13 DRESSES : DRESS 11
Stylish Dress Book (available at the workroom)
Dress ‘N’ : Mauve Hyakkaryouran Chrysanthemums
Here’s Dress 11, which made it’s debut on the streets of New York City this past weekend. I love the dappled light under the Ginkgo trees in the West Village.
This is another pattern from the Stylish Dress Book. Dress ‘N’ caught my eye right away, but at the beginning of the summer it seemed too summery with all the rainy weather we were having. Field Guided made a gorgeous version of it in grey linen a little while ago that reminded me to try this pattern before the weather turned cool again.
Dress ‘N’ is very simple to make. When tracing out the pattern, I remembered to add seam allowances in all the right places. There are only five pattern pieces to this dress and no sleeves or zipper, so the dress construction is quick. The pattern suggests doing elastic along the back, but I had to follow Field Guided’s brilliant idea of doing shirring. Without the shirring the dress was quite big, so the shirring made all the difference. I tried to do bias tape along the back, but quickly realized that it was too bulky and prevented the shirring from pulling in nicely, so ended up doing a rolled hem. Shirring and rolled hems go hand in hand. I’ve found that a rolled hem is really the perfect finishing when shirring is involved.
The front ruffle is the key feature of the dress. I think anything with a ruffle is fetching. I chose this dark plummy floral fabric with gold detailing and was really pleased with final result. Sometimes a fabric you never would’ve chosen ends up stealing your heart. I love when that happens. This dress was perfect for kicking around Brooklyn, the West Village and NoLita on a sunny day.
It just might be time for me to make a couple of fall-ish dresses to finish off the 13 dress challenge.
I’ve got lots and lots to share with you from our NYC trip, but I’ll need a day or so to compile it all together. The trip was absolutely lovely in every way and I’m totally inspired with thoughts of fun things to make.
10 comments
Oh my gosh! It looks so beautiful! It is summertime in dress form!
yay you’re back! i can’t wait for your nyc post!
this dress is lovely! good job karyn. hope your trip went well!!
Ooh, love this dress, too. I never would have noticed this fabric for it — great eye, as usual!
On another note, the patchwork class at the workroom tonight was so fun I can barely sleep thinking of all the gorgeous/crazy combinations I can use in future projects. I am in trouble — I think I might be seriously hooked. I’ll end up being one of those old ladies at the farmer’s market selling her quilts for barely anything because I just love making them…Actually that doesn’t sound SO bad. Those old gals must get some free apples or something to keep them alive…
Again, I love the dress!
It looks great on you because you are so slim and elegant… I think I would just look pregnant! 😉
Can’t wait for your NYC posts!
thanks for all the sweet compliments ladies!
ella – i’m glad you’re loving the nine patch class. it’s totally addictive and super fun. when i learned that trick, i just wanted to make nine patches for days…. okay, i think i did.
I saw this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qjpwnPW4c1o/SMURjmbEV_I/AAAAAAAAD_4/j_6_HVZb1mM/s1600-h/9078TVweb.jpg on the Sartorialist today and it reminded me a lot of this dress! I like this idea too!
melinda – i saw this dress on sartorialist the other day too! it’s so cute. (and i love bryant park) i’ve seen necklaces made of fabric yo-yos that are similar. it’s a really fun idea that might need to be moved to the top of my project list.
In Japan I saw so many dresses and tops that looked like the ones from this book and was inspired! I have to make a bunch now that I’m back. The girls there almost never wore the dresses alone, they always layered with t-shirts, leggings, pants, etc. It made me see how versatile these elements are, and you can wear them year-round!
More dresses, yah!