Frida Fringe Dress

I recently stumbles across a Halloween skirt, that looked like it was made from panel fabric. Normally, I don’t wear holiday themed clothing (outside of my Ugly Christmas sweater), but I really loved this skirt! Unfortunately, when I went to buy it, it was already sold out – boo hiss. And while I was bummed at first, it ultimately worked to my benefit because my crafty self ultimately declared, “flip it, I CAN MAKE THAT”!

So I went on the hunt for cute Halloween fabric. The selections out there are endless in quilting cotton, but I specifically wanted something that lent itself to a panel so that I could have a fun border along the bottom. When I stumbled across this Frida Kahlo Day of the Dead inspired fabric by Alexander Henry, I was in love. It was perfect!!! Great for Halloween, yet still mature enough to be worn through the season and not feel ‘silly’. And with fabric this great, it needed more than just a skirt – it needed a whole dress to show it off.

---

 

MAKE THIS LOOK: Frida Fringe Dress

Frida Kahlo inspired fabric, with the Fringe Dress Pattern

---

Please note, this post contains Amazon affiliate links.  Affiliate links take no additional money out of your pocket, but rather the company pays me a small percentage of your final purchase.  Affiliate sales help fund bloggers work, giving us a paycheck for our time and effort, which ultimately helps to keep our website running smoothly. I will always try my hardest to give my unbiased opinion on all products, and not let affiliate sales influence my opinion. (If I don’t like it, I don’t post about it.) I appreciate your understanding and support.

---

MAKE THIS LOOK: Frida Fringe Dress

Skill level: Advanced Beginner
Time needed: 4 – 5 hours

MATERIALS:

• Fringe Dress Pattern, Chalk and Notch (HERE)
• 3 yds fabric, Alexander Henry “Frida la Catrina” Folklorico Mexican Art Fabric (HERE)
• Lightweight fusible interfacing (HERE)
• Fabric scissors / rotary cutter (HERE)
• Coordinating thread
• Universal regular point sewing needles
• Fabric turner tool recommended (HERE)
• Iron / ironing board
• Sewing machine

THOUGHTS ON PATTERN:

To make the Frida dress, I used the Fringe dress pattern by Chalk and Notch. I had started to see posts of this new pattern release, and liked its simple style with clear, crisp details. It looked like the perfect every day comfy dress.

The pattern was easy to sew, with the well illustrated, concise instructions that we have come to know and love by Chalk and Notch. The fit is right on, and I love the professional finishing touches. This dress is perfect for an advanced beginner looking to enhance their professional techniques.

What I changed this time: The dress calls for fabric with a lot of drape, like rayon challis, cotton lawn, etc. Textiles you would normally use when sewing women’s fashion. I sewed with quilting cotton, which is something I don’t normally recommend as it wrinkles more easily and tends to be a bit stiffer than normal dress fabric. But I tend to make exceptions for holidays and other special occasions when there is a specific print that I want. I am hoping to wash this fabric a few times in fabric softener to give it a more relaxed feel.

What I would change next time: For the hem, I would use a hem facing, instead of the regular iron and press standard hemming technique. For a dress that has such stunning bodice details, I wish the hem was a tad more professional to match. With the skirt’s curved feature, it leaves you with a wrinkled or gathered hem on the inside in order to get the nice outside hem finish. Of course, the fact that I used a woven cotton didn’t help – as my fabric had very little stretch to begin with for curving the hem. Next time I will either create my own hem facing, use a bias tape, or maybe even a rolled hem to finish depending on the fabric I am working with.

Final thoughts: Altogether, the dress pattern is lovely to work with and I will definitely sew it again with the recommended fabrics. I lovety, love the fabric I chose too. The colors are so vibrant and fun, and I am hoping to get a lot of use out of it. It is comfortable, lively and bold, can be dressed up or down for the right occasion, and grabs all of the attention. What’s not to love? I totally recommend everything about it. The pattern, the fabric, everything. You should have this dress in your closet. For real. And there is still plenty of time to make it before October, so get to sewing!

---

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time…

Happy sewing!