This dress is not so much inspired by, but totally copied off Janene from Ooobop. And if you don't follow Janene, then I urge you to, because she is amazing!
I instantly loved this fabulous dress that she made a few months ago, and what's even better is that Janene has given all the details on how she drafted the skirt in the blog post, so all I had to do was follow along. Thank you!!
My bodice is self-drafted (as is Janene's), but any fitted bodice with a waist seam would work. I stumbled across a Vogue Sandra Rhodes pattern that is very similar - it's V1547, but it's out of print.
I added pockets to mine. To do this I marked the pocket top down from the point where the skirt waist meets the bodice side seam.
The corners on the hems are mitered, and I am extraordinarily pleased with them. I used this tutorial from By Hand London.
All my supplies came from Sew N Sew in Belfast. The fabric is some purple poly-something I bought a few years ago now, and I bought the ribbon trim and zip just before I made the dress.
I love how the zip turned out! I sewed it as an exposed zip, then sewed the ribbon trim down both sides and across the bottom.
Even though I have been wearing this with some of my about 500 (maybe I don't have that many!!) Tilly And The Buttons Agnes tops underneath, the top of the metal zip is a bit cold, so I hand-sewed some more ribbon to the back of the zip to made a zip guard.
I flipping love this dress, and it's been getting plenty of wear with my black tights and boots.
Happy sewing,
Lynne