Hi everybody! Today I've got to share with you my first autumnal make of the season, another self drafted dress! The design has been in my head for ages and ages and ages but I ran out of time to make a summer dress out of it so made one more appropriate for autumn instead. I wore the dress on a school textiles trip to the V&A to see the
wedding dress exhibition which was just incredible.
To manipulate my bodice block, I slashed and spread from the top to the bottom of the side seam to add more volume for gathers. I made it up in calico and pinned it to the mannequin. Then I drew a rough shape of what I wanted the waistband to be like, pinned it on, drew on it, and refined the shape until it was how I wanted it. I then marked where the top of the waistband was on the bodice, added a 1.5cm seam allowance and cut off the bottom part of the bodice that wasn't needed anymore. The skirt is just a gathered rectangle.
Then I made it up in the real fabric, which is a cotton that I picked out of the remnant bin at
Fabricadabra. I've decided on a specific colour palette for Autumn/Winter in an effect to make my wardrobe more cohesive consisting of black and navy as neutrals and green, red purple and teal.
If I made this style of dress again I would add gathers to the back bodice because it looks a little bare without them. I was just worried about them adding unwanted volume. The dress did end up a bit short due to not enough fabric.
To keep the insides neat I lined the waistband and neatened the neckline and arm holes with bias binding made from the same fabric. The hem was overlocked and folded over twice and there's an invisible zip in one of the side seams.
As I'm slightly more long waisted than the usual and the whereabouts of the waistband was determined on the mannequin the dress is a little higher than my natural waist so next time I would lengthen the bodice a bit.
The architecture of the V&A is just so amazing!
And of course I couldn't resist doing a princessy walk down the fancy staircase...
Thanks so much to Rebecca Hurrey who took such wonderful photos, and thanks for reading!
Lauren xx
