Client work: 2 Going Away Dresses

Last May, a sweet Brazilian needed a Going Away Dress for her wedding. The bride had an idea of what silhouette she wanted, but as a tall, long legged girl, she couldn't find any RTW dresses in a sensible length. Her mother-in-law is a dear friend, so I offered to make her a dress.

After they sent me these inspiration photos, I went on the hunt for a pattern with similar lines.  Simplicity 1873 was very close and the client loved it. (side note: Cynthia Rowley patterns are fantastic) After wandering around JoAnn, we decided to make two dresses using view A. One out of a cotton twill and another out of a sateen. 

First, I made the cotton twill, using the pattern with no alterations. This turned out to be a beautiful dress - the twill made lovely, crisp pleats and hung like a dream. Unfortunately, I only have shoddy smart phone shots of it. I rushed to finish the first dress in time for the wedding, then took my time with the second. Oh well.

 

Of course, the navy sateen gave me a giant head ache. It did not want to press at all. So, I ditched all the pleats from the pattern and gathered the waist and arm seams instead. Which actually turned out to be lovely. I photographed the dress and sent it to the client, only to find out that it was too short! We had purchased the remaining yards on the bolt, so I couldn't just add on or redo the skirt, and the dark black navy was impossible to match. In the end, I added 4" bais tape hem out of white sateen. Not my first choice, but it worked. (I took pictures before adding the length to the hem.)