Oh this terrible winter weather, when will it ever end!
Here is a dress that I made months ago. It's the Dandelion Dress by Seamster Patterns (formerly Disparate Disciplines). I actually won this pattern in a giveaway from Madalynne (thank you Maddie) and made the dress soon afterwards, but I only wore it once or twice because I wasn't happy with my fabric choices.
Anyway, I discovered the dress lurking in my wardrobe and decided to pull it out and make some changes. Not huge changes as you will see, but subtle improvements I think.
This is how it looked before. The main dress is made from stretch woven printed fabric and the top of the bodice is in plain black. I made bias binding from the printed fabric for the neckline and armholes.
It was this printed bias binding that I didn't like. It just looked wrong every time I caught sight of it. So, off it came to be replaced by plain black binding.
Better, non?
Now, I'm still not in love with this dress, but I think it's mainly the fabric that is the problem. It's just not my favourite. I also think it makes me look larger than I really am, although that could be the chocolates I keep scoffing.
I chose a size 6 (medium) for this dress, which was a tiny bit smaller than my bust and waist measurement and larger than my hips. The fit is snug, but not tight. I wonder whether it would have been too tight in a regular, rather than stretch, woven fabric as recommended though. Something to be aware of for next time.
I do like the interesting design of this dress with seam lines in all but the usual places. I would love to make these more of a design feature, but I haven't worked out how to do that without the dress looking to starkly colour-blocked. I don't think that would look good on this style.
I will revisit this pattern after pondering the best fabric colour and pattern to use. The design is really very clever and unique.
