Reviving Deadstock One Piece at a Time

I received this amazing deadstock fabric from Yardblox, a company dedicated to selling deadstock fabric so it can live another life beyond the shelf. It is a 100% Korean cotton plaid fabric, light weight, and with spring colour palette.

Yardblox has an amazing selection of deadstock fabrics for both your statement pieces and your everyday basics. They even sell deadstock designer fabrics from Reformation, Zimmerman, Levi's, and many more. I highly recommend you check them out!

The Moodboard

I want to get in that habit of collecting my ideas, pattern, inspo, fabric swatches, and some notes into one place so I can make a solid plan. This one started with the fabric swatch and right away it made me think of the dresses from Rave Review (two dresses bottom left). Rave Review is a brand known for using only deadstock fabrics and playing with asymmetry. I wanted to bring that asymmetry into my own design which you can see on the far right in my notebook. 

Initially I tried to pattern draft this exact design, and it was going well until it really wasn't. The fit around the armhole and the waist just wasn't working. Normally I would work the problem out but time wasn't on my side, so I did the next best thing. I bought a similar pattern that I could manipulate.

The Pattern

I bought and used the Caroline Dress from Viki Sews in size 38. It had everything I needed, the long sleeves, length, loose fit, and ability to add additional style lines.

The other two patterns I was considering were Pattern 900 and 1270 from Grasser (I reeeaaaallly want to make 1270 one day). Also asymmetric dresses!

The adjustments I made were:

• a bust reduction (I followed the video Two Easy Ways to Reduce Your Bust Darts)
• moving the whole bust dart down 1"
• making and A-line shape bottom
• decreasing sleeve length by 1/2"
• widening back facing to allow space for my brand label
• adding two asymmetric waist seams, which required mirroring the front piece to then make one pattern piece for each quadrant making up the whole front of the dress

Bringing It All Together

Sewing the dress was definitely the easiest part of the whole project. In the end there wasn't too many complicated things but when you have simple silhouettes and designs, it's VERY important to make sure it's perfect. Any small flaws are very noticeable.

Luckily, part of my design was the intentional mismatch of plaid at the seams. From far away it is not so noticeable but it's a fun surprise when you come closer. I wanted it to feel like a 'glitch'.