Loving Some Double Brushed Poly for this Star Struck Handkerchief Dress

I wore my Ava Sundress the other day and it finally hit me how amazing double brushed poly is for dresses. To me, one of the most irritating sensations on the planet is fabric clinging to hair that’s just starting to regrow after shaving. Somehow, double brushed poly doesn’t do this. I would have thought it would be way worse than fabric like ITY, but the opposite is true. ITY is shockingly clingy and DBP is shockingly comfortable. Who knew?

Ever since wearing dear DBP Ava, I caught a vision of another DBP dress using George + Ginger’s Star Struck bodice mashed with a nice, full, high-low circle skirt. So I snagged some DBP from Boho Fabrics and brought my vision to life.

About the Fabric

3 yards of Lotus Vines on Black DBP from Boho Fabrics

• Horizontal Stretch: 125%
• Vertical Stretch: 75%
• Weight: 8 oz.
• Content: 96% Poly, 4% Spandex

1 yard of Pink Sherbert DBP from Boho Fabrics

• Horizontal Stretch: 130%
• Vertical Stretch: 75%
• Weight: 8.5 oz.
• Content: 95% Poly, 5% Spandex

DBP is amazingly soft with a velvety brushed texture and beautiful fluid drape. My only gripe when it comes to sewing it is how it likes to cling to itself—which can either be a pain or work pretty well in your favor depending on what you’re doing. Other than that, it’s very well-behaved.

About This Make

Star Struck Bodice

• Size 4:
  • Front and back bodice
  • Front and back waistband
  • Bodice binding
• Size 2:
  • Center strap (with an additional 1.5″ cut off)
  • Front/back straps
  • Cross straps

Mix It Up

• Handkerchief circle skirt, size 4

I decided to go with the handkerchief skirt instead of a high-low skirt because I love the handkerchief skirt on my Ava Sundress. I love the fullness and variable hemline and I didn’t feel like risking a too-short front with the high-low skirt.

What I Did Differently

• Bra Cups
  I included some padded push-up bra cups from Wawak. I diverted from the instructions a bit. I left one side of the bodice front pieces open while sewing the main fabric and lining together. I slid the cups inside and left them loose and then basted that open side closed, and then proceeded as normal. It made it just a little trickier to attach the bindings around the bra cups, but my fabric stretched enough that I could maneuver them out of the way without getting them caught in any seams. There also isn’t much extra room for them to get twisted out of place, so that’s why I just left them loose rather than anchoring them down.
• I used Wonder Tape to anchor the center strap while attaching. It’s a bit of a tight area with several layers of fabric involved, and pins tend to distort what you’re doing in that situation. Wonder Tape lets everything lay flat so you can focus on sewing neat and accurate seams.

Notes for Next Time

• I think the padded push-up cups are a little overkill for the silhouette of this dress. I don’t have any cups sewn into my black grunge version and I like how that one fits better. So if I do cups again, I think I’ll err on a more conservative side.
• Cotton lycra works better for the straps than DBP. I think the reason for this is cotton lycra has a bit more structure to it and less give than DBP so it doesn’t pull as much. I’d like to stick with cotton lycra for the straps for any future versions. DBP is fine for the waistband though; I prefer DBP in that area because cotton lycra attracts lint more easily and feels more cheap.
• I might like to lengthen the handkerchief skirt. The short sides are a little shorter than I want them to be.

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