Riddle me this, where will I ever be able to wear this dress? (Get it? Wiggle-riddle. It's a wiggle dress!)
Doesn't matter. I love it. Someone invite me to a luau, quick!
I finished this dress during the summer, before I got swamped by work, making my travel bag, and leaving on my trip to Europe...and it served as a lovely reminder of how it was summer when I left and it is now winter and I won't be able to wear this dress for another year. Can't say that hasn't happened before!
This is probably the prettiest dress I've ever made...on the inside at least! I went full out! Boning in the bodice, built in bra cups, Hong-Kong finished seams, seam binding at the hem and to stablise the neckline, turned the back slit into a vent, I even covered the edges of the zipper, AND I specially ordered the best waist-stay ribbon that you can get for a waist stay (petersham ribbon from A Fashionable Stitch, no more grosgrain for me!). And I researched how to properly sew in a waist-stay...you don't just sew it to the waist! Go figure! I might do a whole post about waist-stays. I'm thinking about sewing them into every dress.
Tl;dr: That was probably total jibberish to my non-sewing friends, sorry. Translation: It's pretty and colourful on the inside ;) It's fun. Like a little secret that only I see, lol. It's a wiggle dress pattern, vintage style but new pattern (by Gertie) B5814
I loved the way this dress turned out. Used some fabric I've had in my stash for quite a long while from Joann's. Probably didn't have this in mind for it when I got it but I'm in love with it! And I only had 2 yards of it and there are very few dresses that can be made in 2 yards. Plus, it ended up being the perfect weight. I also used navy petersham ribbon for the waist-stay, some mint-green vintage bias tape to use up some of my stash, bright green seam-binding for the zipper, and a bright purple lining fabric from Joann's. It turned out to be a VERY colourful dress!
Construction Notes: I changed the sleeves a bit, thanks to the tips I got browsing Gertie's posts on the pattern (so that the sleeves don't fall off the shoulders). Her posts were really helpful, if you are making this pattern, I highly recommend reading through them. The neckline is SUPER low and I had to square up that cross-the-front piece to keep it from gaping. Sewing in slightly smaller than equal length of bias tape into the neckline was super helpful as well (another Gertie tip) and I'll probably do that on most v-necks I make from now on. I decided to sew cups into the lining of the dress as well, since I can't imagine wearing something with a dress this low cut AND with such a wide neckline. I'm so glad that I did it!!
I changed the back slit into a vent, a pretty easy change to make. And I've never put in a hook and eye at the top of a zipper and had it look good, so I added a cute little self-covered button with a tab to the top instead, and mirrored it down at the top of the vent as well. I'm glad I'm flexible, because it is hard to get that top one buttoned...
Some pictures of the innards::
~Nikki
