now in technicolour

Thursday 10 March 2011
A few weeks ago when I was sick I watched seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men in one sitting, and while it's becoming a bit cliched to be influenced fashion wise by that show what caught my eye the most was the colour of all the clothes. From Betty's lovely florals to Peggy's modern prints, but mostly what I was inspired by are the strong jewel colours worn by Joan. Since I have pale skin and red hair, I thought I should try out some of those strong colours too (although I am realistic that I won't get those curves no matter what colour I wear!).

And then I saw this fabulous teal version of my favourite dress made by Cidell of Miss Celie's Pants fame. The pattern is Burda 8_2009, dress 128 which is the tulip shaped dress:


I made mine out of a dark grey herringbone lightweight wool and have since made a black grosgrain ribbon belt to wear with it, so it pretty much looks exactly like the magazine version:


I absolutely love this dress and wore it frequently last winter. It's such an elegant shape that I feel so well dressed in it even though it's so simple to just slip into it with a pair of shoes and I'm dressed. But because of the wool fabric, the longer sleeves, the colour and the fact that I fully lined it means it's only really for wearing during the cooler months of the year. So I decided to make a summer version in a bright colour, and when I say bright, I mean bright:


This is a stretch cotton drill in a vibrant fuchsia colour which I feared may have been too much when I was sewing it, but I wore it to work yesterday and I just loved the colour. I shortened those three quarter sleeves to cap sleeve length so that I could wear it in the hot weather, and I only lined the bodice which should be fine since it's a very dense fabric so I won't get any see through issues in the skirt area and it's not so tightly fitted that it will bag out after wear.

The other change I made to to this pattern which isn't immediately obvious but helped with fitting was to separate the back of the dress into a bodice and skirt to match the front. The pattern itself is just a single back piece, with a centre back zip and two vertical darts, and the waistline seam of the front finishes at the side seams. I thought this pattern looked a bit unfinished since the front and back didn't match, but the other benefits of splitting the back into two to match the front meant I could get a closer fit by deepening the darts and it also created a natural spot for a belt to sit as well.




I didn't make a muslin since I've made this previously, but it all worked out wonderfully and the fit is great which is a huge joy after all the effort I put into the last dress with no results. The only problem with this dress? The weather is cooling down now and I'll have to wait until later in the year to get a lot of wear out of it!

The Vogue pattern for the suit with the peplum and bell sleeves still hasn't arrived yet, so I have started working on another dress. Another muslin, sigh. Can I just have a rant about Vogue patterns online site though? I ordered a bunch of Simplicity patterns when they were $1.99 from sewingpatterns.com a month or so ago, and the postage was very reasonable and the patterns arrived about a week later - totally excellent experience. Voguepatterns.mcall.com however is a totally different story - three weeks later I'm still waiting for them to arrive, postage was an extortionate $15 for 3 patterns but I still bought them because it is cheaper than buying them here in Australia because I bought during a $3.99 sale. Good thing I have plenty of other things to work on, but still, I want to get on with making that jacket!

37 comments:

  1. Gorgeoulicious dress!

    Vogue do charge horribly for postage. I don't normally buy Simplicity patterns but some of the deigner ones have cuaght my eye lately. What did you get?

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  2. Hello, your dress looks great, really perfect and the color matches your skin tone leaving the radiant. I personally still need the courage to leave the safety of darker hues and sober. :) I think I'll Breathed in her dress.
    I admire you and always read your blog. Desire for improvements in sleep Ana

    Hugs

    Eilan - Brazil

    (Sorry if it gets a little crazy, I'm using a google translator)

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  3. Ohh!! What a great idea! I made the long-sleeved version in grey too and I absolutely love it and never thought of making it into a spring/summer version!

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  4. This dress really suits you!
    I like both the summer and the winter versions. Burda patterns never fit me, unless I do hundreds of adjustments.
    I really like your sewing!

    Best wishes from Germany,
    Anja

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  5. Very pretty new dress, the color is gorgeous.

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  6. What a fabulous dress. The color looks amazing on you. Also love the short sleeve variation. Great job!

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  7. Throw a cardigan over it and wear it year round! It is beautiful and what a great color to bright a cold wintery day!

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  8. I love it in fuschia - I have the Vogue version partially assembled (see a Jan post on my blog), and that's as far as it's gotten. Mine's out of purple pontediroma knit.

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  9. I love that dress. You make the prettiest dresses!!!

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  10. Wow! What a wonderful dress. A bit of colour just makes you feel happy to look at doesn't it and this colour is stunning and looks lovely on you.

