Scuba Skater Dress
A few weeks ago I went to London for the weekend to stay with my friend Vicky. Our main plans for the weekend were to go to a fancy gin bar, go fabric shopping, and do the Warner Brothers studio tour (i.e. the Harry Potter tour). We did all of those things and more, but what I want to show you is a dress I made with some fabric I bought that weekend somewhere along Goldhawk Road.
It’s a digital print scuba fabric. I’ve been seeing scuba pop up on a few blogs recently, and I was quite intrigued by it. I like sewing with stretch fabrics, particularly quite sturdy ones. When my eyes fell upon this vivid print, I couldn’t resist buying some! It isn’t as thick as I expected scuba fabric to be, and it has a lot more drape than I thought it would, too, which is good because it means it’s more suitable to wear.
I only bought 1.5m because I was fairly confident I would have enough to make a Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress, and I did, just about. What made it slightly tricky was that the pattern repeat on the fabric is quite large and I wanted to align it nicely so that the centre of the pattern ran down the centre of each pattern piece. To do this, I had to trace out single layer pattern pieces, and in order to place the sleeve pattern in symmetrical positions, the sleeves were cut upside down (but you can’t tell!)
The Lady Skater is always a quick sew, and I was able to make the majority of this during my son’s naptime, with just the side seams to close and the hem to do in the evening. For the hem I decided to try a fluted hem on my overlocker, and I’m really pleased with the results.
I wore the dress to the Manchester Gin Festival, which was held at Victoria Baths, a Grade II listed Edwardian building housing three (now disused) swimming pools and Turkish baths. What an excellent and interesting venue for a gin festival! Naturally I had to have a few photos in these amazing surroundings!
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What fabulous fabric – perfect with those shoes!
Great hem. Just completes it.
Thanks Lucie – I love the hem too. It turned out so much better than I thought it would!
Great dress! Looks fab! I also have the very same scuba fabric from somewhere on Goldhawk Road! I made a pencil skirt out of mine. Very easy to work with.
It’s lovely stuff. I bet the pencil skirt looks great. Stretchy pencil skirts are just the best!
I love that fabric so much!! Great dress! Do you think scuba fabric would work to make a bomber-esque jacket? And how does it feel/breathe next to the skin? I’m a sweater, so I don’t like plasticky polyester next to my skin.
Yes I think so. It felt nice next to the skin. Kind of like swimwear but just thicker. This particular one was nice and soft.
PS It definitely doesn’t feel plasticky in any way x
Looovely 🙂
Thanks ☺
That’s a super style that really suits you. I love the fabric!
Thanks Anne. I’m pretty smitten with it 😍
That’s a fabulous fabric – love the skater style – and beautifully made! Very quirky…. I actually use to go swimming at the Victoria swimming baths in Manchester in the 60’s – those changing rooms are so familiar to me … I think I smell the chlorine lol. 💕
Amazing! The friend I went with also went swimming there with her mum in the 80s. It reminds me of a swimming baths we used to go to at school – two per changing cubicle! My partner and I were always last because we were too busy giggling!! There was no lingering smell of chlorine, surprisingly! Then again I’m told that the baths closed in 1993.
Fabulous dress, the print is stunning. Great photoshoot venue too!
The print is amazing isn’t it? So vibrant! I adored Victoria Baths. Hardly drank any gin, was too busy taking photos of tiles and stained glass!
Incredible fabric. The dress looks great on you!
Thanks I’m so happy it worked out. The fabric deserved to be sewn into something pretty.
Love this print (and the lady skater pattern in general!) – I always assume scuba will be heavy and not very wearable but this looks really lightweight and the print is so vibrant
Louise
It is! I thought scuba would be kind of foamy, a bit like a yoga mat or something?! Like a wetsuit. Maybe there are different types. This one is just like really smooth and soft but thicker swimsuit fabric. I considered making a Bombshell swimsuit with it but actually it is definitely too thick for that.
What a lovely dress, gorgeous fabric!
Thanks Inge ☺
Rad fabric find! you did great with pattern positioning ;o)
Thanks. Had to also ensure that I didn’t end up with pink flowers right on my boobs! Would have looked pretty stupid!
Beautiful dress!
Thanks! It has been worn a lot!