The First of the Five in Five Dresses

The first of the Five in Five outfits was inspired by this dress from The Avenue...

...and after a quick trip to Mood Fabrics one Friday evening to pick up a couple of yards of black ponte...along with another quick stop at Pacific Trimmings to get a zipper...this is the combo I started with to make my version of the dress and my first Five in Five piece.

Pattern ~

Dress from my TNT pattern

Fabric ~

Midweight cotton/lycra ponte from Mood

Leftover scrap of lacy pleather from Mood

Notions ~

20" black invisible zipper

black bemberg lining

ltwt. fusible knit interfacing strips

Seams great tape

Seam tape

Stitch witchery

Black cotton bias binding

Pattern Alterations ~

Naturally I started with my TNT dress pattern but I needed to make just one alteration to the dress front to achieve the high bodice look on the inspiration dress.

I measured down a few inches and made a line straight across the dress front and added a 5/8" seam allowance.  The dress bottom was cut with the dart remaining in the dress front because I like darts on my dresses. A 5/8" seam allowance was added to that piece also.  Now the inspiration dress has princess seams in the dress front.  I could have gone that way but I was inspired by the dress. I didn't want to make an exact copy of it.

Pattern Alterations

Close up of dress front on Lulu

Construction ~
The back of the inspiration dress also has a yoke and princess seams. Again, not something I was inspired by but I did want the princess seams. So I used the pattern pieces from the back of the CK Dress to get a closer fit in the back of the dress.

Now I'd originally planned to add a slotted seam and the metal zipper to the back seams. But somewhere in putting the dress back together, I was on autopilot and just added an invisible zipper. I stitched the dress front and back together and when I was pressing the seams open noticed that I did not add the metal zipper. I guess I could have unpicked the zipper but honestly it just wasn't that big of a deal. I left the invisible zipper in. I'll add the metal zipper to another dress in the future.

I added a lining to the dress because my preference is lined dresses. The inspiration dress is not lined which is common in RTW ponte dresses. Also if I hadn't lined the entire dress, I would have had to line the pleather piece so it just made sense to line the entire dress.

A few more construction points...

• I added seam tape to the shoulder seams to insure that the pleather and ponte wouldn't stretch out.
• The center front seam on the dress where the ponte and pleather are joined, as well as, the shoulder seams were pressed back onto the ponte side of the seam and then topstitched flat.

• Since the pleather had quite a few holes at the neckline, I added a strip of black Seams Great to the back of it while sewing the lining to the dress. I thought it would help hold the stitches in.
• I used a cotton black bias binding to enclose the armholes by stitching it on using a 3/8" seam.  After pressing it flat, I topstitched it down.
• Topstitching was also added to the neckline.
• The hem was turned up 1.25" and pressed flat.  I added a strip of stitch witchery to the hemline.  Using a twin needle, I stitched it flat.

A few pictures of the dress...

Worn with the Lacy Pleather Jacket

Back view of both pieces

Do you want to make your own?

I know I adjusted my TNT pattern to make this dress but if you wanted a pattern to start with to make your own, you could use Vogue 8786.

This pattern even has the princess seams below the front and back yokes. You can easily change the back neck slit into a zipper closure.  Wow!  Now that I'm looking at this pattern, I guess I should have just used it, right?! *LOL*

The dress goes perfectly with the pleather lacy jacket.  It wasn't my intent when I made the jacket but that's how it ended up.  At first I wasn't sure the two pieces wouldn't be too trendy for my workplace. Now though I really like them together and believe that I can wear them with no issues.

Finally even Bill Cunningham of The New York Times Style Section has observed women's return to dresses.



...as always more later!