The Airshow dress

More catching up.

This was made back in July and has been worn several times but I’ve only just got around to taking photos on a chilly September Sunday……

So, we were given some free tickets to one of the hospitality tents at Waddington Airshow being held just up the road from us and I decided I needed a new dress.

I’d got a free copy of Simplicity 2444 which was a magazine cover give-away so decided to go for a simple sleeveless version using some lightweight turquoise home-dec fabric I’d bought for something else.  I also found some almost matching poly cotton in the stash to use as a lining.

According to the sizing on the back of the pattern I should have cut a size 14 (14!! 14!!! – I know it’s only a number but I’ve never been a 14 in my life, I wear a size 8 to 10 in RTW) but after measuring the pattern I decided to cut a 12.  I did cut out my lining fabric first to try the fit and from that decided to shorten the darts by 1 inch and lift the neck edge of the shoulders by half an inch to cater for my square shoulders.  I also took 4 inches off the length as I’m only 5′ tall.

It’s fully lined and although it was a scorching hot day, it was beautifully cool to wear – and yes, I did get burned!

The tutorial for the bodice lining came from http://theslapdashsewist.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/all-machine-clean-finish-sleeveless.html (thanks for the video by the way, I was getting into a horrible mess until I watched that!) and the tutorial for the combined lining and mock hong-kong seams on the skirt came from http://www.fromthesehands.net/journal/2010/10/5/underlining-and-seam-finish-in-one.html – note: doing it this way means you loose all the notches on the side seams of the skirt.  Make sure you make a left and a right back – not two right backs (ask me how I know 🙁 )

Other notes:

• Legs of the darts on the back are curved
• Legs of the darts on the front are straight

Here’s some more photos:

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(howzatt for an invisible zipper btw!)

Sheena

P.S. Sorry for the strange facial expressions – the camera was on a 2 sec auto focus and I was concentrating on keeping my balance after pressing the shutter and diving back to the front again)