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  11. I love the dress on you!! The fit and color are fabulous.
    So funny that you got great service from sewingpatterns.com, but bad from Vogue. I've had the exact opposite happen! I've ordered from each place 3 times. All three times sewingpatterns was delayed or messed up but Vogue came within a week. I wonder if the international aspect comes into play there?

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  12. I know your feeling with the Vogue mailing. I am here in the States and it still took two almost three weeks for me to get my patterns and I ordered 5 and it cost $8 shipping. I have to say I was not surprised when they arrived and the postage stamp on the envelope read $3 shipping so they made $5 off of me. Your purple version is gorgeous and looks wonderful.
    Michelle

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  13. I liked the first version of your dress, but this newer version knocks my socks off! It looks amazingly chic & springy. I'm sorry that you're going to have to wait to get much use from it. Our weather in the States will soon be just right for it.

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  14. Absolutely gorgeous dress! And the fuchsia color on you is perfect, not just anyone can wear that color!

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  15. That colour looks fabulous on you! Oh, I do love that style. Just might have to steal the idea (but definitely not in fuchsia for me).

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  16. Wow, the dress is gorgeous and so cute with the cap sleeves and the fun color.

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  17. I love it!! The color is beautiful and looks great on you!

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  18. This is so pretty! LOVE the color and fit. Good call making the back into top and bottom pieces. And the shorter sleeves is smart as well. You will get miles of wear out of this dress!

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  19. Such a flattering dress and a great colour. It didn't seem much from the line drawing, but it really is beautiful. Well done!

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  20. Well, oddly enough I'm wearing that dress to work today!! I LOVE it in the fuschia. Hot! I actully love it in the grey too. I just didn't have any on hand ;)

    I also love your alterations in shortening the sleeve. It's darling.

    Plus, your fit is impeccable.

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  21. Love the idea of a summer version of that dress, and the color looks great with your coloring too. I think your alterations to the back also worked really well.

    If you'd like someone in the US to buy you patterns during the cheap sales and then mail them over, drop me a line. I know several folks on patternreview have connected with others as 'pattern buddies' since we can get patterns so much cheaper at Joann's. Same goes for anyone else in Europe or Australia who is interested; I feel guilty every time I can buy new patterns for 99 cents!

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  22. Ooooh, I LOVE this. The color is gorgeous. And why had I never thought of making this dress with short sleeves?

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  23. The colour is stunning! This dress didn't work for me, maybe I should give it another go. I have some lovely red wool that could work for winter.

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  24. I love both the grey and the fuchsia versions on you. You look great in both of them! I must try this pattern too...

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  25. Beautiful - I love the colour on you! This is a great pattern, every one I have seen looks great made up. In fact that whole issue of Burda is a great one - I had it out of the library the other day and want to make so many things out of it!

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  26. That dress looks fabulous on you. I love the color. Thanks for the tip on how you did the bodice. I've been thinking of doing that dress some time in the future. I think I like the way you made this version better than the first.

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  27. beautiful colour on you!!

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  28. This is absolutely gorgeous and it fits you so well. I'd love to have this in my closet.

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  29. I love the color on you! I also like that you changed the pattern up to meet your needs...great job! BTW, I live in the same country as Vogue Patterns and have had patterns go "missing" after they've been shipped and they've shown up 3 weeks later...tho' I don't have to pay $15 for postage so I totally understand your frustration.

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  30. i love this! this is one of my favourite things you've sewn and probably because of that colour! i think you should completely embrace colour because it suits you!

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  31. Lovely dress. The bright color is perfect for spring.

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  32. Love both of these dresses! You did a great job. Thanks for the tip, too about separating the back piece into two. I never even thought of that. There have been a few dresses I have avoided making because of back waist fit issues.

    I second Laura... if you ever need patterns from the major 4. I would be happy to mail them to you also. Joanns is always having sales.

    ~k~

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  33. Wow! The dress is gorgeous!
    I'm happy to hear that you had a positive experience with sewingpatterns.com. I buy all of my patterns there as downloads but I never dared to buy the "real" patterns because so many people were complaining about not receiveing their orders. I think they are based in the US (are they?) and if the patterns made it to Australia, maybe they could make it to Italy as well... Should I try?

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  34. Kristy, WOW! That colour is so you! I love that dress on you. I also hate the back of a pattern being different from the front... so I love that you made that change. I think go for the bright colours more ... I see you in a beautiful dark emerald green really.
    How is Ana sleeping??

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  35. Love this, love this. Especially the colour; it's GREAT on you!

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