cambie.... the weekly soap

Last year I finally bought Cambie. She (a dress pattern has to be female!) is a pattern that I have been pussyfooting about for ages. She is going to help me sew three wonderful dresses (or at least that is the plan!). Two for work, one for the winter in a dark brown wool and one for the summer in a lightweight grey and black patterned cotton-mix. And the third one in a traditional German woven blue and white check with red/orange details.  The third one is a special dress. I shall tell you more about that one when I get to it though. Just let me tell you it has to be a wow to live up to the occasion I am intending to wear it to.

 The fabric for this dress trio was all preloved fabric that people didn't sew up. The dark brown wool came from a charity shop fairly nearby that always has a tempting stock of yardage (or should that be meterage). I bought it thinking boy's trousers but the rate they get through trousers at the moment, the only thing I would be prepared to sew is leather with steel kneecaps! So after I got over the boys's trouser idea, it went into the stash for a while. The great thing is, now I can count it as stashbusting.
 
The grey and black cotton came from my "Nähtreff". More about the actual sewing evening itself another time. In November last year a local theatre put on a production of "The Fiddler on the Roof". There was a call out in the local paper for fabric and notions to make costumes with. The response was amazing. People brought in truckloads of wonderful fabric and notions. The lace.... people gave their buttons collections... well all that was left after sewing the costumes went into the Nähtreff stash! This lovely cotton was left over and asked if it wasn't used, if it could be earmarked for me. Lucky me... it wasn't needed. So it will become a lovely little Cambie for me. Lucky me. Despite picking it up this year, I reckon as I asked for it last year, that it does not count as a new addition this year. 

As I am making three dresses and using lovely fabric, I decided to make a muslin. That allows me to play with the bodice length too. Madame long body here. I even chose a muslin fabric with a stripe so I could see what went on with the stripes for the third dress.