Zero waste project 22: floaty dress

I made a floaty sleeveless #criswoodsewsparasol dress, and it’s zero waste!

This pattern is by @criswoodsews and has unlimited sizing – there are no pattern pieces to print and cut out, they’re drawn straight on the fabric according to your measurements.

I made this dress from 130x130cm of drapey fabric I bought from a local street market (no idea what it is exactly, but a burn test showed it’s not polyester). I wanted to cut it in a zero waste way, so I used the whole fabric width and bias binding for the ties and facing. It’s missing pockets, but I plan to add some later on – pockets aren’t optional 😆 (but cutting straight lines in this fabric was soooo hard, it kept moving!)

The dress is very breezy and floaty, and I’ll be living in it for the rest of summer 😅 I’m not used to wearing oversized dresses though, so added some small thread chain belt loops to the side seams so I can loosely tie it at the back. And on days where I just want to float around I can take the waist tie off and the loops are hardly noticeable.

When I was making it, I ran into an issue where the sleeve got caught on a door handle and ripped the seam right at the stress point. Luckily some kind folks suggested I mend it with interfacing, and that worked really well! The rip and the accompanying mend are nowhere to be seen. 🤫 I’m going to have to be careful about the armholes though – I might need to close them a bit more, because I’m short and my arms are right at door handle height!

#zerowastesewing #zerowastefashion #criswoodsewsparasoldress #sustainablesewing #tentdress #petitesewing #zerowaste