Print and Lace Dress

This dress has allowed me to try lots of new techniques in one make. (hooray) as a result my original post was a bit of a long one. The dress is New Look K 6723 using view A, the boat neck line.

I’ve made it in a beautiful ivory and pink floral, rayon dress fabric. I’ve really mixed a few new techniques in this one and I’m really proud of the final result.

Firstly, this has a lined bodice, the pattern comes with instructions but I also used this tutorial from Dreaming of Avonlea as a point of reference. It is all about lining the bodice, it looks super neat.

Lining is hard to photograph when it’s such a busy print!

As I cut the pattern I duplicated the front, side panels in this really cool leaf lace and tacked the two pieces together before sewing the pattern together as normal. I feel it adds a bit extra to the dress, which is what me-made is all about!

I inserted a 3/4 length sleeve. I stumbled here a bit because the dress has a boat neck line; I struggled to see whether the sleeves were badly fitted of whether the neck line was just wide.

I added buttons instead of a zip at the back, making a separate placket, which I did by measuring the length and using the tie pattern for the width.

I then french seamed the skirt pieces together, gathered it and attached it to the bodice. I made the tie for round the dress, which I over-stitched. The tie was no where near long enough to tie round me so I added some Velcro instead so I could fasten it. I also added some small belt hoops to the front to keep it in place.

I think this covers all the construction of this dress. I think it’s really pretty, I just need a wedding or something to go to now… I maybe need to master making things that are seasonally appropriate rather than just because I feel like it, I was a tiny bit chilly doing my photos!