Lekala 4136, animal print dress/tunic, rayon lycra dress

MY JUNGLE SAFARI  ANIMALPRINT “VENTURE”

I have never owned or made anything for myself in animal print before. In fact it just has not been my thing . When Pretty Grievances challenged us  to sew from animal print  I could feel my insides protest, but I am glad I said yes. It has actually been fun thinking safari and animals.

I could not find good animal print here in Stavanger, so I had my sister-in-law shop for me in Bergen. She sent it to me by mail. Online the fabric looked like this.

I thought the dark parts were black, so I ordered black fabric to go with it ( turned out they are dark brown).

Me, the wimp, I was going to color block the animal print, so I could soften it.

This is the look I was aiming for (Butterick 5852).  I just could not see myself in just animal print. My husband liked this pattern (understandable enough, he is a man :-)).

Still,  I ended up making it simple. Just the animal print, nothing else.

Here I am.

While I was sewing I was making “escape plans” for myself. Maybe I could alter it, so my daughter could have it??? I was really a little frightened by the whole thing. When I was finished though I  liked it. I wore it to church today. In the future I will use it as a tunic.  It is nice and comfortable, a good everyday outfit. I love soft jerseys :-).

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For this project I have used lekala 4136. After discovering that lekala.co has better descriptions of these patterns than other places have, I wanted to try them again. The descriptions are not perfect, but at least you get a sketch of both front and back views. The written descriptions are better,  not  perfect.

Close ups of details:

Maybe some other person working on this dress would like a close up of how I solved details, here you are:

Before attaching the shoulder straps, I gathered this area with elastic thread.

After sewing the side seams of the front and back pieces together I added the “self belt”. I divided both the self belt and the belt in two halves. Then I sewed the self belt parts on. Then I threaded the belt halves into this casing, gathering them all into the center back seam. This way the belt always stays in place.

Here you can see a close up of both the pocket and front of belt area. I used clear, flat swim suit elastic to help me shape the pocket. After making my center pleat, I zigzagged it arround the pocket. I did not pull the elastic, just let it lay flat, so my fabric did not stretch.

Alas I am happy with this project. Now I have one more “sort of” animal print fabric. I know some might think I am stretching it, but you know, beggars can’t be choosers. It does sort of look like an animal print doesn’t it???

I have plans mixing two patterns into one garment, just wait and see.

I  also have a left over dress and a jungle safari hat planned in my head. I will keep you posted :-).