Refashion: Sheer Black Dress

It’s week three over at Refashion Runway and I’m so excited that I’m still in! The theme this week is “copycat”, where the contestants have replicated a design found online. Pop over for some refashion inspiration and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!

I love this sheer black dress I found at Urban Outfitters. Feminine, versatile and a bit sassy. So I set out to recreate it using this gem:

It looked to me like it had been lovingly homemade by someone. They did a great job, but quit before putting any cuffs on. And see that one panel on the left? See it?! Argh!! The stripes are the only ones running horizontal and it drives the perfectionist in me NUTS! Obviously the garment was too big for me anyway.

I started with some pattern drafting. Yikes. A lot more work than my usual “pin and sew” method. Because I haven’t done much of this before, I opted to combine several patterns. Armholes scare me a little and I really wanted to get the right shape for the wrap around bodice, so I pulled out bits from each of these patterns:

1. Armhole area // 2. Back // 3. Wrap around front (a perfect gift from the lovely Miriam!)

Skirts are a lot more straight forward and I just cut a trapezoid as big as the limited fabric would allow.

After three pattern drafts and a trial run, I was ready to tackle the real thing.

Turning the garment upside down (to work around the mismatched panel), I cut the bodice from the bottom of the dress. Each piece was lined with identically shaped pieces cut from a black valance I found.

I removed the sleeves from the garment and tailored those in, adding pleats to the tops, before attaching them to the new bodice. The collar was also removed and turned into cuffs.

The rest of the dress became the skirt.

Here’s the comparison with the original again:

I’m not going to lie … this refashion was a lot of work. Making patterns isn’t economical use of your time if you only intend to make the garment once. If, however, you plan on using it a few times, the economies of scale are much more in your favour.

Maybe if I were better at pattern drafting though, I’m sure it wouldn’t take me so long to put it all together. I’m feeling inspired to read up on this a little more and learn new techniques on this, so if I find a good book, I’ll let you know!