The 'Pink Experiment' Dress

Finally a new dress sewn after the Big White Wedding Dress last year!

I may have broken myself a bit on that one. (Well, ok, perhaps not just on that, considering I am still recovering from my occupational burnout #2 so far in life...)

Anyway, I've been going over my patterns and fabric stash a lot lately and been really itching to get some sewing done. At last I dared to try something and so I opted for a very simple dress (with only one new constructional detail) and a fabric I think I at some point got for free! In other words: a very low pressure project, seemed like a good idea.

Here's how it turned out! (and you get a peek of my messy but colorful workspace and fancy dress collection - old, new, homesewn, storebought and inherited - in the background, you're welcome...)

Since the fabric is striped, I've always known I wanted to use the stripes as a slimming feature, in some clever construction thing... So, I used my absolute favorite pattern making book from 1956 again to alter the darts on my me-made standard dress pattern. This V-shaped dart-design was perfect for my plan!

I also did a "decorative" double stitched seam on the edges and to highlight the darts. It's hard to see from a distance so here are some closeups!



The next time I make a dress from this pattern I am going to shorten the bodice back and lengthen the front a bit. I have a bit of a sway back so there is some bunching around the waist mid back. Also since I am "top heavy" i.e. carrying around a (European size) 75F bust, it's always tricky to calculate how much extra length to add mid front to make the waist sit right both front and back... You can see in the following picture that when I move around in the dress there is a lot of unnecessary wrinkling because of this.

Still, I am pretty happy by the results. I think it's a great dress for both a fancy day at the office (perhaps paired with a short black jacket and some more low-key shoes) or a dinner at a nice restaurant (like I'm wearing it the pictures)! Plus I have more nice fabrics in my stash that I could use for making more versions and perfecting this pattern.