A Couple of Dresses

I've been at this job for 10 months now.  I have a better handle on how I want to dress for the job I really love. So after the last few months of wearing jeans, denim leggings and ponte jeans with a variety of sweaters, tops, blouses and toppers, I'm so ready to wear a dress.

Last year I made a lot of maxi dresses. Dresses that I'm thrilled to have in my wardrobe for this spring/summer. However, I really love to wear dresses and skirts and I've finally worked out how to make those garments function in my job environment. I've also realized that I'm going to stand out a bit but it's okay because I'm a member of the team now. I've worked hard to be respected so they will see that instead of just seeing what I wear.

So dresses! I'm sooooooo excited! I even wore two to work last week with stockings. I think the key is not to wear and accessorize them the same way that I use to. The last 10 months has provided me with the opportunity to change the way I looked at my clothing and how I wear it.  

I wore this one and this one last week.  Yes, those are just links because how they're styled on the blog is not how I wore them. However, it made me realize that in the short term, I should make a couple more just like them in different fabric types, cause I gotta lot of fabric! *smile*

The first two are shown above. They are simple sews. Made using my new TNT dress pattern. What makes them different is the ponte fabric I used. I even used some of the same techniques I've used in past dresses ~ dresses that no longer live in my wardrobe.

First the Dark Floral Ponte Dress 

Don't you love these shoes?! I've worn them under my jeans

and thought they would work with this dress.

The Supplies ~
2 yards of a floral ponte purchased from EmmaOneSock
22" black invisible zipper
Design Plus fusible stay tape

There are no new construction techniques. As I stated above it was a simple sew. I added short sleeves with a band. I will wear it with a black cardi at work because the office is always slightly chilly.

A few photos ~

The second is a Striped Ponte Dress

The Supplies ~
2.5 yards of a striped ponte from Fabric Mart
22" white invisible zipper
2 yards black foldover braid

Construction ~
This was the most challenging of the two dresses because I decided to cut the stripes both horizontally and vertically to add interest to the dress. Honestly working this out made my head hurt but I got them cut out. I used old pattern pieces from my now out-of-date TNT dress pattern so I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.  Though I don't know how much time I actually saved since I still had to refigure everything to work for this body.

The pieces were cut out singly. I then laid the pieces on the cutting table in the order I wanted them to flow around my body. I did this to make sure that everything worked. I constructed the dress this way also. So the back pieces were put together first, including the invisible zipper, then the side seams were sewn. Matching the stripes on the one side was also important to making this dress work.

The final embellishment to make the dress work was adding the black foldover braid to the neckline and armholes. I'm wearing the dress with a bright yellow RTW sweater because I wanted to add some color to the outfit and I will be wearing it this way IRL.

Some pictures of the dress ~

Highlighting the side seam stripe match

These were the last makes but I'm blogging them first because...well dresses! So these are actually Outfit 3 and 4 in my "Chicos Chic Spring Wardrobe Plan." 

My daughter and I shot these dresses pretty glammed up. I won't be wearing them to work this way. I just wanted to dress up for a change and wear some high heels! *smile*

However, I have a stack of patterns ready to use to make more spring/summer dresses so I won't be using my TNT pattern much this summer. I just started here and am branching out because hey it's spring and I can wear dresses again!

...as always more later!