Not quite New Look 6774

So not having any bonnets to sew yesterday was actually an awesome thing. While I didn't make any money, I did indulge all day in selfish sewing.  That is, sewing for me on what I wanted, not what I needed to do or what other people wanted or needed. And I made myself this.

I just love this dress. It's based on New Look 6774, but please don't rush out and buy this pattern to make a dress like this. I had to quite significantly alter the bodice of this pattern to get it like this, but I'm really glad I did.

I used Anna Maria Horner voile from her Innocent Crush line and fully lined the dress in voile from Lincraft.

I adore this fabric. As soon as I received it I was just itching to make something. But my plans changed a few times. I'm so glad that I ended up making this truly cool and wearable dress though. I even wore it to our street Christmas party last night and got a bunch of compliments from people that don't know that I sew or that it was handmade - yay!!

The back fully conceals bra straps, so no need to worry about uncomfortable strapless bras.

I also trimmed the skirt lining with lace again - I think I'm quite hooked on this detail which I originally saw on the Sewaholic blog.

Some of the significant pattern alterations happened after I made up the two bodice pieces as drafted in the pattern. I realised that they were way too generous in the bust area. The gathers looked empty and the whole pattern piece swamped me.

So the changes I made to the pattern include:

• narrowing the shoulder straps
• reshaping the cross over bodice by removing about an inch from the inner side of each piece
• removing about half and inch from the underarm/shoulder strap
• removing an inch from the bottom of the bodice
• repositioning the cross over, so that each inner cross over line angled down further reducing gaping at the 'v'
• omitting the bust gathers, in favour of a couple of unstitched darts under each side
• inserting an invisible zipper

There were a lot of changes to the bodice of this dress to get it to work. I tested the original pattern by pinning it to me and then pinning where changes needed to be made. It's times like these that I wish I had a dress makers dummy, but it worked, so why complain.

The good news is that I still have about a meter of this fabric remaining, so I think I may still make another dress with it. Possibly a simple and easy pull-over dress with a sash - after all it's my specialty!

Pattern review is now here.