So the inspiration for this one was based on these two pins: skirt & dress. The bottom is two half circle skirts, and the top is the always fabulous garden party dress, somewhat hacked. I used a knit fabric that was black on one side and had a diagonal plaid pattern on the other side. The bottom had a kind of odd graffiti border, but I choose not to show that, and it’s now the inside of the outer skirt. There was not a lot of fabric left after cutting two half circle skirts, so I had to make some choices to conserve fabric.
Those little reverse triangles in the shoulder meant I could position the front more economically on the fabric. For the sleeves, I did use the original sleeve width, but the sleeve caps of a t-shirt pattern were substituted. I made the sleeves as long as I could with what fabric remained. However, elbow length sleeves are the devil – cold underarms. So I decided to attempt a kind of bishop sleeve by using another piece of fabric. This worked! It’s just about long enough and has the shallowest hem I could manage.
One of the hardest parts of this dress was figuring out how to do pockets. For events like this, I need to have pockets to put my phone and the schedule etc in. Since there were no side seams, in seam pockets would be hard. Making symmetric welt pockets in a stretchy knit would also not be my idea of fun, also because I did not have a lot of fabric left. In the end I made giant patch pockets. They are not super visible, but did work very well.
I liked this dress, although it was not as successful in keeping out the cold as last year’s outfit was. Still, it performed its duty even if I did change into pants and a sweater halfway through the reception. For next year, I’ll try to find something warmer.
