Party Dress - It's Party Time

Actually it's "gnash your teeth out!" time.

I've decided to wear a western party dress to the wedding I'm going to in India in December. I was going to wear this to the Scooter holiday dinner, but the dinner is the night before we leave, so we might skip it this year. I'm making this dress:



Isn't it gorgeous! It is not, a halter dress as the illustration seems to indicate.

That gathered midrif band is actually a tie that wraps around from the back, across the front, and ties in the back. Sounds complicated? Here's the back bodice pattern piece:



I had to hang it on the wall to be able to photograph it! Luckily, I shouldn't need to make an adjustment to the back because it's sleeveless.

More complications, I cut out a size 14. Because I cut out this size I need to do a full bust adjustment. The complication is that this bodice doesn't have darts!

Front pattern piece:


I flip open Fit For Real People to refresh my memory and lose my nerve. I decide to trace the pattern onto plain tissue and cut into that.

and cut I did! After doing a really rough tissue fitting (there are no side seams on this dress to pin together!) I did the standard full bust adjustment cutting and filling with tissue.

(sorry this is so dark. Click on this or any of the pictures to go to the full sized version)

But since this wraps around and has no side seams (!) I had to rotate the bust dart! So, I rotated the dart to the waist where it would be covered by the ties:



Oh, and to make this dress even more complicated, I'm going to make it in plaid taffeta (one of the fabrics that Butterick deems "unsuitable" for this pattern.) Hey, this taffeta was cheap, it's midnight blue and black with silver also. And it is darn hard to photograph well:


I'm going to make a muslin (out of a Christmas taffeta because that's the only scrap taffeta I have.) and I'll post that when I'm done.

Burda 9373 - Christmas Dress.

A Christmas Dress



Pattern: Burda
Size: 116
Fabric: two different stretch corduroys

This pattern was a snap to put together. The instructions are very clear although I didn't follow them exactly. The insturctions call for a zig-zag top stitch on the skirt but I thought that would cause the corduroy to buckle so I used a plain straight stitch.

I like that the pattern reminded me which way is "up" on corduory.

I also like that the neckline uses a self-front facing and bias tape facing on the neck. I hate facings so it was nice to see this method in the instructions.

Greta picked out the fabric and buttons for this dress (I would not have chosen such pointy buttons!) She'll be taking it to Alaska to wear for Christmas with the grandparents.

My daughter said while I was making the dress that wanted a top that in her words "flares out at the bottom." She drew me a picture of what she wanted and luckily, it is quite simmilar to View B of this pattern. I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this one.

I should be able to add some different details (like piping between the layers and doing two layers of flouce) and use some "wilder" fabric choices to give it that "Euro Boutique" look rather than the "Country Christmas" look the current version of the dress has.

making this blog pretty

I'm attempting to make my blog prettier. Hmmm, not working so well! more work to be done!

Burda

This is what I'm currently working on:



I'm working on a wearable muslin right now. It's a weird purple/white/pink/blue floral print. It was once someone's dress. I bought the fabric at an estate sale or a thrift store. It's a nice soft cotton that someone either gave up on or used and then attempted to reuse.

My final version I hope to make out of a very thin cotton with woven dots. I should scan the fabric since it's pretty nifty. (I bought it in olive green and black as well.)

Ready Set... blog!

This is my new blog where I'll be posting about my sewing adventures.

I'm working on several projects right now. I'm going to have several projects going at one time so that I can alternate between projects when I get frustrated!