Ankara Fabric Meets Gertie

I’ve been making Gertie Night and Day dresses. I wrote a post about my plan back in March. Things haven’t been going as smoothly as I expected and also, even though the pattern has the opportunity to make 72 different dresses I’ve been focusing on the same bodice pattern with short sleeves and a self drafted circle skirt.

This green dress is my most recent one. It’s made from Ankara fabric from a company called Ankara and Lace. This company imports fabric from African Women Artists who use a Dutch Wax process to get the beautiful designs.

I’m focused on this one bodice at the moment because I am working on getting better at fitting and how making small changes can make a big difference with fit.

For this dress I used the square neck version of the bodice but I narrowed the neck a bit. The arm holes and the sleeves are bit tighter than I want for all day wearing comfort but I think I got the bust and waist correct on this try.

This month I am going to make another version for my upcoming trip to Disney World in December and so I definitely want it to fit comfortable for all of the character hugging I’ll be doing.