Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Peacock Dress


A blog post about this dress is well and truly overdue. If you follow me on instagram or twitter you'll have seen a sneak peek of it on New Years Eve. Yes, you didn't read that wrong, a whopping 50 odd days ago!


You've seen the fabric, it was one of the pieces I bought at Spotlight just after Christmas, and as I knew what I was going to make with it as soon as I saw the fabric, it didn't take me long to cut into it to start making a dress. This dress is essentially an exact replica of one of my favourite summer dresses that I've made, the red vintage simplicity 3965 knockoff (another new-years dress in fact! Made almost much exactly 2 years earlier).

  

I spent a really long time working out the perfect pattern placement for the fabric. The front was tricky, trying to avoid an awkwardly placed flower on the front bodice! The back was easy though, and I'm so happy with it! Thankfully the fabric was fairly see through, so I could place the pattern pieces underneath the fabric and see their placement exactly through. I also marked the seam allowances onto the pattern pieces to help with this.

 

However, a down side of the see-through-ness of the fabric was that the bodice was see through even when I had lined it with some batiste - the seam allowances on the neckline were particularly visible. So I added an additional underlining layer to the bodice to solve this problem (so the bodice has peacock fabric and then two layers of the batiste lining fabric).

 

I've worn the dress around the house a few times, but Saturday was the first chance I had to wear it out and about, when I wore it to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra free concert at the Sydney Myer Music Bowl (if you're in Melbourne you should definitely try to go to one of the concerts; there's still two more this Wednesday and on Saturday evenings). Anyway, while I was at the MSO concert I even got an 'unsolicitation' from the lady sitting next to us.

21 comments:

  1. This looks absolutely fabulous, Rach! A fab fit as always and nice work on lining this sucker like a boss!

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  2. I'm so in love with this fabric! You did it such justice with this amazing dress. It looks great on you. I so want to steal it off you.

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  3. Oh why have you been hiding this masterpiece. I love the fabric.

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  4. This is gorgeous. You've done a lovely job.

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  5. It's stunning, I love the pattern placement, especially the peacock on your back. Really lovely!

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  6. Wow! This is fantastic! The pattern placement is perfect - it really shows that you took such care with this garment!

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  7. It's so pretty! You fitted the bodice perfectly!

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  8. What a pretty dress! Great job on the pattern placement.

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  9. I love, love, love it!! It is so flattering on your body and the pattern is placed just right! Great job!

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  10. I would definitely have given you an unsolicitation. That print is TDF! Thanks for the shout out!

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  11. Oh my goodness, this is gorgeous!! I love the fabric and the pattern placement, and the fit is great!

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  12. Oh, the dress is superb on you, and the pattern placement really works well. A perfect summer dress. Beautiful work!

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  13. Oooh, it's beautiful...well done you!!!

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  14. Amazing amazing amazing. Also your placement of the peacock is just so damn pretty! xx

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  15. Love it babe!! The peacock on the bodice looks so elegant!
    I love the simplicity 3965, I have it, but it's too big for me, I haven't made it yet but the bust is a 32".
    I'll be seeing you on Saturday!

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  16. You look amazing! I love the shape of the dress on you and the peacock is genius!

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  17. I love it Rachel, that pattern really made the most of displaying the pretty peacocks, well done :)

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  18. SUCH a gorgeous dress! The proportions are fabulous on you, and there's just something about a deep dip in the back neckline that to me personifies elegance. I'm totally loving this one - I might even have to trace this puppy of a pattern from you! See you on Sat :)
    x

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  19. This dress is unbelievably gorgeous! I love it!

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Comments make me smile :)

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