As part of my fabric buying spree in the States, I bought some gorgeous emerald green silk charmeuse from fabric.com, with plans to make HotPatterns’ Deco Vibe So Pretty dress. As my FW/07 collection is keeping me rather busy, I hadn’t given myself a timeline to make this dress, even though I’ve got all the materials to hand.
But last night James and I finally went to see Atonement at the cinema, and I couldn’t help but notice that the beautiful 1930s evening gown worn by Keira Knightley’s character in the film is very similar to to the dress I’d already planned!
If I do decide to copy this dress, the only alterations I’d need to make to the pattern is to 1) lower the hem to floor-length, 2) narrow the straps to thin spaghetti-style, and 3) add some ruched silk to cross over the hips and affix into the side seams. The front of her dress also has a punched design around the neckline which I won’t be duplicating for engineering and stylistic reasons, but apart from that, it’d be very easy to have this hot little number for your own country estate dinner date!
More on Atonement: If you’ve read the book, you’ll be absolutely thrilled with this adaptation. They changed the ending around a bit, but the overall effect was the same, and were otherwise extremely true to the book. I’m a massive fan of James McAvoy and have watched pretty much every thing he’s been in since Children of Dune, and I think his performance here is right up there with The Last King Of Scotland. But next to him, it was painfully apparent that Keira’s emotional range was, err, rather lacking. The 1930s and WWII fashions were a nice bonus for the dress-obsessed among us, and I heartily recommend you go see the film when it comes out near you (7 Dec in the US, out now in the UK).