I saw a RTW version of this dress when scrolling through fabric on Etsy, alongside the fabric itself, and although no doctor was present to confirm anything, I swear my heart stopped a beat. Then restarted itself, beating fast with passion fueled by the desire to get my hands on this fabric as soon as possible. Click, yes, 2 meters in my cart and we are done - the dress of my dreams will soon be mine!
When a fabric is this beautiful, it's always best to let it speak for itself, and not overcomplicate things with a fiddly pattern. In other words, keep it simple, stupid! So I chose Butterick 6086, which I had made before. It is a simple pattern that suits my body shape, has lovely thin sleeves, and pretty much matched what I wanted this dress to be.
The only pattern alterations I made were to shorted and straighten the skirt, and to increase the skirt width. I also reduced the sleeve width by 1cm - a small amount I know, but I have skinny chicken arms and I wanted the sleeves to look nice and slimline.
Actually making the dress was pretty easy! I took my time with pattern placement when cutting out the pieces, and am so happy with how the embroidery looks on the dress. The bodice front and backs were interlined. The skirt was lined, and for the lining and interlining I used a cotton voile that had a nice bit of body, so the skirt would fluff out a bit.
The hardest part was ironing the tulle. I always love pressing my seams so they look razor sharp, but I couldn't do that with this dress as the risk of melting the tulle was quite high. I had to content myself with taking a gently, gently approach with the iron on quite a low setting. My seams don't look as sharp as I would generally like them, but I had no melting accidents, so I'm calling it a win!
All tulle seams were done as French ones.
To conclude, I am so happy with how this dress turned out! I did um and ah a bit about adding the grosgrain ribbon to the waist, but when I consulted with my daughter and her bestie, who were having baking session in the kitchen, they both voted for the ribbon waistband. How could I dispute the fashion sense of savvy teens? I dare not, so beribboned my dress became!
Now I just want to make all the things out of all the tulle. Don't be surprised if you see another tulle creation in the future!
Project details:
Pattern - Butterick 6086, view C
Fabric - Embroidered tulle fabric from Yanafashion on Etsy, 2 meters, plus 1.3 metres of cotton voile
Notions - 55cm invisible zipper
