Recreating Ready to Wear: Flutter Sleeve Dress

Happy Friday people!  I'm back today with another post in my "Recreating Ready to Wear" series, although this one is not as successful as the previous two, for reasons which I'll share in a bit.

This time I decided to try and recreate this dress:


I really liked the idea of it, but the neckline was a bit high for my liking and the sleeves a little full when I tried it on.  So I decided to make my own version.


There's a reason why you're seeing this modelled by Rosie rather than myself, and that's because it's too big for me, or the bodice is anyway. 

I made a rookie error - I chose a pattern designed for woven fabric and used a knit fabric to make it.  Nothing wrong with that in principle - I've done it before quite successfully - but I would normally size down and I forgot to. 

I forgot to size down because I used a pattern I'd used previously for a woven and just picked it up and started cutting!  The pattern is the Alison Glass Woven Essentials dress, and this is my fourth version.

The fabric I used is this absolutely gorgeous ponte roma kindly provided by Minerva Crafts as part of their blogger network.  I used the Forest colourway and would highly recommend the fabric, it is lovely to work with and lovely to wear.  Just make sure you use an appropriate pattern or make the appropriate size adjustments!

I needed to alter my pattern a bit to get the look I wanted.  Firstly I wanted to give the skirt a bit more flare, so I made adjustments to the A line skirt pattern to remove the darts and rotate the fullness out to the hem.  I did this by tracing the front and back skirt pieces and marking a line down from the tip of the dart to the hem.  I then cut up this line, and down one leg of the dart, leaving just a small hinge of paper. 



Overlapping the dart I moved the fullness to the bottom of the skirt, and filled this gap in the pattern piece in with more paper. 



I also wanted different sleeves.  I could have slashed and spread the sleeve pattern that came with the dress, but instead I decided to use the flared sleeve from the Named Clothing Lexi dress.  I've used this before and knew I liked the fullness.  I traced the sleeve head from the Alison Glass pattern and then laid the Lexi sleeve over it to get the angle of the side seams and hem. 


Once I'd made my pattern alterations construction was very straightforward.  This is a great pattern and it helped that I've made it three times previously. 

After finishing the dress I altered the sleeves slightly by creating a curved hem which is shorter at the front of the elbow than the back.  It looks more flattering like this and gives the illusion of more fullness.


In addition to making the bodice too big, I think I've made the neckline a bit low.  I did want it lower than the inspiration dress, but I think I've gone a bit far!  I do have a small amount of the fabric left, I just need to decide whether I've got the willpower to unpick the dress and remake it with a smaller, higher necked bodice!  I think it would be a lovely dress to wear if I do, I just need to get started.

So, as you can see, a bit of a mixed success with this one.  Great idea, poor execution on my part! 

Thanks go to Minerva Crafts for providing the fabric and notions to make this dress.   Minerva Crafts also stock the pattern I used, but I already had a copy. 

7 comments

  1. Oh, so sorry to hear that your dress turned out too big. It is really beautiful and would be worth unpicking and sewing it smaller. If you don't have fabric to raise the neckline, perhaps some lace or a contrasting fabric might work to preserve your modesty.

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    1. I think I've got enough fabric to remake the whole bodice, I've just got to work up the enthusiasm to do so! I hate doing alterations.

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  2. I agree see if you can save it, the dress is beautiful

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  3. I agree with the 2 comments above, should not take too long to pick and resew. the line of the dress is great, and one I am looking now to copy from you!

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    1. I hope you have more success than I did!

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  4. That dress is beautiful, I can understand why you want to make it! So sorry to hear that this attempt didn't work out as well as you had hoped. But the colour is great, I hope that you can fix it!

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