Mad for Plaid

Well, Fall weather will soon be here, so now is as good a time as any to play with some plaid fabric (courtesy of a Sew Weekly Pattern Swap).

I just love when an entire dress can be made from bits and bobs in the stash.  And this dress was one of those projects!  Well, except for the zipper . . . but all in all, that is pretty darn good.

I found the bemberg rayon lining in a drawer.  And miraculously, I had a dark brown spool of thread on hand.

To break up the linear plaid I decided to cut the midriff pieces on the bias.  To keep everything from stretching out, I pulled a length of cotton from the stash and cut duplicate pieces on the grain and treated them as an underlining.

This also was a bit of a relief for all of that plaid matching.  Actually, this particular plaid was quite easy to match.  Knowing this, I still would have chosen to mess with the midriff section.  I believes it makes things look a bit more interesting!

I also found the bodice shaping very appealing.  Silly me, I assumed that those lines were darts (which could easily be substituted if you hate pleats) and one of these days I will actually start reading the descriptions on the back of the pattern envelopes, but this time it turned out to be a happy surprise.  They add a little something different to a very basic silhouette.

I like to use a french seam on my bemberg linings.  It  gives me an opportunity to practice the technique, sometimes pressing the first seam open, sometimes to one side, without having to worry about a perfect and narrow finish on a delicate fabric with quite a bit of drape.  At this point, the finish feels like second nature.

As I was putting my outfit together, I remembered a brown velvet ribbon belt that I rescued from an old skirt.  Instead of wearing it at the waist seam, I opted for a mid-ribcage look (because of the velvet nap, it stayed in place all day long!).

Dress:  Made by me, Vogue 8555

Shoes:  Colin Stuart for Victoria’s Secret

Necklace:  Banana Republic