The “Second Incarnation of Third Time’s a Charm” dress by Sarah Gabbart

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!)

Pattern: V1175

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)

Enjoying the beach in Bray Ireland.

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).

Stunning! This gal has major style – follow her blog asap!

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!