Self Drafted Christmas Party Dress, Part 1.

Last week, I made a dress for celebrating Christmas with my family in the archipelago, in style of Christmases a hundred years ago in Sweden. Now it's time to make that other Christmas dress, the one that will be the conversation subject on any given Christmas party...

The inspiration collage:

Like many of my projects, this one starts with gathering of inspiration pictures. Or, rather, this one starts with the fabric. The wonderful flowery silk/cotton blend fabric in orange, red, pink and purple (top row in the collage) I traded for a pair of curtains I don't use. I knew quite instantly that I wanted to make something with a full skirt, and found myself drawn to the ever so amazing New Look. Combined with a portrait collar it will make the statement of the year (I hope!)

Very fittingly the challenge for this week on Sew Weekly is purple, and the one for next week is drafting your own pattern. I'm going to allow myself to combine them and make the dress over two weeks. After all, a party dress like this needs a little extra attention!

I'll try to document as much as possible of the drafting process, since I know there are quite a few ladies out there who sew and think of drafting as super hard. It's not! (One just needs about ten more fittings/a dress form/a good basic pattern that fits perfect to go from. And patience, lots of it.) Personally I started drafting when I started sewing real garments for myself and friends (say, ten years ago), and first time I used a pattern was last year...