Make Every Day an Affair to Remember

The majority of the clothing I have made would qualify as “special occasion” attire.  These are the patterns I am drawn to – I simply cannot resist a fabulous dress.  If it was acceptable to flounce around in a hoop skirt all day, I would!  And most days, I am what the average person would consider overdressed.  

Then again, overdressed these days is basically anything other than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and by that definition, I do not mind if my habiliment is considered a bit extravagant.

I have recently come to the conclusion that saving these special garments for a special occasion is silly.  If wearing a great dress will improve my mood, why not wear one every day?

Case in point - until yesterday, this dress had only been worn twice since I completed it in September of 2007.  It was worn to a wedding, and for the opening night party of Idiots Delight in which I was cast as Mrs. Cherry. 

I simply could not resist this cherry printed cotton that I found at Joann Fabrics – I have never met a cherry print that I did not like, and Mrs. Cherry was not going to leave the store without it.  I could not decide between the red or multi-color, so I purchased both, and used the multi for the jacket and belt to add a bit of contrast to the outfit. 

For the past year, my cherry confection has been decorating a wall in my sewing room, along with my green polka dot frock.

This dress has its own petticoat ruffle attached to the skirt lining.

I love the idea, but after using this technique on these two dresses, my closet was threatening to go on strike. 

Realizing that the netted crinoline construction used in this pattern (fabulous though it may be) was creating serious space issues, I used the skirt pattern to make myself a separate petticoat which I now use under my other full-skirted dresses. 

What makes this skirt so special, you may ask.  Instead of gathering all the way around the waist, the gathers are pushed to the sides, leaving the center front and back flat, which creates a more flattering line.  

The gathered netting gets sewn below the hip to accommodate the zipper making the poof start at the hip-line.

I decided to make the belt wider than suggested because I felt like a skinny one would get lost in the large pattern.  Because I could not find any belting as wide as I wanted, I used two layers of thick interfacing and sewed vertical pieces of plastic boning at the back and side waist of the belt to keep it from rolling.

I had to fuss a bit with the front neckline.  The construction went together beautifully, but the upper bodice would not stay centered or gathered as shown in the illustration.  

To remedy this, I simply tacked the underside of the casing to the straps invisibly where I wanted it to sit.  This is an extremely easy fix and something that makes the dress much easier to wear because it eliminates the need to keep adjusting the neckline.

My only real complaint, if I had to come up with one, is that the matching jacket is unlined, and the finishing technique leave something to be desired.  There are many ways to fix this, and it is labeled "easy," so I suppose Butterick did not want to add difficulty to the pattern.  However, because the dress is fully lined and finished off beautifully, the jacket construction just seems like too much of an afterthought.

I decided to forego the buttonholes because I knew I wanted to wear the jacket open and I wanted to use over-sized buttons.  I thought that large buttonholes would detract from the overall look.

Ribbon hangers were added to the dress so the weight of the skirt does not stretch the straps – not only does she take up quite a bit of space, those nine yards of fabric are quite heavy! 

This dress is quite easy to put together, but the pattern lines create a very memorable dress with a great neckline.  Do be aware that a special bra may be required because of that lovely neckline and the low back - a regular strapless may not work in this case.

So, no more excuses, go pull one of your neglected frocks out of the closet and take her for a jaunt – you will not believe how it will improve your mood, not to mention all the compliments you will get!

Dress & Jacket:  Butterick 4792

Earrings:  Vintage

Shoes:  Nine West “Vishnu” in Red

Polka Dot Dress:  Vogue 1094

Necklace:  Banana Republic

Shoes:  Seychelles "Babydoll"