New Years Dress 2017-2018, or V1545

2017, you were an alright year. 2017 didn't have the sweeping life changes in store that 2016 did (I'm looking at you, cross-country move), but it was a year of small victories and continued progress towards some of my personal and professional goals. I turned 30 this year, travelled the furthest away from my birthplace I've ever been (Fiji), and picked up skiing. Turning 30 was monumental for me, and prompted me to evaluate my plans for the next 5-10 years, and where/who I'd like to be. I feel like I'm on a specific track, which is headed towards a specific station, and I am at peace with the journey. My plans are materializing before me and feel pleasantly within reach.

Anyway, I made this cool dress for New Years. If you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm kind of into NYE. It's my favorite holiday, and every year I make it a point to go out and do something fun. It's the one holiday I give myself permission to wear whatever ridiculous, formal, vampy thing I want and go somewhere over-priced.

This year I made V1545, a Rebecca Vallance design labeled advanced. I chose to make this dress in grey ponte knit from fabric.com . Ponte seemed like the easiest and most forgiving of the recommended fabrics, hence my choice to use it. The only negative about using this medium-weight ponte was that it did add some bulk in certain areas, especially the shoulders where several layers of fabric overlapped and intersected. Because this is such a boldly designed dress, I chose to use a muted color. 

This is the type of design that needs to fit just right to work, so using a stretchy fabric was an easy cheat and allowed me to simply err on the side of closer fitting. If I had made this in a non-stretch, I think I'd have had to muslin first. Because some other lovely ladies made this dress before me and shared their process on IG, I was aware the bodice had quite a bit of ease, which could result in it being too open (read: exposed), rather than lying flush with the skin. I cut the bodice in a size 8, a full size down from my usual 10 (in big four patterns), and figured the stretch fabric would make up for any tightness. The 8 ended up fitting pretty dreamily and wasn't too small anywhere. The only thing I'd change if I was to make this again would be bust dart placement. These darts are about an inch too low for my girls (I'll take that as a compliment, Ms. Vallance). I sewed a bit deeper than 5/8" at the shoulder to try to move everything up a bit, but I'd have to move the entire bust side dart up to really take care of the issue.

The skirt and waist I cut in a straight size 10, which I wouldn't have been able to get away with in a non-stretch fabric. I would have had to grade up around the fullest part of my hips in order to be able to sit down and not split a seam (lol). I chose not to line the skirt for a couple reasons. The first being I didn't think it was necessary in my medium-weight ponte. The 2nd reason was that the dress was quickly becoming dangerously heavy and thick, and I worried about the shoulder and waist seam's ability to support the weight of so much fabric. I also left the hem unfinished, something I've never done before, and thought it was a cool, industrial touch on such a sleek design.

This dress required a ton of hand sewing along the zippers, collar, and waist band (since I didn't line the skirt). Something unfortunate happened right before we went to take pictures; part of the back zipper end popped out from where I had hand-sewed it to the lining of the bodice. I already had hair and makeup done for our shoot, and daylight was fading fast, so I just pinned it to the bodice and out we went. The back looks a bit wonky in these photos, due to being haphazardly pinned, but it will be sewed back down in a neat, clean way before being worn again, I promise.

Overall I am pleased with how this dress turned out. I received varied reactions from people while wearing it at dinner on NYE, but such is to be expected any time you wear something that departs even slightly from the "norm." I figure anyone willing to judge me based on a dress I chose to wear to dinner probably isn't someone whose opinion I need in my life anyway.

Making this dress was a breath of fresh air to my creative soul, after forcing myself to make several practical sweaters this Fall and Winter. After some reflection, I realized that forcing myself to make practical things because I think I should is really silly. Although I think it's noble that some sewists are trying to sew their entire wardrobes in order not to contribute to fast fashion, and I admire them for doing so, it's ultimately not why I sew. I sew because I am in love with being able to imagine a beautiful or interesting or weird dress or design in my head, then execute a plan on how best to make it, then bring it to life with these two hands. The power and creativity you feel after you've made your first beautiful thing is intoxicating. Which is why my New Years sewing resolution is this: I pledge to only make things that set my heart on fire. Nothing else, nothing less. If that means back-to-back cocktail dresses then baby, that's what you're gonna get.

What are your plans for 2018, sewing and otherwise?

--Amy