Dress Take Two

Yup, I made another dress -same pattern as before, only this time we opted for the long sleeve version of the dress. The first dress was polyester suiting, which is basically an idiot proof fabric that hides mistakes well. I wanted to do this dress in something a bit more elegant, but I wanted to stay in my budget, since the first dress used fabric that was a mere $1.50/yard. I stuck to the sale rack and ended up choosing a silk brocade ($4/yard) in peacock blue. What I learned from this whole experience is that set in sleeves are hard, and silk brocade is a pain in the butt to work with (it deteriorates rapidly when cut and doesn’t take too well to removal of stitches when you make a mistake).

In case you’re wondering, the pattern is a retro A-line dress from Simplicity. It’s a rerelease of an original pattern from the 60s, with modern sizing. I ended up having to take this dress in an extra 3/4″ in order to get the right fit. For my first dress I used the standard smallest size pattern, without any modifications, but it ended up being too big (which I discovered upon finishing it – it’s nearly impossible to alter a fit on yourself). So, my solution to resizing the pattern involved getting a dress form. Fortunately there is a company that makes dress forms in petite sizes. This made a huge difference in fitting the dress properly to my 30-25-33 frame. The pattern claims that the smallest size it makes is 30.5-23-32.5. Seeing as my first dress was an inch too big in all of these areas, I seriously question the validity of Simplicity’s sizing.

Anyways, here it is: Long Sleeve Version of the Previous Dress, taken in 3/4″ to fit better.
Now, if only I had a place to wear it.

Rear view of dress on dress form, in the closet; on the last dress I opted for a double black button trim, for two reasons.

1.) I needed two buttons on the self belt to make the dress fit better
2.) the fabric was too plain and needed some contrast, which I got with the black buttons and the black trim on the neckline and hem. This fabric needed no additional embellishment, so I went with a matching single button so as not to draw too much attention to the belt.

Side View on dress form – note, that this dress form is an exact replica of my measurements. Whenever I see the dress on there I wonder how anyone can be that small. It’s just freaky to me when I see how small I actually am.

I made this?!?

I know, I know…don’t quit my day job

Look! I’m a giraffe!

Hey look – my glasses match!