Pia party dress

Remember last post, I thought that I didn't need any party dresses. Well turns out I did need an other one. My sister and I are going out at new years eve and apparently a cocktail dress was required. The dress I made last year was pretty but not really a cocktail dress. So of course I made something else. I had some black pleated fabric in my stash and went out and bought some matching black silk. The pattern that I used is the Pia dress from la maison victor. To be honest when I first saw that dress in the magazine I was a bit pissed. I really liked the design but I felt that it was designed to sell there fabric collection because where else would you find a pleated fabric like the one they used? Turns out at the fabric sales in Rotselaar. And in black so that was even better because that made it easy to find a matching fabric. The dress is a fast make, not even a zip needed. The fit from La maison patterns is as always good, I made size 36. So that makes two items for the december theme for the social sew. 

Materials

main fabric: 12€ from the fabric sales

second fabric: silk 10€ from the fabric sales

pattern: Pia from La Maison Victor

dress for the festive season: not black but more glitter

This is going to be the last post of 2015. 

This month I finally had the time and materials to participate in the sew it up monthly competition. The theme of this month was less black, more glitter. I had the perfect fabric for that, a dark blue wool and and polyester blend with a wide glittering border weave. I bought it as a coupon and it was only a 1 meter 20 centimeter long. When I bought it I had the intention of making a skirt. But then I decided it had to be a dress. I prefer dresses anyway and special for special occasions a dress feels more festive. 

So then I had to find a pattern dat I could make with only 1.2 meters of fabric. At first I thought it was going to be impossible. I didn't just want a straight tube/ A-line dress. But then I realised that if I altered the pattern for the Lora dress (my first version) a bit it could work. I also needed to be sure that the pattern would have the right length, shortening it would make the glittering border smaller. So I shortened the sleeves and didn't make any pockets. By doing this I just managed to squize the dress out of it. I made one big mistake, I cut the back bodice piece on the fold . But because I needed the zip in the back I had to cut it open. So I was left without a seam allowance for the zip. Fortunately the fabric had a bit of stretch to it so I just used a minimum seam allowance for the zip. The fabric is also really itchy, I lined the bodice and the skirt with a dark grey venezia lining. I was planning to line the entire dress including the sleeves. I tried but because the lining doesn't have stretch it was to restricting. So I just put up with the scratchy bits. It is worth it!!

I wore the dress for Christmas and my entire family loved it and I'm going to wear it again on new years eve. I just don't have the time to make more than one dress so I just wear the same one for the entire festive period. 

Best wishes for 2016!