The Facts
Fabric: 2 yards of emerald green silk dupioni, and 1 ¾ yard of chiffon lining (and 4 yards of turbulence-colored cotton bamboo knit and two yards of lichen-colored shirting)
Notions: thread, tears, frustration!
Pantone Challenge colors: Emerald (final) as well as Lichen (in progress) and Turbulence (fail!)
Year: 2010
Time to complete: around 10 hours
First worn: today!
Wear again? yes! It’s a dramatic party winner
Total Cost: approximately US$80 for the final version (plus all the fabric for the two other projects, so like a billion dollars)
Whoa, guys—as excited as I was for this reunion, time got the better of me and I was down to the wire on this post! OMG. My summer was eaten by a long European vacation (yeaah!) and a couple of mini trips to places in Texas, which are both things that I won’t complain about as traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I just wish my other favorite thing to do (sewing) was a bit more portable.
My saga starts in late July when my plan was to create this beauty of a dress—V1175 from the Donna Karen Collection—that had been living in my stash for years and years. I found a gorgeous Emerald dupioni and set out to make a dress to bounce around Paris in. Trip planning and life set it, and I ran out of time to (not to mention suitcase space) to give this dress justice. It was scrapped in favor of a more packable version.
I marched down to my local fabric shop and purchased some bamboo knit in Turbulence to make a self-drafted version of this cool ASOS dress (modeled by the beautiful and inspiring fashion blogger, Girl With Curves).
There are two things I’ve learned about self-drafted patterns: they never go to plan and they take a few revisions to turn out right. In this project, I miscalculated the amount of fabric needed to create the volume I loved about this look and ended up with a truncated version of this high-low stunner. I still liked the look of this dress, but didn’t realize how short it was in the front until I popped it on in Ireland to enjoy a dinner with the family, took two steps and realized that my Spanx were showing. Oh. No. The quick addition of black skinny jeans turned this dress into a tunic and kept my modesty in place as we dined. I will definitely wear this again when the weather turns cold—it’s perfect for fall! Sadly, it is currently at the dry cleaners (d’oh!) and so I didn’t get a photo.
When I returned from my trip, I had a few days to create something worthy of posting and had the bright idea to make the Hawthorn pattern (version 1) from Colette in a Lichen shirting before I left on a Labor Day vacation to the Texas Hill Country. After getting all the pattern pieces traced, I realized that I underestimated my time and was getting a bit too close to the wire to make this top. Plus I forgot to grab interfacing and couldn’t face yet another trip to the fabric store. PANIC SETS IN.
My brain jostled awake in time to remember that I had a half complete V1175 in my stash (you know, the first project I abandoned!) and started sewing it together furiously! I finished in about 10 hours, even with all the pleats and pieces to match. I was a bit worried about the fit on my first try on—it made me look very “hippy” and a bit shorter than normal (which seems impossible). After chopping off some length, I like it much better! Perfect timing too–tonight is my anniversary dinner with my husband of 8 years, Ryan!
Now on to that dang Hawthorn top!
Happy anniversary Sarah! You look gorgeous in green! I especially love the structure of the gathers/ pleats at the bottom of the dress! So unique and pretty!
Thanks lady! That’s one thing that drew me to the pattern – such cool details!
Major win!! And Happy Anniversary : )
Thank you so much!! Also, your hat in your avatar photo is so cute!!
Ahh! I love this dress… and your writing style and hair too!! Do you know you look like Rosamund Pike? Happy Anniversary and good luck on your top!
Alright, off to follow Girl with Curves and Welcome to Jiggle. 🙂
Dude. You and I are getting married–You just made my year!! I just saw At World’s End and was like “She’s so cute!” so seriously. Thank you!!
Such a pretty dress Sarah. I love the save and perfect for your anniversary!
Thank you so much!
AWW! Thank you guys! I love green and so glad it works for me–now if I could just will the color orange to look normal… Happy fall to everyone!!
Rock on which yo bad self!
I love you Mo! And miss you – tacos?!?
Nice save! Love the details and the color. You look like you should go dancing.
We didn’t that night, but I am so making him take me – this dress isn’t for just sitting there! 🙂
Wow Sarah, that pattern looks so technical – you did a great job with it. And no sign of any Spanx – phew
WORD! That first one almost had me in a tight spot – I was in the elevator before I noticed and had to go back down to the room; thank goodness for my mirror vanity checking out my creation our I would have looked like a loon! Thank you so much!
You look gorgeous!
Thanks Esther!!
For all the messes you went through with this, it sure looks lovely! You look fab in this color by the way. Well done! And welcome back!
Thank you so much Bethany! It was a serious of unfortunate sewing events, but I’m so glad it ended up this way – the color is so cool!
This is a GREAT colour on you! I love this style of dress! Thanks for that blog link too! She’s a BABE xoxo
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