(or a dress I made for my Mother, my number 1 fan)
My mom was having difficulty finding a dress for an upcoming trip, finding it very hard to fulfill some very particular criteria: she wanted it to have wide straps, but no sleeves, a band under the bust, but not one that had a "girly" bow or ribbon, and one that falls right under the knee. She's also in love with stretchy fabrics (called ITY stretch knits) and the colour blue.
Great success!!
We're both pretty happy with the result. I think if I were making it again I would have a white neckline and make the waistband white as well, just to separate the blue a little bit. But other than that it's just what she wanted for easy wear/travel. The material doesn't really wrinkle, and can be compacted easily, so it's really nice for packing, and if you have sharp eyes you may notice that this dress is so stretchy it doesn't require a zipper or other closure, it just pops right over your head and you're ready to go!
Making dresses like this one is pretty simple... especially if you "borrow" the pattern from some dresses you already have in your wardrobe. Mom had a few dresses that we "borrowed" elements from to make this one.
We liked the overall shape of the brown one for inspiration, but thought that the V was to deep and didn't like the arm holes, the blue one had the right arms, but has a ribbon (not shown) and wasn't the right length.
So taking inspiration from both dresses, I simply traced out the elements of both that Mom liked, tracing the skirt, waistband and most of the bodice of the brown, and then the armhole of the blue,. I made the V higher, and adding a seam allowances on the paper I had traced it all out on. After that it was smooth sailing for serging away! After the muslin we decided to make the belt narrower, more like the blue dress that's shown, but that was really the only change we had to make to the traced pattern.
I also made sure the top of the dress had a lining, not only is it the best way to finish the neckline and armholes, but it also adds a little bit of support, just making it a nicer piece in general. As you can see in the picture I just surged the lining into the waistband along with the blue fabric. Pretty simple.
And that's it! A simple project, making a hybrid dress out of a few that were in the closet already. Taking inspiration from what my Mom knows looks good on her, and from what she needs for a vacation dress. So there you go, designing your own clothing isn't hard, it's not really a sacred art form, and it's not taboo to be inspired by, or borrow elements from, what's already in your closet. I had lots of fun doing this quite simple project and I hope that Mom enjoys this dress for many years to come!
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