Monday 1 May 2017

Dior inspired dress


Hi there!

So it seems that I finally found a bit of time and courage to put up a new blog post. I have been so busy at work, that I usually don't have the courage anymore in the evening to sit in front of my computer and draft a new post. I do miss it, however. I also have a backlog of sewing projects that I want to show you, and my personal photographer aka my amazing sister is back from abroad, so I hope to get this going again.

It's May already! Which means finally better weather (hopefully)! It's also the start of MeMadeMay, in which many sewists make an effort to wear there me-mades more often and show them to the world. It brought me a lot of joy last year, but I've decided not to participate this year. I gained some weight since I've started working and a lot of my me-mades either don't fit anymore or are not very appropriate to wear to the office. But I hope to get my sewing mojo back this month, I don't think I've sewn since I made my dress for New Year's Eve...

That being said, I wanted to share one of my favourite makes with you. I made this dress 2.5 years ago already, for that New Year's Eve. I was celebrating with a bunch of friends and we had decided to have a fancy dress code. It didn't take long for me to figure out what I wanted to make. I had scooped up some fabric on a fair two months before that, and this Dior dress immediately came to mind: 

Image via Harper's Bazaar


This is my version inspired by it:

Pumps and Needles: Dior inspired dress



For the bodice, I used the bodice pattern of this Burda vintage Capri sunsuit. I didn't have enough fabric to create a full skirt like the Dior dress has, so I drafted the skirt myself by just putting together two rectangles and creating some sort of overlapping box pleat to create the fullness of the skirt. The dress is fully lined as the fabric is a bit see-through between the ruffles, and I added some ruffled mesh strips to the skirt lining, to help the fullness of the skirt. Even though the dress fits really nicely (yay!) and it does keep in place pretty well, I felt more comfortable if I knew there was at least a bit of support in the dress. So I added boning in the side seams to keep those straight up, especially around the zipper. I also sewed in a waist stay, and boy, does that make a difference! The fabric is a bit on the heavy side, and so the waist stay prevents the heavy skirt from pulling the dress down.

Big thanks to my sister for taking these lovely pictures!

Pumps and Needles: Dior inspired dress

Pumps and Needles: Dior inspired dress

Pumps and Needles: Dior inspired dress

In the last picture, you can see the underlining with the mesh ruffles. It's a bit blurry, but I thought it was a funny picture and I didn't want to keep it from you.
 
Pumps and Needles: Dior inspired dress

Have a nice week!