Asymmetrical blue dress

Dear Your Royal Majesty the Queen,

I would like to respectfully ask Your Highness for some sort of royal recognition for services to sewing (and thus, of course, therefore to your empire. A well dressed empire is a happy empire, I always say). Now, I know that I haven't won any major awards for costume design, or even had a fashion label that your royal professional stylists may have chosen a frock from. But I do make some pretty nice things, and have been quite an active member of the sewing community over the years. You can't put a price on community involvement!

But I suppose I should be honest. The real reason I'd like one of those fancy star medals you pin on people every now and then is that I have just made the perfect dress for such an occasion! Trust me - it's too fancy for doing the supermarket run, and also a bit much for going out to dinner in. Kneeling humbly before yours truly before bouncing up again with an OBE pinned to my breast is pretty much the only occasion worthy of this frock!

Yours in dedicated anticipation,
Jorth

PS I think Dame Jorth has quite the ring to it, n'est-ce pa?

Project Details
Pattern - Vogue 9149, view C
Fabric - 2.9m of 150cm cotton/lurex blend from The Fabric Store
Notions - 55cm invisible zipper, lining for the bodice

I am so pleased with how this dress turned out! I have a feeling that I used the wrong side of the fabric, but I did this on purpose as I just loved the textured look it gave the dress. I was slightly worried the addition of metallic lurex would make the fabric scratchy, but it is a joy to wear with no itchiness in sight.

This dress does take a lot of fabric, and you need to keep your wits about you when cutting out the skirt, so if you make this yourself pay close attention to the skirt cutting lines! Otherwise you might end up with mis-matched asymmetrical sides. That would be a disaster!

The only real quibble I have with this pattern is the amount of ease in the sleeves. The schematic illustration makes it look like the sleeves are rather fitted, but they are HUGE! I ended up removing 6cm of fullness from each sleeve. You need to be careful in a long dress like this - if the sleeves aren't fitted nicely then they can often make it look like you are packing a pair of tuck shop lady arms in there. Not generally the look I go for!

Other than the sleeve issue, I am very happy with this dress. Hey Lizzie - don't forget my invite to Buckingham Palace!