Monday, January 19, 2015

Valentine's Dress

DH and I are going to a dinner dance fundraiser for Valentine's and I'm so excited to make myself something fancy for once!


The Fashionary sketchbook was a Christmas gift this year, and I'm loving it! I can't draw to save my life, but I can connect the dots... each page has 3 silhouettes, very faint and dotted silhouettes and you just have to draw the style lines on the figure! I found it on the Mood website and am so glad to have this new resource in the tool kit! I took it with me to Haberman's this weekend and it was so nice to have a hard copy of my "vision", along with my shopping list of yardage and notions.


The dress is a composite of 3 different Butterick patterns... the skirt from one, the bodice from another and the sleeve from the last. But, it won't be as easy as it sounds since 1) I need to grade the sizing up and 2) I want the bodice pleats to end at the side seam.


The skirt will be the straight skirt from 6019 (the easy part), with the surplice bodice of 5814, but I'd rather have the complete off the shoulder look of 6129 (just can't talk myself into the easy route). Haberman's was having a silk demo and sale Saturday (my birthday!), so I grabbed some classic red silk taffeta to come home with me. If I was more brave, I'd have bought charmeuse, but it's one of those fabrics that I "love the idea of", but working with it frustrates me (even after paying close attention during the demo class)!

I've already traced off the pattern and re-graded for my size (and added 1" length to the bodice), but all those changes make me nervous, even though I'm going to do a muslin and there's nothing to be afraid of. Out came the pattern drafting reference books and I'm quite tempted to just start from scratch.

Since I already have it all traced off and ready to go, I'm going to attempt to "frankenpattern" the bodice first and if it's awful, I'll make my first ever attempt at pattern drafting! Is it weird that I kind of hope it is awful so that I'm forced to take this first step toward gaining a new skill that I've always wanted? I'll keep you posted (sooner than my last post, sorry)!