Hello! I’m Catherine—you might you know me as threadsnips on Instagram or through my blog over at threadsnips.com. I was thrilled that Gabriela invited me to join her blog series, I hope you enjoy my Fringe Boho Dress Tutorial. I was already planning on making the Fringe Dress for Sew My Style (I’m one of the leaders this year!), but this series gave me the extra push to make something really special.
Inspiration
Fabric
I wanted my dress to be slightly more toned down than my inspiration, so I used a subtle black, white & red cotton ikat from my stash. If you haven’t worked with ikats before, they’re amazing! They’re usually cotton (though there are silk ikats out there), which means they are very easy to work with. They have a looser weave than other cotton fabrics like quilting cotton or cotton lawn, which gives them a nice drape and keeps them from getting too wrinkly.
Stonemountain & Daughter has tons of beautiful ikats. I work there, so I’m constantly drooling over all the colors and patterns. Here are a few of my favorites!
If I wanted to stay closer to my inspiration, I would have used a big, colorful print. A bright Japanese print would be fun and silk charmeuse would be the absolute dreamiest.
Pattern Adjustments
Details
And of course, there are those braided ties. When I started this project I did not realize how long those would take me! I made four-strand fishtail braids using this tutorial. The two neck ties are each 25″ long and the waist ties are 46″ long. So that makes almost 12 feet of braids! Even though it took hours to complete, it was really nice to have a different sort of handcraft to work on. And, unlike sewing, I could do it while watching Netflix (I’m currently rewatching Mad Men and it’s just as good as the first time around!).