Sand Sea Dress
For the last dress in this collection, I went back to my favorite style ever--the shirt dress. While I made a deliberate effort to jazz up the Sand Sea dress from normal shirt dress fare this is the most comfortable dress I've ever built. It's built of flowy and effortless peachskin and I love the contrast of the pale pink collar and glittery pocket (I'll post a tutorial on how to hand-sew a sequin pocket later). If I had a 9-5 job, this is the dress I'd want to wear every day--no fuss, but no sacrifice of style either.
After using elastic for the Colorblock dress, I wanted to try it with a shirt dress. Again, the point was to make the waistline appear like deliberate gathers were placed there, instead of the awkward bunching you normally get with an elastic waist. I cut the extra fabric down to three inches and it felt right.
How might the Sand Sea work for you?
Sherbet Strata Dress
Obviously, the bodice of this dress turned out much differently than my sketch. When I started drafting a pattern for the bodice I realized the chiffon layers represented in the sketch would be too formal for career dress and though I really love the idea of the original sketch, it will have to wait for its place in a different collection.
Since you can't find fabric with graduated color strips cut on the bias in my fair town, I had to piece together the four colors to create the strata effect of the half-circle skirt. It took a few attempts, but I'm happy with the final shape and free movement of the dress.
Shimmer Dune Dress
Some of my favorite family vacations involved riding dune buggies across the rolling slopes of sand dunes...where there is nothing but the sun shimmering off grains of sand. While color is exciting, there's something equally intriguing about a monochromatic dress and I experimented with several different neutral colors to find the fabric that would let the bronze sequins take center stage. The linen materials used to build this dress are as natural as the sand they were meant to imitate and the end result feels so of the desert. As far as the silhouette goes, my goal was to create a career dress that looked like it could have been bought at a fine store in 1963.
What sort of occasion would you attend wearing the Shimmer Dune dress?
Bryce Colorblock Dress
You can't have a collection inspired by color layering without giving a nod to the arches and exquisite color at Bryce National Park. I wanted the colors in this dress to be dramatic and was happy the dress turned out so close to my original sketch. I also love how the structure of the folds and pleats are imposed over the softest pink, while the more intense shades are built into the fluid motion of the circle skirt.
For me, the Bryce Colorblock dress represents a career dress with enough shine to be worn out on the town. It's girly and fun, but practical enough in design to play many different roles in a wardrobe.
This is the first elastic waist dress I've ever made. Honestly. I know elastic is usually the go-to material of ease, but for what ever reason, I've always been leery of it. I tend to build more structured pieces, but the possibility of designing for various body types made me consider how versatile fit might be less an issue with elastic.
After constructing this dress, I'm a little more confident that elastic is a viable option (as long as the cut is great and it's not totally obvious that the waist is elastic). After all, the point is to build dresses that make women feel each piece was built specifically for her...and that's not going to happen if the dress fits like a sack.
What sort of occasion would you attend wearing the Bryce Colorblock dress?
Kristina J. Copyright 2014
