basically had to guess the length. No matter how many times I measured, it was very stressful to ensure the straps were the right length when you weren’t entirely sure where the bodice would land on your body. Here you could try on the bodice, then place the straps in the hole, pin the right spot where they won’t fall down and sew them in from the inside seam.

This was also my first time doing a lapped zipper. Although there were some basic instructions, I did some research to make sure I was doing everything correctly, as the measurements are very precise on each side. This is not my favorite zipper type, but I feel confident I could do this one again if needed. There is a lot of info on the internet, which is good because I wasn’t quite sure what a lapped zipper was at first.

The other issue with this dress happened when using my tailor’s chalk to figure out where the zipper would go. My mistake was using my red chalk, because obviously white wouldn’t have worked. I guess maybe yellow would have been better? Too bad I don’t own yellow chalk. Anyways, the red stained the dress, and all the brushing in the world could not get it out. No problem, I thought, I’ll just wash it again with some stain remover. Still there. I even tried using some baking soda to scrub the fabric, which lightened the stain a bit, but unfortunately I could still see it. Since I know it’s there, maybe I’ll always see it. Hopefully in time, it will fade, but another disappointment with this fabric from Hawaii.

All in all, I think this is still a great summer dress. It really fit in with my vacation wardrobe in Bora Bora. Despite this fabric being problematic (and possibly cheap) I do like this print a lot. It does remind me of my time in Hawaii and tropical vacations in general. I just wish I had anticipated the issues with the fabric before I worked with it. I guess there is a lesson here to test things out with your fabric. And always use a color catcher.