Copying RTW - The River Island dress copy

About a week ago now an email arrived in my inbox from River Island which is weird since I have not had one from them in years. Anyway this dress caught my eye.

I am no way going to spend £28 on this however exclusive it apparently is, so I set about copying it using a self drafted pattern from what is a mid 1990s New Look top

which I still love and wear as underwear on days off when I want to just be comfy and the well used ( by me anyway) McCalls M6612 dress pattern.

I have two different stretch knit ribbed fabrics which could work with this so I decide to start with the pink which cost me 99p from ebay because there was a small mark on the selvedge and no one else bothered to bid on it. Its not really my colur in this lilac pink but for 99p has to be useful so this was my muslin. I also have a bright orange ribbed fabric which will hopefully make into a very good copy of my much wanted summer dress. Now really this dress would never be on my list of buys. Its just too impracticle but when you are making for a small amount rather than buying what is not a cheap dress lets face it it can be great fun to make what you would not waste money buying. It has also very little fabric in it which to me means it should cost less to buy.
But then we all know that is not how it works😊.

 So I daringly cut out two dresses one in each fabric and I sew up the pink one.

This small mark is why this was so cheap but the fabric was 3m long for only 99p.

 I mark approximately where the centre front vent is. I also added a few inches in length cos I usually make the short dress.

 

I fold the pattern so I can graft on the self drafted top pattern

 Then I cut version two in orange.

On the pink dress I do the fake button stand on the outside. I am really not sure the best thing to do here so its all an experiment. Sew centre front on inside.

 Then I fold into place and I top stitch both sides down after folding this in on both sides of the front button stand. Possibly not the best method.

 Then I  add a strip for the neck edges and I try it on and get my other half to pin on my back straps.

 Yes its too big. So we carefuly pin the excess in.

 The repin more accurately:

 And sew it up cutting off the excess which does mean my sides are not perfect since I have now overlocked them together and lost my edging.

 I try it on and it fits so now I sew on my straps properly and I cut down the orange dress by the same amount.

So here are the pictures:

 Its not perfect but I wore it today to work with a top over it ( my tattoos are not very good in professional services role)

 

 Not so sure the originaldress had crossed straps but it works here.

 It took me ages hand sewing all those tiny recycled buttons on so I have yet to finish the orange version but I think I now know what needs changing to make this even better. Despite that I think its a great success and I am going to persevere with version 2 my orange copy.

Thanks for visiting

Bracken