A Purple Dress: Stashbusting Sewalong July 2016

I promise that I finished making this dress in July, as part of the Stashbusting Sewalong July theme of, you guessed it - Dresses! Although I scraped in finishing this dress on the last day of July, it took me a while to get some photos that didn't look washed out, and even longer to write this post.

This vibrant, vintage, purple print cotton has been in my stash for about a year. It jumped out at me at a travelling fabric sale put on by A Piece of Cloth, and I started planning what I was going to make from it before I'd even paid for it.

Although I often make boned dresses, they are rarely for me, and prior to making this dress, I did not have anything wearable in my wardrobe with boning in it.

The inside of the bodice before adding boning channels

The pattern is, of course, self drafted, and features a fitted, boned bodice, wide crossover straps, a straight skirt with back split, and pleats at the top of the skirt: two at each side of the centre, and two in the side seams.

Close up of waist pleats. I could have easily hidden
pockets in the pleats, but decided that I
wouldn't use them in this particular dress anyway.

The lining is a cotton that was leftover from a client's dress. She had no use for the leftovers, and left it with me to put to good use. There was just enough to squeeze out the lining for this dress. I used the same pattern for the lining, except for the skirt pieces. For these I cut the pattern pieces without the pleats. I wasn't looking to add extra bulk to my hips.

Close up of the pattern in the fabric

I don't actually have anywhere to wear this dress, yet. When I was planning the dress I had an occasion in mind to wear it to, but unfortunately I have a clash of dates and am unable to attend. I do have a few other events in mind, and I can always just wear it for the fun of it when the weather warms up enough! (See the goosebumps in the photo above?)

Mustard yellow lining!