The Perfect Dress for All Year Round
Square Neck Sleeveless Dress with Gathered Skirt and Removable Puff Sleeve
I am not sure if there really is a “perfect” dress out there, but this one definitely comes close. I made it for a client to wear to her wedding reception and I loved it so much I made one for myself too! I made a tutorial video and am selling the pattern for $2 if you want to make this dress! I loved the way it turned out, I will be making some more in the future.
The Fabric I Used
Dress No. 1
For the Wedding dress, I used a crisp silk dupioni because it would have good volume and my client wanted a rough irregular texture for the fabric so it had an antique feel to it.
Ivory Silk Shantung/Dupioni
Off-White Handmade Pleated Organza
Dress No. 2
For my plaid mustard dress, I wanted something colorful and fun that would be a good summer-to-autumn transitional piece. I saw this plaid and was immediately inspired and then when I went home and put it on my desk my yellow chair inspired me to make it reversible and add some yellow contrast binding.
Dark Rainbow Ombre Plaid Brushed Cotton
100% Cotton
Care: Machine wash gentle cold, nonchlorine bleach, tumble dry low, warm iron.
Item # 18203307
$8.39 / YD
Mustard Yellow Challis
Care: Machine wash gentle cold, nonchlorine bleach, tumble dry low, warm iron.
Product #: PD-00211736
$ 6.67 / YD
The most challenging part was getting the zipper in, especially for the wedding dress because it had 7 layers of tulle on the bottom plus another 2 on top of that, there was just so much fabric! If you know me you know how impatient I can be, so I literally called local seamstresses and asked if they could do the zipper for me. Turns out nobody wanted to do the zipper either so I was forced to hand stitch the entire zipper because my machine couldn’t handle it, even though its supposedly a “heavy-duty” machine.
How it Turned Out
The Videos
The Original Sketch
I drew about 3 different sketches before we decided on this one, and it still doesn’t show the bow we added to the back. The mesh undershirt was from another bridal store so I didn’t have to make that piece. The other drawing is simplified because I didn’t want to try and resketch that complex plaid haha, I pick and choose my battles now days since I have a baby.
This week my Singer Heavy Duty machine actually broke, I'm still not sure what happened and I’m sure I could get it repaired but I thought it was time anyways to upgrade to an industrial machine! I ordered a new JUKI 5500 and its arriving next week! HEHE! Now projects like this won’t be as frustrating cause I’m going to have a gnarly strong machine!
In summary, I’m really happy with the result. It was a good learning experience for me to make a custom dress remotely, but I don’t think I will do it again haha unless its for family or a friend.