A Dress in a Week: Simplicity 2444 (Or, the Christmas Dress)
This is a dress which, while I don't regret making at all, I do wish I had done slightly differently. It was a real adventure though...
I was coming up to Christmas, thinking about what to wear to both mine and the Husband's work parties (I get to go to his, but he doesn't get to go to mine!). His is always easy - it's black tie, and I only see the people once a year, so I have a few very fancy dresses that are RTW which I rotate through. In all honesty, I don't have much interest in sewing a dress for a black tie party, given I only have one a year - but that may change in the future, I guess.
When it comes to my party, as a teacher it is a much more chilled affair. I do need an outfit, of course, but it doesn't need to be black tie. So, I made the super decision on a Saturday to sew a new dress! The party was on the following Friday, which was also the last week of school before the holiday. So on top on prepping for the end of the term, and my Christmas preparations at home, I was going to sew a new dress.
It was an adventure! I worked, then stayed up wayyy too late working on it each night. On Saturday I cut it out, on Sunday I had the bodice assembled (including with bias bound edges), on Monday I assembled the skirt layers, side seams, attached to the bodice and bound that edge. On Tuesday night I hit a snag - I sewed down the neck bias, put in the zip, and even though it fit, the zip I bought was the wrong colour! What I thought was a black zip was definitely actually navy blue... So on Wednesday, I dashed out of work early, bought a new zip, unpicked the navy zip, put the black zip in, redid the back seam, applied the bias and made the dress hem. By Thursday, I only had the the hand sewing to go, and it still fit! I even finished it by 9:30pm so I got a bit more sleep the night before the party.
In terms of the dress itself, it's a Simplicity 2444, which I have made before several times (long time readers - hello Mum! - will have seen them before) but this time I have added the mod I made to my last few things, which is to drop my bust darts by about an inch and a a half. It makes so much difference! And that was the only modification I did.
The fabric is really gorgeous! It's an embroidered tulle that I actually bought from @dinoprincesschar on Instagram in a sale a while back, and it seemed like the perfect choice, but I didn't have any lining fabric. I decided that this fabric would work best against a matte background, so I went to Goldhawk Road at the last minute on Sunday to pick up some black sandwashed silk (I have sewn with it once before and loved the result, so thought it would work really well with this fabric). It turned out so lovely - just like I thought it would, for a change. I made it with the short sleeves, but left them unlined, and left the sleeve and skirt hems unhemmed on the tulle as well. To protect the tulle, I bias bound all the inside edges in black as well. What resulted is quite lovely, and in record time.
So off I went to my party, feeling very pretty but a little tired. I got quite a few compliments on it and my colleagues were even more impressed to hear that I had made it myself, and in less that a week! I've never done that before. I'm not sure it's super wise, but I am proud of my efforts and the quality given the time frame I gave myself. And it's also going to be my outfit for Cambridge Frocktails next weekend!
I was coming up to Christmas, thinking about what to wear to both mine and the Husband's work parties (I get to go to his, but he doesn't get to go to mine!). His is always easy - it's black tie, and I only see the people once a year, so I have a few very fancy dresses that are RTW which I rotate through. In all honesty, I don't have much interest in sewing a dress for a black tie party, given I only have one a year - but that may change in the future, I guess.
When it comes to my party, as a teacher it is a much more chilled affair. I do need an outfit, of course, but it doesn't need to be black tie. So, I made the super decision on a Saturday to sew a new dress! The party was on the following Friday, which was also the last week of school before the holiday. So on top on prepping for the end of the term, and my Christmas preparations at home, I was going to sew a new dress.
It was an adventure! I worked, then stayed up wayyy too late working on it each night. On Saturday I cut it out, on Sunday I had the bodice assembled (including with bias bound edges), on Monday I assembled the skirt layers, side seams, attached to the bodice and bound that edge. On Tuesday night I hit a snag - I sewed down the neck bias, put in the zip, and even though it fit, the zip I bought was the wrong colour! What I thought was a black zip was definitely actually navy blue... So on Wednesday, I dashed out of work early, bought a new zip, unpicked the navy zip, put the black zip in, redid the back seam, applied the bias and made the dress hem. By Thursday, I only had the the hand sewing to go, and it still fit! I even finished it by 9:30pm so I got a bit more sleep the night before the party.
In terms of the dress itself, it's a Simplicity 2444, which I have made before several times (long time readers - hello Mum! - will have seen them before) but this time I have added the mod I made to my last few things, which is to drop my bust darts by about an inch and a a half. It makes so much difference! And that was the only modification I did.
The fabric is really gorgeous! It's an embroidered tulle that I actually bought from @dinoprincesschar on Instagram in a sale a while back, and it seemed like the perfect choice, but I didn't have any lining fabric. I decided that this fabric would work best against a matte background, so I went to Goldhawk Road at the last minute on Sunday to pick up some black sandwashed silk (I have sewn with it once before and loved the result, so thought it would work really well with this fabric). It turned out so lovely - just like I thought it would, for a change. I made it with the short sleeves, but left them unlined, and left the sleeve and skirt hems unhemmed on the tulle as well. To protect the tulle, I bias bound all the inside edges in black as well. What resulted is quite lovely, and in record time.
So off I went to my party, feeling very pretty but a little tired. I got quite a few compliments on it and my colleagues were even more impressed to hear that I had made it myself, and in less that a week! I've never done that before. I'm not sure it's super wise, but I am proud of my efforts and the quality given the time frame I gave myself. And it's also going to be my outfit for Cambridge Frocktails next weekend!
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