Thursday, November 27, 2014

Pattern Review Winter Dress

I was one of about 25 to make it to the 3rd round of the PatternReview.com Sewing Bee. Our task this time was to create a dress using the Winter Street Dress that Deepika created for Pattern Review. We had to use two different knit fabrics together to make this dress. The judges were looking at fit and creativity. The dress is based on a knit. It is a simple, straightforward dress, really. It has box pleats from and back, either long sleeves or 3/4 length sleeves with flounces, and a jewel neck. We were supposed to put our own spin on it.

 

I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at the beginning of this, so I started sketching. I knew I wanted to work with my merino wool knit fabric because that is very “winter” to me. Personally, I wanted to change the dress enough that I loved it, but not so much that it was not recognizable.  I loved the idea of adding color blocking to the shoulders. I texted Kristine with my ideas and she suggested that instead of just color blocking, why not use a lacy knit?
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These were my new ideas after thinking about Kristine’s ideas. I finally settled on this drawing on the middle left. I decided the back would also be a lace cut-out. Coming up with a design was the hardest part of this. The rest was pretty easy.
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Here’s how I modified it. I knew from really in the previous reviews that the bodice might be short. I did a quick tissue fit and added 1.5” to the bodice front and back. With that modification, I made a quick muslin of the sleeves with the bodice. I saw that I needed to add a little bit more length to the front and decreasing at CB. I cut the bodice apart and made the lace cutout pieces. I made sure to add seam allowances, because sometimes I forget to do that.
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Here’s how the front bodice turned out.
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And the back vee.
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I live in Alaska and out sun is setting at 4pm right now. I had to get home, change clothes, set up the camera, and take pictures in dim, twilighty light. The main color is a much richer brown like the photos above. This looks more gray than anything else. I added a big squishy turtleneck to it too. I love this neckline.
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The back is my favorite part.
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Here you can see the back and neck really well.
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I really like how it turned out!
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We find out if we move onto the next round on Saturday (maybe Sunday?) and I ‘m wondering if I’ll make the cut. There are some pretty amazing dresses people made!

10 comments:

Cat Does It said...

Love that big cowl! And the cut-outs are very you, well done :)

P E Hudson said...

Congratulations! That dress is fantastic! I do think you'll make it no problem!

Kristine Balinski said...

I love it, love it, love it! The lace is such a special touch that dresses it up without making it too fancy. You are a rock star!

Tee Jones-Actie said...

Yours turned out beautifully!!!

Mrs. Smith said...

I really like this and that it still looks like the WSD!

Becky said...

This is a very creative take on the dress, and I think it really looks like you. I am sure you will move on to the next round; how could you not?

kathyh said...

Looks very RTW. Like the cutouts and it dresses up a plain gray (brown! lol+ lots of light?) knit dress without going over the top into too formal.

S said...

Love it! And you always say you're not a designer!! Clearly you are. What type of fabric did you use to get that turtleneck to stand up like that? And what does the pattern piece for the turtleneck look like?

Da99516 said...

I just used the merino wool with no interfacing. It's a thicker wool so it stands up well. The turtleneck is just a looooooong rectangle. I stitched together the two long edges and folded it together wrong sides together and attached it to the neck edge.

Sara C said...

This is gorgeous! I love seeing your design process. Congrats on the win :)