August Mood Project

After vegging in front of the TV all day yesterday, because I was caught up in the Scandal marathon, I realized that I probably needed to work on my August Mood Project next instead of the Burda dress.  I'm on a deadline with the AMP whereas the Burda dress can be sewn at my leisure.

So after the marathon concluded for this week, I pulled out my fabrics and patterns to work on my next designer interpretation.  Of course the starting point for my version of this look is a variation of my TNT pattern.  

I looked for the pattern pieces that I used to make my CK Dress.  I'm sure they're here, just not where I remember putting them since the room redo. Instead I found pattern pieces from this dress, which were acceptable for my purposes.  I made two new dress front pattern pieces - by employing the pattern sandwich - and I was ready to begin laying out the pattern. 

Pattern Layout is vital to this dress.  Even though the plaid is large and faint, I still want it to match at the side and center back seams. To make this work, I chose to single cut the pattern pieces for the dress. I only need a side front and the two back pieces so it's not like it would be a complicated cut.  But matching the plaid pieces was important to me, so important that I hand basted the side seam AND the center back seam after inserting the invisible zipper.

Basting in the center back of the dress

Ltwt fusible interfacing for the zipper

and the hand basting for the plaid match

Hand basting the side seams together prior to machine stitching

After matching the plaids, it was an easy sew.  I've made this dress quite a few times so assembling the shell wasn't a problem.  It's just when I hung up the dress, it looked plain. 

Can you see how the solid blue wool crepe pulls

the blue plaid out of the gray suiting

I know I picked a more subtle plaid than the bolder plaid used in the designer original ~ in my opinion, this plaid is what really made the designer dress pop. Every time I look at my version I know I picked the right fabric for my work environment...just what to do to give this dress some zing!

After dinner out with the family, I decided that this is no longer an interpretation, it's more of "An Inspired By" piece.  That allowed me to go my own way so I'm adding short sleeves and piping to the dress.

I spent the evening making piping...

Bias binding pressed in half

Stitching the filler into the bias binding

Finished piping - notice how the bias is striping

...it's a little print vs. print but since it's a small dose and doesn't fight with the base fabric I'm going with it.  So that's where I am with my August Mood Project.  I'll finish it up next weekend.

...as always more later!