Many years ago I had a Burgundy needlecord shirt dress and this dress is a re-imagining of something that I loved back in the 1970’s.
I used a King Size Duvet cover from Dunelm Mill in a Burgundy jacquard cotton/polyester blend to make a wearable toile.
I had originally intended the dress to be worn on Christmas Day. Unfortunately the construction was delayed and I thought ‘OK never mind, I will wear the dress on New Year’s Eve’. The Eve and New Year’s Day came and went, then due to illness it was not until 10th January 2020 that I finally completed the dress.
To paraphrase a western movie, the construction has been a tale of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ouch!’
The good – brilliant pattern matching on the bodice,
The bad – uneven revers on the collar,
The Ouch! – I left a glass headed pin inside the collar and stitched it closed.
All that was on 29th December and the thought of unpicking combined with a raging headache meant that the dress was put aside until I could face the unpicking and re-stitching.
I had also originally planned to make the dress button through the bodice and skirt, although the buttons from my stash were a perfect match, there was not enough so I had to fix the opening at the waistline seam.
The skirt is the full width of the duvet cover gathered into the waistline seam and there are concealed pockets at the side seams.
I also drafted long sleeves into a button cuff (similar to the original inspiration) but on completion found that I had been over-zealous in shortening the sleeve length so even with the addition of a 2 inch wide cuff, they are just short of my wrists. With a big sigh – I could remove the cuffs and make new wider ones but with all the previous problems, I don’t think I can face another alteration to the dress.
I do have sufficient fabric to be able to send to Harlequin for a matching belt but I was pleased to find that one of my wide elasticated belts co-ordinates well with the colour of the dress and that is how I plan to wear in the future.
I have retained the modified pattern for this dress and have several other lengths of fabric that I plan to use to make more in this style. I even have some needlecord….. hmm watch this space.
10th January 2020