Thursday, March 1, 2012

Christian Dior Polka Dot Dress

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of Cameron Diaz's style.  So I was extra-surprised by how amazing she looks in this Christian Dior during Paris Couture Week.  I love the sweet simplicity of the dress, and it would probably do me some good to make a dress that ISN'T floral with a gathered skirt.

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I had this photo saved in my inspiration photos, so when I went to Mood a couple weeks ago, polka dots were high on my priority list.  I think the Dior dress actually has white squares, but that would be impossible to find and Mood had endless bolts of polka dots in all colors and sizes.  I went with this, which is a thick cotton sateen with a little stretch, and I got two yards.

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Next step was finding the perfect pattern. I thought maybe if I had a similar pattern, I could adjust it a little bit, but I didn't even have anything close! I had no patterns with boatnecks at ALL, and I only had a couple with short sleeves and they weren't right. The dress has raglan sleeves, and my patterns either had regular or kimono sleeves. I found this one on Etsy for $6. The skirt is all wrong, but I do have several patterns with full darted skirts.

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Like a good sewer (who doesn't want to waste $28 worth of fabric), I made a muslin. And good thing I did because yikes, it was bad.

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I added two tucks to the front bodice, and they are terrible. They're too close together, so they make the dress pouf out from my chest instead of fitting closely.

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And the waist is WAY too small.

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I also didn't like the neckline on me.  It wasn't boat-y enough, and it felt bulky in the shoulders and just generally frumpy.

Onto Plan B:  McCalls 5587, with an adjustment to the neckline.

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The pattern is scoop-y, and I wanted it more boat-y.  Like a good little sewer, I made another muslin.  Since I usually hope, on the off-chance my muslin works out, that it ends up being wearable, I used "real" fabric.  This is some thrifted chambray, and I have a ton of it, so I wasn't worried about wasting it.

It's better.  It's still frumpy.  I think I need to make the neckline a little lower.  The bodice fits great, though! 

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At this point, it's going to end up being nothing like the Christian Dior dress. Now the fabric is wrong, the neckline is different, and I had to eliminate the tucks on the bodice. I'm plunging forward anyway because I still want a polka dot dress.

So far I only have the bodice cut out and the darts done. I hope to make some progress on it tonight!

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