Melbourne Cup day dress - school suitable

 

Most people at work dress up a little on Melbourne Cup day. We even have a hat competition and a lovely lunch. This year, I wanted to make a new dress but use fabric from my stash. While I may have a lot of stashed fabric, most of it is suitable for garments other than dresses. Nothing very bright or cheerful in there at the moment that is not otherwise earmarked (like the red wool crepe).

 

 The fabric is a sheer rayon polyester blend from John  Kaldor. I decided to underline in a midweight cotton as the pattern had a couple of seams where it would be difficult to use french seams.

The pattern is Burda #118 from 07/2007 http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.osinka.ru%2FZhurnaly%2F

I chose this pattern for a few reasons. One being the 'cut in' armhole at the back. Even with sewing the seam line towards the centre more, it is hardly noticable. The other feature was the A-line skirt, which I would would make fitting easier and be slightly more suitable for wearing to work.

The only slightly tricky part was the seams at the front. I had no idea what the instructions were saying so I just plodded along doing my own thing.

I had nicely set in the zipper and sewn the back seam when I realised I would have to unpick them so I could sew the facings on. The Slapdash Sewist has this tute which works well for facings as well. I remember learning this method from a New Look pattern in the 90s, and being the first way I learnt to sew facings/lining on a dress, this is the only method I have ever used.

I need to have a looksie for a fasinator tute. I want to make something up over the weekend for the competition.