When You Are The Moon, The Best Form You Can Be Is A Full Moon

And by that I mean that if you get an occasion to get all fancy you should just GO FOR IT!

Every year the students of the Antwerp Fashion Academy present their final work in a fashion show, and since many of them frequent the store I work at now (come say hi if you're in Antwerp!) we thought it would be fun to go see it. I had seen these guys a lot over the past few months, getting more and more stressed out, but it was definitely worth it! The show was awesome, and we saw some really interesting things. But what did I wear?

I had seen this Vogue pattern pop up here and there recently, and got intrigued. The pattern photo looks a bit weird, and the fabric they chose doesn't do the design any justice in my opinion, but I thought the line drawings looked promising!

I had not worked with a Big 4 pattern in ages, so after checking the size chart I decided to measure the pattern pieces. Doing that turned out to be a good decision: I am a size 14 according to their size chart, but the waistband for that size is over 7 cm larger than my actual waist size. That is a lot of ease for a waistband that kind of supports the entire dress, so I sized down. The skirt portion fit really well out of the envelope, but I had to make the top a lot smaller as well. I took about 10 cm of width out of the center back and omitted the split and loop (I was also lowering the neckline so wouldn't need it to be able to pull the dress over my head). I also removed a wedge fron the center front because the neckline was gaping. The bodice was too long on me, causing it to blouse way too much, so I raised the shoulders (also eliminating that crazy shoulderpad) and lowered the armholes to compensate. Phew!

Construction is interesting on this one. It's basically a skirt and top, with the top pleated in front and sewn between the waistband and waistband facing, making it look like it's been tucked in. This means the entire back and side is loose, which makes for a nice breezy feel and easy acces in case of itchiness. The back is still really loose and I considered taking a bit more out of the center, but that would make getting in and out of this dress even more of an adventure! I like how the hem on the top has some interesting curves going on, instead of just being straight across. The neckline and armholes are finished with a facing, and I chose to do all my hems by hand.

The pleats give the skirt some nice fullness at the front. I feel like I could shorten the top a tiny bit more, since it still feels really blousy unless I stand up absolutely straight. Or maybe this dress will finally teach me good posture! Next time I'll probably omit the center front seam and cut that piece on the fold, since there doesn't really seem to be a reason for a center front seam anyway. There are inseam pockets, but they are anchored in the waistband as well, which means they don't shift around too much. This works really well on this type of fabric but would probably be too bulky on heavier things!

All this talk about sewing and fitting and I haven't even mentioned the fabric! I wanted something drapey but not super thin and unstructured, and found the perfect viscose at the Fabric Sales with Hanne and Joost. I had envisioned this in black, but this nice deep not-quite-blue-not-quite-green caught my eye. It also has a slight silvery sheen to it that doesn't photograph at all, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I had 3,5 meters and still have enough left to make something else, even after cutting this in a maxi length!

I went for maxi because the pattern length looked really frumpy on me (I'm not made for midi lengths) and cutting it shorter would look really unbalanced. The skirt is pretty straight, even with the added fullness in front, so I made a split in the back to make walking easier.

I really like this dress and think there might even be room in my wardrobe for another one!

"Go stand by the motorcycle and do something!" "Eh"