How to Make the Clementine Dress by Mood Fabrics
I’ve had my eye on the Clementine Dress by Mood Fabrics for a while now. I thought it would be such a good summer make and seeing so many women on social media posting about how they made the dress long, short as a romper was really inspiring! Plus this pattern is FREE. So it was really a no-brainer. I had a wedding I was attending so I thought this was my chance to make the Clementine Dress for this special occasion.
The printing and assembly of the pattern was simple and easy. The pattern was easy to understand and had all the right markings. The pattern called for 3.5 yards of fabric and I ended up getting 4 yards of this beautiful green charmeuse just to be safe. I definitely had leftover that I hope I have enough to make a slip dress out of next! I’ve used this fabric before - you can see the shirt I made here, so I felt comfortable creating the casing and using elastic on this one as well. The dress can be cut on either grain. I believe I went with the long grain just because that was the way the pattern was fitting on my fabric best.
So I’m ready to start assembling the garment and I open the mood website and whoa… I am immediately confused lol. For me, and especially for any beginner sewer, the more details the better. These directions just seemed vague and had me questioning everything. I’m going to re-write the original directions below, and then write in bold underneath each step what I chose to do instead. Hopefully this saves you time and allows for more clarity when constructing this dress.
SOME QUICK MODS
I should also point out that I first made this dress in muslin so I could take my time figuring out my own way to construct it. Once I tried it on it was a lot of fabric for me, so I sized down to a double zero. The size wasn’t an issue because the I had control over how long / tight I wanted the elastic to be around my chest / neck and waist. If you’re petite I would definitely consider sizing down or you might be swimming in fabric. Since I was going to a wedding and wanted a more elegant look, I kept the length at a size 2. I’m 4’11” and after hemming the length hit me right at the lower shins. See the thumbnail picture of this blog post! With heels, this was the perfect length for me.
*Before you even place the pattern on your fabric, make sure you have notches in the middle of skirt at the waist and on the bodice at the waist.*
THE STEPS
Mood’s Step 1: Pre-press the elastic casings
Turn each of the neckline, sleeve, and waist edges 1⁄2” to the WS and neatly press.
Turn again 3⁄4” to the WS and press. Unfold for the next step.
Republic of G’s Step 1: Since my silk charmeuse was very delicate, the first thing I did was serge all the edges. I serged the following:
-Skirt Side Seams
-Skirt Hem
-Bodice Side Seams
-Sleeve
Anywhere where I was going to make the elastic casing I did not serge. So it’s important to take a glance at Mood’s first step before you start serging. Once I was done serging I pressed all my seams open.
Mood’s Step 2: Sew the waistline:
Place each bodice and skirt with wrong sides together, aligning the waist seam allowances. Pin in place as needed. Ensure that you have a mirrored left and right. The wearer’s left will be sewn together with a 1 1⁄4” SA from the CB to the CF. The sew line will be at the second crease you pressed in the previous step.
Republic of G’s Step 2: Now is the time that I took to the ironing board and started folding over the edges to make the casing. This is definitely important to do before you start joining pieces together. It took me a couple of minutes of really staring at the pattern to realize which part was the sleeve and where exactly I should be folding. So below is a photo to make it more clear. Mood tells you to fold over once at 1/2” and then again at 3/4”. To me, the casing is a little large for an elastic width of only 1/4” but the elastic has not turned or twisted, it was more about the look in terms of how much fabric was being scrunched.
Mood’s Step 3: Sew the shoulder and side seams:
Place the garment front and back with RS’s together. Sew each of the seams 1⁄2”, being careful to pivot at the interior corners of the bodice shoulder and right side seam. Clip the interior corners. Finish the SA’s with an overlock or zig-zag stitch. Press the SA’s towards the back.
Republic of G’s Step #3: Attach the Side Seams of the Skirt at 1/2” seam allowance. THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL INSERT THE POCKET. Mood completely leaves this step out, and to be honest, I didn’t even include the pocket in my dress because I thought it would look more elevated without it. But, if you do want it, do a little basting stitch to hold it in place and then sandwich the pocket in between the side seams when you join them together.
Included in this step would also be attaching the side seams of the bodice (the non-sleeve side) at 1/2” seam allowance and to also sew the sleeve seams (top and bottom). Remember when you are working on this step that the open side where a little skin is going to be showing is also the same side as the sleeve.
Everything is going to be attached with right sides together as well!
Mood’s Step 4: Sew the casings:
Fold-down the casings for the neckline, sleeve, and waist seams at the previously pressed creases. Pin in place. Working from the inside, topstitch along the inner fold through all layers. This will be a scant 3⁄4” from the outer edge. Leave an opening of about 2” for each casing to insert the elastics in the next step.
Republic of G’s Step #4: Attach the bodice to the skirt. Leave the skirt with right sides facing you. Flip the bodice piece so that wrong sides are facing you and slide the skirt inside the bodice and pin at the waist. This means the bodice and the skirt should be right sides together and this is always where having your notches in the middle of the skirt and bodice is really important so make sure those are lined up. You want to sew from the middle of the front, towards the side seam and all the way to the middle of the back. Mood tells us to sew at 1-1/4” seam allowance which is also the second crease line. I followed this step as they said.
Mood’s Step 5: Insert the elastics:
Using a safety pin, insert the elastics into each casing. Be careful not to twist the elastic. Sew the ends of the elastic together by overlapping them about 1” and topstitching several rows. Try on the dress to check the fit of your elastic Adjust as needed. Finish sewing the openings of the elastic casings. Sew a row of topstitching through the center of each elastic, stretching as you sew. This will keep your elastic neatly in place. Steam press the elastic to help it shrink back up from having been stretched, and to give a refined appearance to the gathers.
Republic of G’s Step #5: Once I had the bodice and skirt attached it was time to sew down the channels. I was sewing right on the edge and was thankful I had taken the time to iron down all the channels previously, because everything just folded right into place. I left a 1” - 2” opening for me to slip the elastic through the channel later on.
Republic of G’s Step #6: Now is the time I took elastic and measured it around the areas in which I would be inserting it (chest/shoulders, bicep and waist) and marked it with my chalk. I ended up sizing the elastic down by a very large amount - maybe by 7-8” - because I wanted to feel secure and that the dress wouldn’t be slipping off my body. It took a couple tries to get it right and comfortable and once I did, I added an extra 1” to overlap and attach each end of the elastic together. Then I took my safety pin and pushed it through all of the channels, making sure it wasn’t twisting and attaching it at 1” at the end. Lastly I closed up that 2” hole I had left and moved on to the hem!
Mood’s Step 6: Hem the skirt:
Turn the edges of the skirt 1⁄4” to the wrong side and press. Turn and press again at 1⁄4”. Topstitch in place from the wrong side a scant 1⁄4”.
Republic of G’s Step #7: To be honest, I was running out of time and didn’t have the patience to go back to my ironing board and iron down a double folded hem. So I practiced using my eye and probably ended up doing a 1/8” fold and another 1/8” fold for my double folded hem. I like the look of a smaller hemline for this silk charmeuse and wanted to keep the length as much as possible. I love how it turned out!
I hope this was helpful. Leave any questions in the comments and check out the awesome reel I made showing off this beautiful make! Happy sewing!
Xo,
Gianna
