As an experiment, I set myself the target of taking a garment idea from concept to actualisation in 3 days. And I did it! Well – actually it took me 4 days. But that’s far better than not doing it at all, which is what happens to all my other ideas!
Behold, my self-drafted A-line princess seam dress:
I ended up deviating quite a bit from the original design. Below are my original sketch, and a technical drawing of what I ended up sewing. The princess seams and the flared skirt stayed, but I ditched the side panels, the racer back shoulders, and the keyhole opening. I added a centre back zipper and a boatneck.
Making the Dress
I started by making a proof of concept on my mini-mannequin. The mini-mannequin was something I made as part of my fashion design course, and it’s definitely not representative of the human form, but it was close enough to allow me to figure out the drafting steps to transform a basic block into the style I was aiming for.
To draft the full-size version, I started with the Close-Fitting Dress Block from Aldrich’s Metric Pattern Cutting. (Which is actually not very close-fitting – if that’s what you’re after, you want the Body Con block!) I modified the existing darts into princess seams from the armscye, and added flare on the skirt starting at the waist. Then I changed the neckline to a boat neck shape, and drafted an all-in-one facing. I deepened the armscye too, as my toile was digging in a bit under the arm. This stage – the drafting and constructing the toile – took me nearly two full days.
Finally I sewed up the dress in my fashion fabric, which took another day. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but the all-in-one facing was so fiddly to attach! It would have been a lot easier if the shoulder seam wasn’t so narrow, so lesson learned there. Boat necks + all-in-one facings = awkward.
I originally wanted to use two different coloured fabrics to emphasise the style lines, but I didn’t have any two fabrics in my stash that would work together. So I used this batik fabric that I bought in Indonesia 7 years ago (!!). To be honest I think the print is a bit too busy and is obscuring some of the design, but it’s pretty all the same.
The final dress has a bit of a 1950s vibe, which actually really reminds me of the styles I saw in the online sewing scene back in 2016. And my choice of print is only furthering the “vintage dress made in a quilting cotton” aesthetic! (Even though it’s not a quilting cotton!)
I’m definitely not done with this pattern – I’ve got ideas for how to iterate on it to make it a bit more contemporary… Coming soon. (If I can buck my ideas up that is.)