This dress waited a long time to be made, re-made, and finally celebrated here: so voila, the most patient party dress.
The dress started off as one of my mother-in-law’s old skirts, passed on to me after a wardrobe clear-out – it’s a linen blend gored below-the-knee skirt (seems Diana was having a short day in the picture below, it’s not really maxi). Not my style, but great colour and print, so I queued it straight up in the restyle pile.
Of course, the design of the skirt isn’t ideal for a restyle – although it looks like a lot of fabric, it’s all split up into those itty bitty gored panels, with seams all over the place. So there weren’t many other options but to turn once again to my Favourite Pattern of All Time:
Yes my friends, a princess-seamed bodice with raglan sleeves is the answer to this sort of fabric conundrum. Many of the pattern pieces are so small, you can squeeze em out of a hankerchief. I also varied up this version by omitting the collar and turning it into a V-neck, thus using even less fabric. Simplicity 2588 rocks, and yes I probably will be forever making some version of it as long as I can sew.
But linen flower fabric alone does not a party dress make. Until I rediscovered this blue shiny stuff, I think it’s taffeta:
It’s so shiny! (Unfortunately, in this picture, so is my face. Huh.) And just the word taffeta takes me back to all the Ballet Shoes type childrens’ books I read when I was little, in which party dresses always seemed to be made of it (Or velvet. Or organza. Always wanted an organza dress).
So far, so good. I wore the dress to a friend’s wedding back in August 2012. But throughout the day, something didn’t seem right with my full circle skirt. It just didn’t swish right, or fall right. Finally, in the ladies’ loo at the evening reception, I figured it out. Can you see it…?
To get the most out of the fabric, I didn’t cut the pieces with the grain down the middle. Instead each quarter circle is positioned so that, if the piece was divided into thirds, the grain runs down one of those third divides. Messing around with the grain on a circle skirt gives you some interesting drape options, and you can see two of those in the picture above… because I forgot all about my asymmetric grain when I came to sew the pieces together. On the right hand side as you look at the picture, a few smaller folds are more bunched up around the centre front. Whereas on the left hand side, there’s one big fold at the front, with more bunching towards the side seam.
All I need to do was unpick one of the pieces, flip it over (fabric is the same both sides, that was my undoing) and sew it up again. Easy peasy. So why did it take me 18 months to do?
Back in December 2013, we had our first night out together since our daughter was born – Mr B’s work party. And while there wasn’t enough time to sew a whole new outfit, she napped just long enough for me to make the changes on the skirt. Now it swishes beautifully.
…and it’s just waiting patiently again in my wardrobe for the next party.
