Today is my birthday! Every year I like to make myself something new to celebrate in, and this year I’ve paired some luscious teal silk jersey from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road (at £16/m) with a gorgeous draped dress from the Feb 2010 La Mia Boutique magazine, #6:
We thought we’d make the extra effort here to give you all a show of our neighbourhood with the dress…
I’m now 31!
Pushing the sleeves up for a more casual look…
side view:
back view:
(perhaps I should’ve lined the back afterall, but too late for that)
Here’s some detail shots of the front and back draping:
Based on the muslin of this dress, I made these changes:
- I took 1/2” off the shoulders in back and the inner front piece (on the outer front pieces I just gathered the extra 1/2” more, not like it made much difference to the puny amount of gathering!)
- I took two inches out of the centre of the inner front and inner front waistband (and stabilised the inner front waistband with clear elastic inside) to make the neckline more V shaped and increase the draping coming up from the skirt
- I increased the folded-over facing edge of the outer front bodice because I could in my layout, and so it’d decrease the chances of it flipping out in wear
- I increased the sleeve girth, thanks to lauriana‘s suggestion
- I took four inches off the hem so it’d be above the knee
- I added an inch or so to the hips on the back skirt thanks to Nancy K’s suggestion
- I didn’t get the suggestions in time to do it here, but in future I’d also scoop out the front sleeve curve to fix the underarm pulling issue (you can see it’s still there in the “31” photo above)
If you’re keen to sew this for yourself, remember I’ve already posted step-by-step instructions for this dress so you don’t really need to speak Italian or French!
I’m so looking forward to a new year and a fresh start!
