The majority of my wardrobe now is me made but I do have a couple of ready to wear dresses that I still love, one of them being this Topshop tie back dress that I bought off eBay some years ago.
I love the fit of this dress, and the playfulness of the bow at the back, however it is pretty short and as the years go by I wonder how appropriate it is!
I really want to do a similar block colour as I love the simplicity of the dress, however as this was experimental I was fully aware that patterns hide more sins, so thought this Liberty print (Eleonora) would be a better first attempt. And yes I probably should have made a muslin but I’m a bit too impatient for that.
For the front of the dress and the skirt I used the Sew Over It Betty pattern so I just had to trace the back panels. I traced them onto fabric so I could make sure the ties were correct (I guess it’s a mini muslin!) I just added 1.5cm all the away round for the seam allowance.
I cut 4 of each of these pieces as I didn’t interface it so I wanted it to be fully lined for structure as well as finish.
I didn’t attach the pieces in a very elegant or clever way, so when I do this again I’ll definitely turn inside out and attach the lining and outer shell separately for a better finish.
I like the result as it’s cheery and the tie back is perfectly summery but it has its faults since it was pretty experimental. Next time I’m going to trace the front of the dress too so it’s less disjointed. It’s still pretty cool to bring to life an old favourite style.
Maybe for the third version I’ll be confident enough for a block colour!
Kate Eva 