But Mom, I Don't Want to Grow Up. Well, Wendy, Sew it Up!

I always imagined shift dresses as something you'd find on those lists of 'ten essential wardrobe classics for every woman', you know, the ones that include a white shirt, a beige trenchcoat and a Hermès scarf. Shift dresses are not for bike riding, drawing or petting animals, so not for me. And then we had to make one!

I thought the obvious thing to do was to just stop complaining about having to be mature and make something pretty. It ended up looking like it was inspired by Peter Pan. NOT INTENTIONALLY!

I used the Colette Laurel pattern and was surprised after making a muslin that I didn't need to make any changes, apart from taking a small piece out of the top of my back! This thing is quite short though, a word of warning... I'm not exceptionally tall and I can't bend down in this, even though I used a VERY narrow hem!

The major change I made was to completely alter the neckline. I cut out triangles all along the neck, drafted a facing and bound the points of the triangles in self bias binding to create the neckline. There was a lot of hand-sewing fiddly bits involved and I managed to burn my thumb with the iron, but it looks really cool!

I repeated the detail in the back to avoid the 'coffin dress' look. The edges normally look more even but apparently I didn't zip it up all the way and my dear photographer never notices such a thing!

I repeated the triangle detail at the hem by making a slit at either side. Finishing this cleanly took some head-scratching but I figured it out in the end!

I put a belt on the dress because I still can't say goodbye to a defined waist and I wanted to break up the green a bit. The fabric is some mystery blend (it was labelled as viscose but I suspect some poly in there as well) with a gorgeous colour and texture that doesn't photograph well at all, sadly enough. Just take my word for it. Look at this picture of me doing sexy posing. Neighbours were laughing at me through their windows.

I can't remember ever posting a picture of the inside of my makes before, but since fit and finish were important in this challenge I took one! There is not a single raw edge in the entire dress: every seam has been either bound with seam binding or encased in bias tape. The bias tape on the armholes has been handstitched to the facings for an invisible finish, and I'm really pleased with my hem as well!

Last but not least: getting onto this roof wasn't an easy feat, so here's a picture of what I go through in the name of blogging:

Yes, that's a toilet.

This was my entry for the second round of Sew it Up, and if you like it you can vote for me here! (Please do, the next challenge is about art and I'm really excited about that one!)