Sunday, February 26, 2012

Innocent Crush Dress

I made this dress last year for Matt's work Holiday Party. I was still living in Illinois with Addy at the time, so I flew out to Seattle for the party. I never took adequate photos of the dress, until this fall! We had our family photos taken, and I decided this dress would be perfect. So after we spent some time walking through our neighborhood for the family photos, I asked Melissa to take a few of my dress! (And my coat, I'll show that later this week!)
The front:
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Pockets!
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A side view:
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Fashion Fabric: Anna Maria Horner, Innocent Crush VoileTurn of Events in Indigo
Lining (not shown): Free Spirit solid voile in Powder
Pattern: Project Runway Simplicity 2922
I really like how this dress turned out. I made a muslin first, which was helpful. I took up the sleeve length a bit, because it looked a bit droopy. If I were to make it again, I would probably make the dress a bit more fitted (it is meant to be a sheath dress, though!), and I would omit the zipper. I find that sometimes zippers make it harder to wear belts with dresses, because they don't flow with the fabric. (See above photo...) And this pattern really doesn't need a zipper, it slips on quite easily.
I also added a lining to this dress. I was worried about the weight of the voile for a winter party, and I was a bit worried that the dress would be transparent, as well! It was super simple to add the lining, and I think it was worth the extra money I plopped down for matching voile. (And I may be a tiny bit anal about how I finish the insides of my garments. I did serge this, but I also love that the lining makes the inside of the dress as polished as the outside!)
I have absolutely no clue what size I sewed this dress up in. I probably graded the pattern to adjust for my small frame on top and wide hips, but even that is a guess this late in the game. ;)
This is probably my favorite handmade dress to date! I love the fabric, I love how it looks, and I love that it can be dressed up or down. (And layered! I wore a fitted turtle neck under it for the holiday party. I was toasty warm!)
*One thing I will add about the Project Runway line of patterns is that all of the design elements are mix and match. It's a very fun way to customize a garment, but it involves overestimating fabric yardage, because the pattern gives you yardage for cutting each element from a DIFFERENT fabric. I bought 4 yards of this voile (yes, I'm really that crazy), because I followed the pattern envelope yardage. When I bought the lining I only got 2 or 2.5 yards (I can't remember which!) and it was plenty.
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All photos are the work of Melissa McClure. Check her out, she's fabulous!

4 comments:

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Gorgeous dress! Looks great with those boots and the belt too :)

Deb said...

You did a great job on the dress! And I loved seeing the photo of your family.

Anna said...

It's totally amazing, you look so pretty in it too! beautiful!

felicity said...

Fabulous dress! And even more fabulous photos of you and your gorgeous family!!