June Challenge Summer Dress #1: The Ghana Dress

Tada! My first June Challenge Dress is completed. This dress was already finished on Thursday but the weather was terrible so I didn't get a chance to wear it straight away to get nice pictures taken. The dress is called the Ghana dress, because the fabric I used was brought to me from Ghana by a friend who visited there last summer. Unfortunately, neither of the lengths of fabrics he brought were long enough to make a complete dress, so I decided to combine both fabrics into one dress. It didn't look like the two fabrics would go together at first, but surprisingly they do!

I used one of the lengths for the bodice and skirt part and the other one for the tie at the waist, all the facings, the in-seam pockets and for lengthening the skirt - because it was too short and looked silly.

It looks as if the pattern I used is this one from burdastyle magazine 02/2011 I posted about last week, but it isn't. I would have liked to use it but I'm very weary of using commerical patterns these days. I use them for inspiration but often use my own slopers to make the actual patterns. This is mainly because with almost all commerical patterns I use I have to do a labourious, very large FBA, which requires several muslin fittings and more alterations resulting from the FBA.

So, the way I solved the problem for this dress is that I used the bodice of Vogue 8615 - which is a custom fit pattern with separate pieces for A, B, C, D cups - which fit me perfectly cut out in the D cup. I then altered the bodice the way I wanted it to look, moving the dart around, cutting a deeper neckline and adding cap sleeves.

The skirt is simply made of three rectangles (one at the front and two in the back - to allow for the back zip) and I also added a long tie that can be tied in the back or front.

This dress is one of these dresses I wasn't sure I was going to like at all. I made it with fabric I've had in my stash for almost a whole year and never dared to cut into - because it's not like I can go buy more in Ghana anytime soon. Inspired by the June Challenge I put an end to procrastination and hesitation and just went for it. And I love it!

I'll probably use a similar pattern for my next dress to keep it simple. I already have some ideas but haven't started yet. Go June Challenge!