A SAPHIRE BLUE DRESS
When it's cold,
and you want to feel warm and cosy
and you don't want anything cutting into your waist,
and you don't want to wear dull colours,
and you want to brighten your day,
set to work and create
a new dress!
Take one old but cherished pattern
a meter of fabric
and add a little love and attention,
time and creativity.
When it's cold,
and you want to feel warm and cosy
and you don't want anything cutting into your waist,
and you don't want to wear dull colours,
and you want to brighten your day,
set to work and create
a new dress!
Take one old but cherished pattern
a meter of fabric
and add a little love and attention,
time and creativity.
I like the current trend for #tunic style dresses. They are very forgiving for the winter months when we may have put on a bit of extra weight and also want something comfortable for wearing to work.
My dress was made by adapting an existing pattern (#Mc Calls 2401). I really love this pattern because it has different neckline options, and can be made up in all sorts of fabric. When I returned to dressmaking a few years ago, this was the pattern I used to make my first little dress.
For this project, I widened the dress very slightly on the top half, and then graded it out towards the bottom half. I left out the darts at the front and back, apart from at the bust. The shoulder seems and neckline were stabilised by applying a narrow strip of iron on lightweight interfacing.
The fabric is a good quality wool jersey in a beautiful sapphire blue, which I bought at a local charity shop for a bargain price of only £2.50! Of course, the finished dress cost me more, after adding the zipper, lace, thread, and lining.
Being a plain fabric, I decided to jazz it up and apply some blue flowers from a length of guipure lace.
I cut out the little flowers and pinned them on individually...
...and I arranged them into a pleasing shape.
I stitched the flowers on by hand which seems to preserve the flexability of the fabric. The addition of the flowers also adds strength to the upper front bodice, so there was no need to apply any facings.
I then lined the dress which made it feel nice to wear (I don't like prickly clothes!)
The result - a very wearable dress that does not crease, and washes well. Roomy enough to add some extra layers underneath for extra chilly days. It looks good with my favourite pair of boots.
For less experienced sewers, there are several patterns available for tunic dresses. I will shortly be trying out another similar pattern soon, and writing a review for the Simplicity's bloggers challenge!
