International Wear a Dress Day

Today I went to the cinema with a friend so decided to wear my NEW dress for the occasion.  Also, Dress-a-Day has decreed today "International Wear a Dress Day", so how could I not?  Any excuse...

I'm quite proud of this dress.  I made it specifically to go with this very expensive cardigan I bought several years ago.  I've worn this cardigan with other things that have now gone the way of the Good Samaritan's bin, and I needed to have something else for it to go with.  I thought this polyester chiffon fabric was a pretty good match for the (silk) chiffon pockets on the cardigan (see detail picture below), and envisaged a floaty, dreamy, pretty summer dress.
The pattern, Vogue 7748, is one I bought years ago but not yet used, so I decided to give it a whirl.  It seemed a good base for a wrap dress, with no frills.  However I thought it was a bit too basic and I wanted just a few frills!  I also wanted the final effect of the dress to be a kind of jumble of flowery colours, without a discernible pattern repeat.  The addition of a few ruffles could help achieve this.
I cut each of the skirt pieces to half their supposed length.  The right front, which ends up crossed over the left front in the finished garment, was further shaped in a curve up to the waistline.  For each skirt piece, I joined together three large part doughnut shapes, and added these to the bottom of each of the skirt pieces.
I also added a double ruffle around the neckline, although only slightly ruffled as I'm not a very frilly person!  
I didn't make the belt in the pattern; but added long sashes to the waist edge of each dress front, and left a small gap in the right side seam for the left sash to pass through, so I can tie it at the back of the dress.  I also added a sleeve detail (see below picture) to look more feminine and interesting than the plain hem indicated in the pattern.
The skirt hem and the neck ruffles were finished with a black rolled hem edge, done on the overlocker.
Because the fabric is see-through, I made a separate petticoat out of lightweight jersey (see below, modelled by Bessie).  This is simply a tanktop bodice, copied from a tanktop I already had, and a quarter-circle each for the skirt front and back.  This was just run up on the overlocker, and the edges left raw.  Its just a petticoat after all, and the jersey won't unravel or fray.


I felt good and comfortable in this dress today, so it'll probably get a lot of use this summer.


Other details:
Cardigan; Alannah Hill
Shoes; Micam by Joanne Mercer, bought in Hobbs