Marylin Manson gig is a couple of months away so I’ve got plenty of time for make up and hair but the dress needed to be made in time for Karen’s Made Up Initiative September deadline. And by George, I did it with 10 days to spare!
I love how that little charity challenge had me think on my toes and come up with the goods quicker than I usually do. And I love how it made me think out of my usual box too.
This is an unusual maxi dress from Burda Style mag. Well, unusual for me! I previewed the contents of that March 2015 issue as I do sometimes, to selfishly earmark things I would like to make so that I don’t have to physically rummage through the hundreds (tens) of actual issues on the shelf. And it paid off once again.
The hankerchief hem is what gives this dress its character. It’s effectively a square skirt drafted onto a fitted bodice. And works beautifully with stripes, or the horizontal pleats in this fabric, to highlight the draping sides.
The bodice has a lovely fit too with some long diagonal bust darts for shaping. Sorry, no chance of seeing them. They are totally cammo’d!
The fabric I chose isn’t your regular jersey, as Burda suggests, but it has just as much across-stretch which meant no need for zips or closures. Result! It’s black with splashes of silver dye/paint across it and the aforementioned horizontal pleats add a great texture to the overall design.
As you can see, I omitted the sleeves. I really liked the almost raglan seamline and wanted to retain that shape. To do this I raised the top of the under arm seam by 1″ and just redrew the curve of the armhole. That left a very narrow shoulder seam of course but that’s what I loved about it. There was a facing piece for the neckline, I just had to draw one for the armholes given no sleeves. But having done that I realised there would be a clash of facings so I faced both armholes and neckline simply with black bias binding instead. It was a breeze and finished it off so neatly.
I didn’t have to overlock the inside seams because this completely unnatural fabric doesn’t even fray. Incidentally I didn’t even hem it for the same reason. Just made sure the hemline was a fold line of one of the pleats!
Instructions were given to sew the in-seam pockets after the rest of the dress was put together, leaving the pocket holes unstitched. Bit odd I thought but not unreasonable. The only unreasonable thing was how exactly my brain responded to that. First I couldn’t decide what way round the pockets got to sit and then, because I’d decided the underside of the fabric would be the inside of the pockets, I can’t tell you how much of a sweat that brought on!!
I did consider leaving them out altogether… whilst having the first of the hissy fits. But then I considered how this would be a brilliant back-up camping maxi dress. And that meant it had to have pockets for matches, torch, bottle opener etc. See, to all who doubt, I can be forward thinking when I want to be!
And that was really the only fiddly bit. Yes I know now how daft that sounds. But if I were to have used an ordinary fabric, say jersey, as Burda suggested, it would have been a total doddle!
I’m sure you’ve already guessed that the talented Mr O took these pics. Most impressively, I might add following his return from three consecutive gigs this weekend, in the pouring rain, on pretty much nought sleep! He’s a keeper! 😉
That’s amazing – love it!
Thank you, Karen x
Your dress looks amazing. The fabric is great.
Thank you, Claire. The fabric kind of dictated this dress!
Nice one there!
Thank you, Rachel 🙂
I love it! The fabric adds some drama to the dress.
Thank you. When I first saw that fabric I couldn’t stop thinking about what I could make with it. It was a good Eureka moment once I’d decided!
The dress is even more amazing that I thought it would be, and I had high hopes for it!
That’s such a lovely thing to say, thanks Alana 🙂
This is stunning!
Thank you, Sam 🙂
The dress is great and I love the second to last photograph where the fabric appears to echo the patterns made by the waterfall which I’m sure was an intentional ploy by Mr. O.
Thanks so much Tialys. Yes I thought that too about that photo! x
Gorgeous!
Thank you 🙂
Very cool dress, great pictures and a great event to wear the dress to!
Thanks Lauriana. Can’t wait for the gig! 🙂
Love it! It’s totally gorgeous. I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the version in Burda, but now it’s on my (long) to-make list:)
Thanks Charlotte. That’s a huge compliment. 🙂
I like the dress as much as I like your commentary on it! You look fabulous and happy in it, too!
Thank you Karen. It does indeed make me feel happy! 🙂
Stunning. I lust after lots of fabric, but this is love. Where can I get some?
Thank you Gail. It’s from A-One Fabrics in the Goldhawk Road, London which is totally inconvenient for you I’m sure! But will happily get some for you and post it if you like. x
It looks even better in real life. Great to meet you – and I’ve downloaded the Evernote app and I’m sure it’ll be very useful, once I’ve found my way around it!
Oh Gill it was so lovely to meet you too. Hope we get the chance again soon. x
I didn’t get a chance to meet you at the Meet Up yesterday but your dress is fabulous. I also have to say that The Yellow Rolls Royce is one of my favourite films. It is an absolute classic!
Thank you so much Jane. Hopefully there will be another opportunity soon. Great minds think alike! 😉
Wowsers this dress is awesome. I love the photo where you pull it out to the sides. Looks like a restoration costume there! Great dress for a great cause.
Thank you so much. That shape is totally what drew me in!
I love this dress and what I notice is that the photos your husband takes are thoughtful and they make you look gorgeous and mysterious. He loves you and it shows in these photos.